Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

First published: 1987

Subjects: Coming-of-age and nature

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Adventure tale

Time of work: The present

Recommended Ages: 10-15

Locale: The northern wilderness of Canada

Principal Character:

• Brian Robeson, a thirteen-year-old who is overcome with the emotional distress caused by his parents’ divorce and who is trying to make sense of the changes in his life

Form and Content

Hatchet is a story that describes a young boy’s adventure in the wilderness, where he learns to be self-sufficient and emotionally secure and to cherish life and all that comes with it, both good and bad. When Brian Robeson finds himself alone in the wilderness, his physical challenges parallel the emotional challenges with which he has been dealing since his parents’ divorce. A steel hatchet with a rubber handgrip worn on his belt becomes his only tool for survival; it symbolizes the strength and maturity that will grow within Brian.

The realistic, omniscient narration begins with Brian’s mother giving him the hatchet and a leather sheath for his belt on the way to the airport. At first, he thinks of the hatchet as “hokey,” but he places it on his belt in order to please his mother. Brian then boards a Cessna 406 bushplane to visit his father for the summer. His father has been working in the Canadian oil fields, and Brian is excited by the thought of being with him again. Once the plane is aloft, however, the pilot has a heart attack. Brian attempts to fly the plane but crashes it into a remote Canadian lake. Dragging himself from the cockpit and swimming to shore, Brian begins to comprehend his situation: He is alone, cold, and wet, without any supplies, without any adults to help him, and without the faintest idea of where he is or what he is supposed to do. All that he has is the hatchet. After the first miserable night near the lake, Brian realizes that he must do something if he wants to survive, and he tries to recall everything that he knows about survival. Through many trials and errors, he learns that his hatchet can be used to make shelter, design tools, hunt food, and protect him.

Through all these physical challenges, Brian dwells on “the secret” that he alone knows about his parents’ divorce: He had seen his mother meeting with another man before his parents were divorced. His struggle to keep this secret gnaws at his emotional well-being until it becomes all-consuming. While facing nature’s challenges, however, Brian becomes aware that life is indeed not fair, that one must make the best of any situation. He comes to realize that his father and mother are separate entities from himself and that they had their own challenges to face and resolve, issues that had nothing to do with Brian.

In the end, after facing his own mortality several times, Brian also learns that he can rely upon himself for his physical and emotional needs. He has become a mature, less emotionally dependent individual who can survive in the face of diversity and challenge.

Critical Context

Gary Paulsen has truly captured the adventurous spirit of many teenagers. Young readers and their teachers have come to enjoy, share, and recommend Paulsen’s books to peers who enjoy adventure stories. His tales of protagonists-versus-nature portray characters who battle the elements while gaining a sense of self. Guided and cajoled by the forces of nature, Paulsen’s characters develop and change in a quick, clear, and efficient manner. The readability levels of his works lie between the fourth and eighth grades, which makes these easy-to-read novels quite adaptable for either independent or school-oriented reading.

Hatchet is a classic tale of a boy’s struggle with the problems of coming-of-age. Its sequel, The River (1991), allows the reader to resume the adventure and watch as Brian Robeson continues to master his universe. The reader is allowed to struggle with and feel the pain of the protagonist, as well as to revel in his joy at surviving. Paulsen’s many adventure stories include The Island (1988), in which a young boy discovers that isolation from the world will not help him solve his problems; Woodsong (1990), a personal work based on Paulsen’s own experience in the Iditarod dogsled race; Dogsong (1985), a realistic and romantic quest of Russe, a young Eskimo, in the snow-covered wilderness; and Canyons (1990), a spiritual tale and quest adventure that weaves the life of a contemporary adolescent with the life of an adolescent Indian boy who was hunted and killed by soldiers in the nineteenth century. All these stories, and many more adventures from this prolific writer, speak to the primitive sense of survival and adventure in the human spirit.

In Paulsen’s novels, the relationship between humankind and nature is revealed as both symbiotic and challenging. Humans need nature in order to survive, and the need to overcome and tame it has been a mystical quest that all people experience to some degree at some time in their lives, although they may not be able to recognize or name those experiences. Paulsen delightfully describes this quest to overcome and understand the nature of human existence. Hatchet and Paulsen’s other vivid, captivating nature-oriented stories give readers an opportunity to commune with nature and revel in its splendor while appreciating its danger and reverence.

Bibliography

Jones, J. Sydney. “Paulsen, Gary.” In Something About the Author, edited by Alan Hedblad. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2000.

Moore, John Noell. “Archetypes: The Monomyth in Dogsong.” In Interpreting Young Adult Literature. Portsmouth, N.H.: Boynton/Cook, 1997.

Paulsen, Gary. Father Water, Mother Woods: Essays on Fishing and Hunting in the North Woods. New York: Delacorte Press, 1994.

Paulsen, Gary. Guts: The True Stories Behind “Hatchet” and the Brian Books. New York: Delacorte Press, 2001.

Salvner, Gary. Presenting Gary Paulsen. Boston: Twayne, 1996.

Wood, Susan. “Bringing Us the Way to Know: The Novels of Gary Paulsen.” English Journal 90, no. 3 (January, 2001): 67-72.