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42 pages 1 hour read

Ben Mikaelsen

Ghost Of Spirit Bear

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2008

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Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary

Cole and Peter leave the apartment building and notice that the cart belonging to the unhoused man is there. Cole is afraid of the man, but Peter suggests that he might be as scared of them as they are of him. Afterward, Peter comes up with a plan to catch Keith and his gang in the act of attacking them. The following morning, Peter brings his cell phone to school and programs the principal’s phone number into it. When Keith approaches Peter and Cole after school that day, Peter calls the principal and she hears Keith threatening and hurting the boys. When the principal arrives at the scene, she finds Cole and Peter sitting on the ground in protest, refusing to fight. Both are bruised and bleeding. The principal defends them, but Cole worries that Keith and his friends won’t face any real consequences for their actions.

Chapter 5 Summary

Walking home afterward, Peter reminds Cole that he is his only friend, and says that he doesn’t want Cole to go to jail for defending him. Cole has nightmares of being attacked that night. The following day, the principal reprimands Peter and Cole for being tricky rather than confronting their situation head-on. She encourages them to use their brains next time. After school, Peter and Cole witness the man without a home being attacked by some kids they don’t recognize. When the police arrive, the man is holding a knife, trying to defend himself, and the kids have disappeared. The police arrest the man. Cole and Peter try to explain that he was only defending himself, but the police arrest him anyway. Peter finds a carving among the man’s belongings that looks like a bear’s head, and he decides to take it home to copy it.

That night, Garvey arrives to drive Cole and his mother to the Circle Justice meeting. He asks Cole about his thought process in entrapping Keith. Cole feels frustrated, like he can never do anything right. At the meeting, Cole notices his father is absent and feels hurt, but not surprised. Peter is the first to defend Cole, stating that he has changed and that they are now best friends. Garvey also defends Cole, explaining his observations of how Cole changed on the island and through his friendship with Peter. When it is Cole’s turn to speak, he expresses a concern for the bullying he and Peter now face, and wonders what to do about it. Several people offer suggestions, but none of them make sense to Cole. The principal believes that she and the other educators are virtually powerless in the situation and passes responsibility off to the students. On the way home, Garvey tells Cole to fight Keith with his heart, and Cole reflects on what that might mean.

Chapter 6 Summary

Peter carves a bear head replica and brings it, along with the original carving, back to the man to show him that they mean no harm. Cole remains nervous and skeptical. When the man finds the boys in the apartment complex, Peter leaves the carvings for him and they quickly leave. On the weekend, Cole goes to the mall to meet up with Peter, but instead finds an opportunity to access his inner peace. He sits on the grass outside the mall entrance, amidst all the noise and chaos of the day, and meditates quietly to himself. Cole imagines that the noises around him are just animals in the forest, and finally starts to feel invisible and connected to the vastness of everything. When he opens his eyes, he sees the unhoused man staring at him, but when he looks again, the man is gone.

On his way back from the mall, Cole runs into Keith again, and decides not to fight this time. Instead, Cole tells Keith he can either walk away, kill him, or hurt him and face charges. Keith doesn’t seem intimidated at first and begins attacking Cole. Cole refrains from fighting back, stating again that he plans to report Keith. Afterward, Cole’s mother takes him to file a report. They then stop off at Garvey’s house so that Cole can share his success in refusing to fight back. Instead, Garvey still seems disappointed, wanting Cole to fight with his heart rather than the fear of punishment.

Chapters 4-6 Analysis

In his life back home, Cole encounters a different set of challenges. Though he is not facing the wilderness and nature, his new obstacles continue to threaten his survival, this time endangering the new person he has worked to become. Cole has spent a year healing, reflecting, and finding his inner strength. When he comes back to his old life, it seems as if everyone is trying to test him and push him back into his old ways.

Keith is the most prominent example of this. He initially presents as a stereotypical bully who lacks empathy. Cole knows that Keith is like a mirror of his former self. He sees in Keith the same bad behavior and poor emotional control that he once possessed. Despite his understanding, it takes time for Cole to extend forgiveness and kindness; his primary concern is protecting his best friend, and his initial instinct is to fight back and report Keith.

Garvey serves as a moral touchtone of the series. Through him, the books convey its key messages and lessons to the reader. When it comes to Keith, Garvey warns Cole that his “‘heart and spirit’” are in the wrong place (54). Cole will find his way when helping Keith rather than trying to harm or neutralize him.

At Cole’s Circle meeting, Peter defends Cole, discussing their friendship and his observations of Cole as a changed person who continues to feel remorse. With the condition of parole, Cole is granted the freedom to live his life and prove to the world that he truly has grown and healed. Along the way, Cole develops an effective strategy for bringing nature and peace to himself no matter where he is. This allows him to gradually approach Keith in a different way and see the situation at school with more clarity. As Cole’s perspective shifts, so too does the world around him, reflecting how changing one’s inner reality can have consequences in the outside world.

At this point in the novel, Cole feels like the people around him do not face repercussions for their actions. All around him, students are targeted, bullied, and harassed, and nothing is being done. As a former bully, Cole understands a bully’s emotional makeup and psychology; this makes him the ideal person to find a solution.

Ghost of Spirit Bear presents a typical scenario found in middle grade and YA fiction—the child or adolescent protagonist must take action, as the adults around them are not up for the job. While there are positive adult figures in Ghost of Spirit Bear, such as Garvey, Ms. Kennedy—the principal—initially refuses to do more than serve detention and suspensions. Cole has to take it upon himself to change things. He does this by first changing how he reacts to his environment.

The Spirit Bear man is an ever-increasing presence in Cole and Peter’s lives. He keeps his distance, just as the Spirit Bear did. Like the Spirit Bear, the man is attacked and misunderstood, something that Peter empathizes with. Peter knows that, like a bear in the forest, “we scare him as much as he scares us” (60-61). The man watches the boys with hesitation and curiosity, and the boys slowly learn to trust him.

Ben Mikaelsen’s writing style avoids ambiguity, getting straight to the point. He clearly depicts Cole’s inner conflicts. However, both Cole and the reader are left to guess what the story’s secondary characters are motivated by. This makes the novel’s perspective limited third-person omniscient. Mikaelsen uses cliffhangers at the ends of chapters to create suspense and encourage the reader to keep turning the pages, such as when he ends a chapter just before the results of the vote are announced. Mikaelsen also includes adages that usually come directly from the characters themselves, such as when Garvey tells Cole: “If you diminish anything around you, you diminish yourself” (2). In this sense, the Spirit Bear series aims to teach perpetrators of bullying, urging them to reflect on how their actions might affect themselves and others.

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