Boekverslag : Gary Paulsen - Hatchet / Overleven In De Wildernis: Neergestort
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1252 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1252 woorden.
A. Data
Author: Gary Paulsen
Titel: Hatchet
Publisher: Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, Young Blackbirds (first published in England by Macmillan Children's Books 1989)
Year of publish and print: 2002.
Pages: 144 pages(Story ‘Hatchet’ 137 pages, Glossary 7 pages)
Genre: An adventure story and also a psychological novel
B. First reaction
Why did I pick this work?
From the three books we got, I had two left. I read the texts on the back of the book and this one I thought was the nicest one.
What was my first impression after reading the first chapter?
I didn’t think much of it. I was expecting a major plain crash. Spectacular. The first chapter was boring. You get an introduction of the main character and why he’s on the plain, where he’s going and why the plain crashes.
C. Deepening and techniques
The main character.
Brian Robeson (13), son of divorced parents. He lived with his mother who had left the family for another man. His father worked in the Canadian forests. He was on his way to his dad when the plane crashed and he found himself alone in the woods.
He is a very round character because during the story you get to know everything about him an you become to know exactly the way he thinks. Brian also changes In the book. He was a City boy and he becomes a person who can survive in the wilderness.
He has got an enormous willpower that at the end will save him. In trying to survive in the forest Brian develops into a more complete human being than he was before this crisis.
An other important character.
Brian is the only main character, but nature can be seen as the other main character.
Summary.
Brian’s parents are divorced. The summer he is going to spend with his dad. His father lives in Canada so he has to go there by plane. On the way over there the pilot gets an heart attack and dies. The plain crashes. Brian now stays on an island.
The first night on the island he keeps getting up from the mosquitoes. The next morning he has got bumps everywhere. He has got bumps on his had and his leg is wounded.
He is getting water from the lake .He eats all kinds of things. Eggs from a turtle, berries.
He also has got to make a fire. He tries everything but nothing seems to work. One night he wakes up because of a strange noise. He feels something on his leg. To scare the animal he throws his hatchet to the wall. He noticed the hatchet giving sparks. Next morning he tries to make a fire with his hatchet. I finally works. He is very happy that he now has got a nice warm fire.
He has got to find something else to eat. The berries and eggs are running out. He is going to catch some fish. He makes a spear. It works.
He feels he has changed of his staying on the island. He is stronger, but also changed physical.
One day he hears a plain and quickly tries to make a fire. When he finally has a fire the plain is long gone. He is very sad. He thinks know one is ever going to find him.
He now is the new Brian for 47 days. He calls himself like this because he has changed enormously since he was living on the island.
He now also catches birds for food. An d also a rabbit. When it finally goes well, he is being attacked by a mother-(eland). He falls in the lake and bruises a couple of ribs.
That night a tornado comes along. It blows away all his stuff and out goes his fire. The one positive thing is that it also pulls the plain out of the lake. Brian goes to the plain to get food and the survival kit. He finds a radio in it. He switches it on, but thinks it is broken. But then, al of a sudden a plain landed right in front of Brian. The pilot was surprised to see that Brian survived after two long months.
Place.
First it takes place in the airplane.
After that the rest of the story is set on a island in Canada.
It is a story witch could happen tomorrow.
- Verteltijd +- 2 ½ hours
- Vertelde tijd 2 months
Climax.
The climax for me is when Brian is saved after 2 months. He had given up all hope and thought he had to spend his whole on the island, alone.
The theme.
Paulsen wants the reader to see how important it is to be mentally strong so you can save yourself. He shows the human spirit to be resourceful and determined. Never give up. Never despair.
Typical parts for this theme.
The whole book is typical for this theme. From the beginning when the plain crashes to the end he is saving himself.
Title and theme.
By way of the hatchet, that his mother gave him, he can survive. The hatchet is the main thing that helps to stay alive.
Writing style.
The book is written easy. And it is not so difficult as ‘Two weeks with the Queen’. This book was easier to get threw. Any word I didn’t know, I could find them in the Glossary.
D. Biography
Biography of Gary Paulsen.
Born May 17, 1939, Gary Paulsen is one of America's most popular writers for young people. Although he was never a dedicated student, Paulsen loved reading from an early age.
He ran away from home at the age of 14 and travelled with a carnival, so he liked adventure as well. He used to work on a farm; did jobs as an engineer, construction worker, ranch hand, truck driver, and sailor; and participated in the 1,180-mile Alaskan dog sled race. All this became material for his books later in his life.
His decision to become a writer came suddenly when he was working as a satellite technician in California. One night he walked off the job, never to return. He spent the next year in Hollywood as a magazine proof-reader, working on his own writing every night. Then he left California and drove to northern Minnesota where he rented a cabin on a lake. By the end of the winter, he had completed his first novel.
He is a fanatic in whatever he does and his belief in young people drives him to write. He wants people to observe and care about the world around them. Paulsen is a master storyteller who has written more than 175 books and some 200 articles and short stories for children and adults. He is one of the most important writers of young adult literature today and three of his novels Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room were Dewbery Honor Books. His books frequently appear on the best books lists of the American Library Association.
Paulsen and his wife, Ruth Wright Paulsen, an artist who has illustrated several of his books, divide their time between a home in New Mexico and a boat in the Pacific.
E. My own opinion
I think it was a nice book to read because I like this sort of story. The writer could have made it a bit more spectacular so it’s more interesting to read because I can imagine some people finding this a boring book. I sometimes found this book boring and it was hard for me to focus and to carry on reading.
But it wasn’t a hard book to read, I could understand the texts quite well and didn’t have any moments where I couldn’t get it anymore.
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