Hatchet (novel)
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| Hatchet | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Gary Paulsen |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Brian's Saga |
| Subject(s) | Language Arts |
| Genre(s) | Young adult novel |
| Publisher | Bradbury Press |
| Publication date | 30 September, 1987 |
| Media type | Hardcover and Paperback |
| Pages | 195 p. (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-02-770130-1 (first edition, hardback) |
| Followed by | Brian's Winter |
Hatchet is a 1987 Newbery Honor award-winning wilderness survival novel written by Gary Paulsen.
[edit] Plot summary
Brian Robeson is stranded alone in the Canadian wilderness after the pilot of the single-engine Cessna plane in which he is traveling suffers a fatal heart attack. Brian is forced to crash-land the plane and escapes just as it sinks in a remote lake.
Brian figures out how to make fire. He forces himself to eat whatever food he can find, such as turtle eggs. He deals with a porcupine, bear, skunk, moose, and a tornado. He eventually becomes quite a craftsman, crafting a bow, arrows, and a spear. During the story he struggles with memories of home, and the bittersweet memory of his mother, who Brian has discovered was having an affair with another man.
Brian is saved when a tornado hits the woods, tossing the plane wreckage towards the surface. Brian crafts a raft from raw matierials to get to the plane. When Brian was working his way into the plane, he drops his hatchet in the water which makes him realize how important the hatchet was to him. After diving numerous times he retrieves the hatchet but he almost dies trying. It was a very scary moment for him and this is when he re, and was able to successfully locate the survival pack containing a transmitter, packs of food, and a AR-7 (.22 survival rifle). Brian unknowingly activates the transmitter thinking it was broken, and is rescued by a fur trader who comes in a water plane. Finally reaching his father, he is no closer to being able to tell him about the mother's affair than at the novel's beginning.
In an alternate ending sequel, Brian's Winter, the novel supposedly ends with having Brian not yet rescued, and with winter looming ahead. He was in the woods for 54 days.
[edit] Sequels
Paulsen followed Hatchet with four additional novels about Brian.
Paulsen revisited Hatchet in Brian's Winter. Paulsen answers (by popular demand, he says) the question of what would have happened if Brian had been forced to spend a winter in the Canadian wilderness. This is an alternate version of the story of Hatchet, in which the survival pack radio didn't work, so he couldn't call for help.
In the second, The River, a government agent asks Brian to return to the Canadian wilderness-about 100 miles from his original camp-and show him how he managed to survive. The agent gets struck by lightning and falls into a coma, leaving Brian to construct a raft to transport him to a trading post.
The third additional novel, titled Brian's Return, tells the story of Brian returning to the Canadian wilderness in a canoe, aptly named the Raft, a gift given to him at the end of the book, The River.
In 2003, Paulsen wrote Brian's Hunt, in which Brian finds an injured dog while in his canoe. He thinks that the dog belongs to trappers, so he goes to his Native friends to ask if anyone lost a dog. When he arrives at their house, he finds the mauled bodies of his friends. He finds out a bear killed them and noticed that one of their daughters is missing. He later finds her in a canoe out on the lake and goes to hunt the bear.
[edit] Film adaptations
Hatchet was made into a TV movie in 1990 entitled A Cry in the Wild.
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