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Quote 1 : "It was a strange feeling, holding the rifle. It somehow removed him from everything around him . . . he wasn’t sure he liked the change very much.”(pg.66, chapter 19) - Brian realizes how close he has become to the wilderness that he once feared. He didn't need any sophisticated tools to protect him, he had become self-sufficient and self-reliant.

 

 

 

Quote 2: "It was a strange feeling, holding the rifle. It somehow removed him from everything around him. Without the rifle he had to fit in, to be part of it all, to understand it and use it—the woods, all of it. With the rifle, suddenly, he didn't have to know; did not have to be afraid or understand. He didn't have to get close to a foolbird to kill it—didn't have to know how it would stand if he didn't look at it and moved off to the side.The rifle changed him, the minute he picked it up, and he wasn't sure he liked the change very much."(pg.66. chapter 19) -After finding the supplies in the survival bag, Brian reflects on how the rifle and the other tools affect his relationship to the wilderness. The advances of modern technology seem to interfere with his understanding of nature and his place in the woods.

 

Quote 3: "Brian tried several times to tell his father, came really close once to doing it, but in the end never said a word about the man or what he knew, the Secret." -(pg.69,chapter 19) Throughout the second half of the book, Brian has thought less and less of the divorce, he has been emotionally attached to nature, and never tells anybody the secret, not even his father. With his sense of maturity, he is no longer blaming anyone anymore. He also feels that sharing the secret will not change the relationship status of his parents. He has accepted the divorce and his new reality and has abided to live with it,for life.

 

 

 

 

 

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