Nolan H’s Reviews > Hatchet > Status Update

In my book, Hatchet, they use figurative language. Brian said, “There were clouds of fish.” There aren’t actually fish clouds, but many fish so that he compared the fish to being in clouds, or abundant fish.

In the book, Brian decides to try and get the survival pack from the crashed airplane. He makes a raft and attempts to get into the airplane and grab the survival pack, but it is much harder than he though. He needs to cut into the aluminum to get the bag.

The author uses characterization to show how much Brian has changed, being in the wilderness and trying to survive on his own. He has made Brian do things he would have never done before, like eating raw turtle eggs, making a spear to hunt for fish and birds, and the techniques of hunting these animals.

The point of view in my book is helps the story seem more tense. We know less information so we don’t know if he will be saved or not. It makes the story more intense and suspenseful.

An incident in the story was when a skunk fell into Brian’s cave in the dark, and the skunk sprayed Brian. So the next day, Brian made a door and wall for his shelter so that nothing else could get in.

Brian compared looking at the outline of the bird instead of the bird itself was like turning on a tv. He explains how all of this sudden he can see the bird so clearly when before he didn’t and he was adapting. When I heard it was like turning on a tv, I think about how it is black, and you see nothing, to bright vivid pictures on the screen.

The theme of my book is change. I think so because it is about a kid from the city who is now trying to stay alive in the wild. He also said multiple times, “I am not the same as the old Brian.” He said this because when his plane first crashed, he was scared and didn’t work hard. Now he has adjusted and works very hard to stay alive. He also learned that even if he isn’t hungry, that he still needs to find food.

Brian used to be very disappointed that nobody came to rescue him, but he had changed. He changed into a new Brian and was learning to live off the land. He is now proud of himself for catching a fish, his own way. He said, "He felt his throat tighten, swell, and fill with pride at what he'd done." He was proud of himself for catching his own food, after many failed attempts, he learned how to do it.

Suspense is like being anxious/excited about the unknown that will happen, and building up to an event. In Hatchet in the dark Brian heard something moving and didn't know what it was, he thought it was a snake and kicked it. It was suspenseful to see what happened. It turned out to be a porcupine and he got spiked.

The book Hatchet is told from a third-person point of view. A sentence from the book that backs this up is, "Brian found it was a long way from sparks to fire." I know that is third-person because Brian is the main character and it is told from a narrator outside of the story, that knows everything. This affects the plot by making it more understandable and it gives us information that Brian couldn't just tell us.