When writing my first post, I found a certain giddy just from memories that Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, that apparently were seared into my brain from reading as a child. I figured it would probably be a good idea to reread the novel, and compare my old feelings with how I feel about the book currently.
Summary: 13 year old Brian Robeson, is flying over the Canadian north woods on his way to see his father for the first time after his parents divorce when all of a sudden, the pilot has a heart attack. Brian is forced to grab the controls and crash land the plane into a lake. Brian, surviving the crash with minor injuries, is left alone, stranded and futile. Brian soon understands that the chance for a rescue party finding him is close to non-existent, and he will have to become one with the wilderness in order to survive.
My Opinion: WOW! When I first started reading, I had planned to just read for an hour and then plan to look at it later but before i knew it, I was on the last page dealing with a lot of mixed emotions. But before I delve into the greatness of the story in depth, I have a few tiny critiques of the story. First, There was a point about two thirds into the book where time jumped about two months. Paulsen does a sub-par job of describing what happened during this time and really only mentions two events that occurred over the time span. While I understand the need for the jump, it seems somewhat misplaced to have a seemingly effortless transition of two months, in a novel that breaks down the struggle of survival to a minute by minute basis. The second issue that popped into my head was the lack of Brian's inner dialogue. Almost all of emotion of the book was displayed when Brian was thinking (or speaking aloud) to himself. While Paulsen did do a good job when he used the inner dialogue, they seemed few and far between. The last critique of the book I have is the tense of the book. Hatchet is written in third-person. This created a sense that you the reader were with Brian the whole time during his endeavor. I feel if it was written in first-person, a deeper feeling of isolation would exist.
With my knit-picking out of the way, my reread of this book reaffirmed the reason why this was my favorite story as a child. Paulsen leads the reader on a path of discovery and adventure, while keeping the reader in the same setting for the entire novel. To confront feelings of starvation, danger, and loss, the reader taps into a side of the brain that is to little addressed. The character path of Brian is truly beautiful as you watch him grow from a boy to a man in little time at all. Not to mention the lessons of bravery, responsibility, and trust in oneself, are values that I still hold high today. The novel confronted large issues of divorce and suicide, putting them into perspective when compared to the grand scheme of the world.
I cannot tell you how much of a thrill it was to read this story. From beginning to end I was flying at the seat of my pants even though I already knew the outcome. I urge all of you that haven't read it to please give it a whirl. It is unfair to say that it is a great children's novel, when it is just a great novel. Plain and simple.
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