Hatchet

“All of flying is easy. Just takes learning. Like everything else.”

The pilot’s words foreshadow Brian’s experience in the wilderness. Something that initially seems impossible to Brian becomes easy once he has learned enough about it. Much like flying, surviving becomes easy once he acquires enough knowledge and practice.

“Brian had once had an English teacher, a guy named Perpich, who was always talking about being positive, thinking positive, staying on top of things.” 

After Brian remembers his English teacher and his lessons on positive thinking, he focuses on what he has rather than what he’s lost. He makes sure to keep busy and forward focused. As long as he stays occupied with tasks like making shelter and finding food, he is much better off, as such diligence staves off hopelessness and despair.

“When the pilot pushed the rudder pedal the plane had jerked to the side and assumed a new course.” 

Brian realizes, to his dismay, that the pilot pushed them off their planned course during his heart attack. This means it will be much harder for rescue teams to find Brian, as he could be hundreds of miles off the flight path. This leads him to acknowledge that he may not be rescued for a long time, if at all.

“He was so used to having food just be there, just always being there. When he was hungry he went to the icebox, or to the store, or sat down to a meal his mother had cooked.” 

Brian is beginning to recognize that he is a city boy with no real wilderness knowledge or skills. He is accustomed to the comforts of modern urban living. He will have to teach himself all the necessary skills to keep himself from starving.

“The bear made no move to hurt you, to threaten you. It stood to see you better, to study you, then went on its way eating berries. It was a big bear, but it did not want you, did not want to cause you harm, and that is the thing to understand here.” 

Brian recognizes that his fear may be unfounded. The animals of the forest are interested in him, but since he poses no threat, they are not afraid and so do not attack. This interaction with the bear helps Brian understand the forest and shift his attitude toward nature from fear to appreciation.

“He did not know how long it took, but later he looked back on the time of crying in the corner of the dark cave and thought of it as when he learned the most important rule of survival, which was that feeling sorry for yourself didn’t work.” 

Brian learns that crying and self-pity get him nowhere and actually hinder his ability to thrive. This passage marks a moment of maturity. Brian must learn to push himself and always stay focused on the next task to survive.

“So much from a little spark. A friend and a guard from a tiny spark.” 

After receiving messages in his dreams, Brian finally figures out how to make a spark with his hatchet. Then after a great deal of trial and error, he makes a fire. This is such a significant moment to him that the fire feels like a companion because it gives him hope and protection.

“It must have been a snapper that came up in the night when he heard the noise that awakened him; she must have come then and laid the eggs.” 

The discovery of a large batch of turtle eggs is a significant boon to Brian’s health. This is the first time he has eaten protein since the airplane crash, and he can almost reach a sensation of fullness from the raw eggs. He also learns from the turtle that protecting his food is important; as she buried her eggs in the sand, so too must he hide his rations away.

“None of that used to be in Brian and now it was a part of him, a changed part of him, a grown part of him, and the two things, his mind and his body, had come together as well, had made a connection with each other that he didn’t quite understand.” 

Brian is becoming attuned to the forest and the lake. His mind and body sense his surroundings in a new way. He is no longer a city boy, oblivious to the subtle cues of nature. He is becoming more aware, more mature, and more intelligent.

“This was hunger that he knew would be there always, even when he had food—a hunger that made him look for things, see things. A hunger to make him hunt.” 

Brian notices the difference between feeling full on food found in nature versus the man-made confections he loved back home. No matter how much he eats in the wild, it is never enough to give him the overly full feeling of a fast-food meal. He will always be a little hungry, and he notes that this may be a good thing, as it motivates him to search for food and to hunt.

“The plane gone, his family gone, all of it gone. They would not come. He was alone and there was nothing for him.” 

After Brian sees a rescue airplane fly overhead, then turn and leave, he realizes they haven’t seen him. He knows they will not return. He is devastated because he realizes that he will not have another chance at being rescued.

“He knew the wolf now, as the wolf knew him, and he nodded to it, nodded and smiled.” 

Contrasted with an earlier scene in which Brian runs in terror from a bear, this is a new and stronger Brian. He is not afraid of the wolf; rather than feel separate from the wolf, Brian recognizes their commonality and acknowledges the creature as an equal. Brian has truly become one with nature.

“The plane passing changed him, the disappointment cut him down and made him new. He was not the same and would never be again like he had been…he was new.” 

After Brian attempts suicide, he has the sensation of being reborn. He feels that he killed off the old weak Brian, and all that remains is a stronger Brian who is completely focused on life. This is the most spiritual moment of the novel, marking the shift from a young boy who is waiting to go home to a strong young man who feels at home in the wilderness.

“All things in the woods, from insects to fish to bears, were always, always looking for food—it was the great, single driving influence in nature. To eat. All must eat.”

The single unifying drive experienced by Brian and all the forest creatures is the need to find food. Surviving has taught Brian incredible humility, such that he can see he is no different than the smallest insect in their common quest for life-sustaining food. Brian also feels less fear once he recognizes how similar all creatures really are. It is easier to predict the actions of wild creatures when you so keenly understand their motives.

“Patience, he thought. So much of this was patience—waiting and thinking and doing things right. So much of all this, so much of all living was patience and thinking.” 

Once Brian learns the importance of patience, he becomes a skilled hunter and a more successful survivalist. Part of his maturation throughout the novel comes from his learning to be patient. He doesn’t yet know it, but his patience and perseverance ultimately lead to his rescue when he recovers the emergency transmitter from the wrecked plane.

“A flip of some giant coin and he was the loser. But there is a difference now, he thought—there really is a difference. I might be hit but I’m not done. When the light comes I’ll start to rebuild. I still have the hatchet and that’s all I had in the first place.”

This scene contrasts with the last time Brian suffered a huge setback. Instead of giving up and committing suicide, he now knows that he is strong enough to survive and persevere, even after a moose attack and a destructive tornado. He no longer lets bad luck destroy his hope; instead, he continues fighting for life.

“So he went down to the side of the water and looked at the plane and focused his mind…focused it on the pilot and thought: Have rest. Have rest forever.” 

This is the moment when Brian truly acknowledges and accepts the horror of what happened to him. He is finally able to think of the pilot and wish him peace in death. Brian is not religious, so he simply wishes the pilot rest. This is Brian’s first expression of spirituality, an important milestone in growing up.

“Amazing beauty and he wished he could share it with somebody and say, ‘Look there, and over there, and see that…’ But even alone it was beautiful…” 

This passage demonstrates the pervasive loneliness that Brian experiences. Humans are social animals, and although he has learned to enjoy his surroundings, he cannot get used to being completely alone all the time. However, he has learned to rely on the beauty of nature to keep him calm, centered, and grateful.

“Without the hatchet he had nothing—no fire, no tools, no weapons—he was nothing. The hatchet was, had been him.”

After Brian drops the hatchet in the lake while trying to get inside the plane, he realizes just how important that tool is to him. It has been the difference between survival and death. He feels that the hatchet has become an essential part of him.

“Too much. Too much. His mind screamed in horror and he slammed back and was sick in the water, sick so that he choked on it and tried to breathe water and could have ended there, ended with the pilot where it almost ended when they first arrived except that his legs jerked.” 

When Brian sees the deceased pilot under the water, he is so horrified that he almost chokes to death. The pilot has been decomposing in the water while the fish ate his flesh. The sight is too horrible for Brian to stomach. However, Brian’s survival instincts are strong enough to save him. His legs involuntarily kick, pushing him to the surface so he doesn’t drown. He knows that he will never forget that horrible image.

“Treasure. Unbelievable riches. He could not believe the contents of the survival pack.” 

Having lived for so long with absolutely nothing but a hatchet, the contents of the recovered survival pack seem too good to be true. Everything that Brian struggled to accomplish—building a fire, creating a shelter, catching fish, procuring drinking water—can be achieved in moments with the pack’s contents. It has everything a person could need to comfortably survive while awaiting rescue.

“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.” 

Brian notices that the introduction of a weapon makes him feel strange. Even though he knows a rifle could make hunting and eating much easier, he also knows that it would allow him to stay removed from nature. With a rifle, he would have never learned that he could peacefully coexist with predators like bears and wolves. Nor would he have learned the intricate details of forest life, because he wouldn’t have needed to. The rifle would make him a man in nature, but without it, he becomes one with nature.

“His tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of his mouth and his throat didn’t work right. He looked at the pilot, and the plane, and down at himself—dirty and ragged, burned and lean and tough—and he coughed to clear his throat.” 

After so much time spent alone, Brian has nearly forgotten how to speak. He hasn’t thought about what he looks like until he is faced with a stranger staring at him. Once he sees himself through the pilot’s eyes, he recognizes how lean and dirty he is. It takes the shock of another human’s arrival for him to remember how to talk and who he used to be.