The Hatchet by Gary Paulsen was an amazing story about a 13-year-old boy named Brian Robesen. He had suffered a plane crash in a small Cessna model 406 plane into a lake in the Canadian wilderness. After the plane crashes into the lake, Brian escapes the plane wreckage. He swims to shore and the only possessions from civilization that he starts out with are his clothes, his money and his hatchet that his mother had given him. Brian has to learn new skills to survive. He has no time for self-pity or else he’ll die. My first example of irony is when Brian finds the plane’s survival kit. He remembered this after 57 days. He experiences a tremendous ordeal to get it. It contains food, a radio transmitter that he accidentally turns on, and many other “presents”. Suddenly, a seaplane lands on the lake and the pilot wants to rescue Brian but Brian surprises him by inviting him to dinner at his shelter that he has found. This is ironic because you’d expect Brian to jump on the plane immediately and get back to his parents, but Brian has adapted and feels at home in the wilderness.My second example of irony is when Brian finds his first food supply, the berries. He’s happy to find food to nourish him. After swilling down the berries, he becomes very ill. This is ironic, because the food would have helped him in surviving but he ate berries that were not ripe and became extremely ill. He doesn’t let self-pity stop him. He learns to only eat the ripe berries that don’t get him sick and he learns this from watching the wild animals.In conclusion, we see that Brian has become self-sufficient. He learns by being intune with the animals by watching them in nature, he becomes so adaptable in the wilderness, that he’s not in a rush to leave.My opinion On a scale of 1 to 10 this book would receive a 9.5. It had about 2 chapters that were boring to me, but everything else was intense. My Recommen...
