Hatchet:By Gary Paulsen

Quote 1 : “Up from the water to a small pile of sand, then back down into the water. Some animal. Some kind of water animal that came up to the sand… to do what?To do something with the sand, to play and make a pile in the sand?He smiled. City boy, he thought. Oh, you city boy with your city ways—he made a mirror in his hand, a mirror of himself and saw how he must look. City boy with your city ways sitting in the sand trying to read the tracks and not knowing, not understanding. Why would anything wild come up from the water to play in the sand? Not that way, animals weren't that way. They didn't waste time that way.”(pg.38, chapter 10)-Brian realizes his own mistake. while it also shows how hard he's working to better understand the natural world. He first has to unlearn the things he was doing in the city and needs to relearn how to survive in the wilderness and new enviorment, alone.

 

Quote 2 :This was completely gone and his stomach had caved in to the hunger and the sun had cooked him past burning so he was tanning, and with the smoke from the fire his face was starting to look like leather. But perhaps more than his body was the change in his mind, or in the way he was—was becoming.”(pg.40, chapter 11). -The changes in Brian's body are result of all that he's gone through in the woods. He's lost extra pounds, and his skin has become tougher. His gradual transformation from fat to lean boy reflects how he has been impacted by the wilderness. It also shows how he is slowly adapting to new enviorment and physically becoming tough and strong.

 

 

Quote 3 “He had to "invent" the bow and arrow—he almost laughed as he moved out of the water and put his shoes on. The morning sun was getting hot and he took his shirt off. Maybe that was how it really happened, way back when—some primitive man tried to spear fish and it didn't work and he "invented" the bow and arrow. Maybe it was always that way, discoveries happened because they needed to happen”(pg.43, chapter 11). Brian is discovering the truth behind the old saying, "necessity is the mother of invention.” - Brian's knows he needs to adapt and survive. Here Brian recognizes himself as part of a long line of humans whose skills were the only thing between themselves and death.