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Hatchet
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Brian says nothing in nature is lazy, and he blames his shortcut for the skunk. Is a mistake in the woods a punishment, or only a lesson?
The tension The skunk's spray teaches Brian what he needed to know, yet the chapter shows it costing him his eyesight for hours, his eggs and a smell that does not leave.
Notice how Brian turns each mistake into something he builds or plans.
Brian thinks about how mistakes matter more in the woods. A skunk sprays him in the shelter and eats his turtle eggs while he is blinded in the lake. He rebuilds the shelter much stronger, makes a ledge and ladder for storing food, and builds a rock pen to keep live fish. The chapter ends on a note that he did not yet know how sick he would get of fish.
Start with the skunk. Ask what Brian did in the first second and what he would do now.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the skunk, the new shelter, the food shelf and ladder, and the fish pen.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes one long sentence in the same pattern: a small thing that grows, with a smile in the middle.
Debate Take sides on the big question: is a mistake in the woods a punishment, or only a lesson? Each side must use at least one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why Paulsen opens the chapter with the one word Mistakes and keeps coming back to it.
Easier Read the skunk scene aloud together and talk through discussion questions 1 and 2 only.
On level Talk through all five discussion questions, then have the student write one critical-thinking answer with two pieces of evidence from the chapter.
Harder Ask the student to find one more place where Brian turns a mistake into a plan, and to add it to a critical-thinking answer.
1. Brian nearly smiles at the skunk before he throws sand at it. What changes in that second?Character
What it asks It asks what turns Brian's smile into action, and what that shows about what matters to him now.
Fear for his food takes over: he sees the skunk as a thief.
But those were his eggs, not the skunk's, and the half smile had been quickly replaced with fear that he would lose his food
He acts too fast, before thinking about what a skunk can do.
He was going to say more, some silly human words, but in less than half a second the skunk had snapped its rear end up
he had grabbed a handful of sand and thrown it at the skunk
A strong answer Brian sees something almost cute until he remembers the eggs are his food, and then fear replaces the smile. The chapter also shows how quickly he acts: he throws sand and starts to speak, and the skunk answers in less than half a second. A strong answer says what he is protecting and whether he acted too fast.
2. Brian says nothing in nature is lazy. What does the chapter show that makes him say it?Theme
What it asks It asks what in the skunk scene and in Brian's work makes him believe nature does not take shortcuts.
The skunk is the example: it wastes no time getting the eggs.
The skunk had found food and was taking it and Brian was paying for a lesson.
Licked all the shells clean
Brian's own shelter is the example: the shelter was good, but he stopped too soon.
The basic idea had been good, the place for his shelter was right, but he just hadn't gone far enough.
Nothing in nature was lazy.
A strong answer The skunk does not stop: even while Brian is blind in the lake, it digs up and finishes every egg. Brian sees that his own first shelter had the right place but he did not go far enough, so he calls himself lazy and says nothing in nature is. A strong answer says what the example shows and what Brian means by lazy.
3. Brian knows a hundred funny cartoons about skunks. Why might Paulsen mention them?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what the cartoons do for the scene: set up a surprise, show how little Brian knew, or both.
They set up a surprise: what was funny at home is terrible here.
Cute cartoons about the smell of skunks, cartoons to laugh at and joke about, but when the spray hit there was nothing funny about it
They show where Brian's ideas came from, and why they let him down.
A hundred funny cartoons he had seen about skunks.
it looked almost cute, its little head down and its little tail up as it dug and dug
A strong answer The cartoons make the skunk seem harmless, so when the spray hits there is nothing funny about it, and for almost two hours Brian is completely blind. They also show that most of what Brian knew about animals came from pictures, so what he expected was a joke. A strong answer says what the cartoons add and gives a reason from the chapter.
4. After the skunk, Brian tears his shelter down and builds a much stronger one. Why does he think a stronger wall is the answer?Inference
What it asks It asks why Brian answers the skunk with a much stronger shelter, and whether his answer matches the problem.
A tight wall keeps small animals out, which is the problem the skunk showed.
no matter how a skunk tried—or porcupine, he thought, looking at the marks in his leg—it could not possibly get through
Not just a shelter to keep the wind and rain out, but a shelter to protect
He is fixing what he sees as his own laziness, so the wall is also a promise to himself.
He'd been lazy—but now he knew the second most important thing about nature
When his house was done, finally done right
A strong answer The new wall answers what the skunk showed: a shelter that only keeps off wind and rain lets small animals in. The door is woven so tight that a skunk or porcupine cannot get through, though a bear could. It is also a way of making up for being lazy. A strong answer says what the wall fixes and what it leaves open.
5. Brian calls storing live fish "a major breakthrough" because it is about saving ahead. Why might that count as such a big step for him?Plot structure
What it asks It asks what changes when Brian goes from catching food to planning for later, and how the chapter's mistakes lead there.
Planning ahead is how he avoids another mistake like the skunk.
What happened when the berries were gone and he got sick or hurt or—thinking of the skunk—laid up temporarily?
He tried to learn from the mistakes.
It marks a change from reacting to planning, which is a change in who he is.
Storing live fish to eat later had been a major breakthrough, he thought.
it was trying to save ahead, think ahead
A strong answer After the skunk ate the eggs, Brian asks what happens if he gets sick or hurt, so he builds a food shelf and a fish pen. That is a step from living day to day to thinking ahead, and the chapter calls it a major breakthrough. A strong answer says how the mistakes lead to planning and what planning changes for him.
1. Brian says mistakes cost more in the woods than in the city. Using two pieces of evidence, explain why.
What it asks It asks the student to compare how Brian's mistakes were fixed at home with what they cost him here.
In the city there was always another way: he could wait for a sprain to heal or find other food.
In the city if he made a mistake usually there was a way to rectify it, make it all right.
if he forgot something at the store he could find other food in the refrigerator
Here a small mistake can lead to starving.
If he sprained a leg here he might starve before he could get around again
If he got sick, really sick so he couldn't move he might starve.
A strong answer In the city a mistake usually could be fixed: he could wait for a sprained leg to heal, or find other food in the refrigerator. Here there is nothing behind him, so if he sprains a leg or gets really sick he might starve. A strong answer gives one moment for the city and one for the woods and says what is different.
2. Brian builds the second shelter. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what he does differently from the first.
What it asks It asks the student to find two things that make the new shelter stronger than the old one.
The wall is stronger: heavy logs, buried in the sand, with branches woven through.
he brought down heavier logs and fastened several of them across the opening, wedging them at the top and burying the bottoms in the sand
When he was at last finished he could not find a place to put his fist through.
The door is stronger: a tight willow weave that hooks into place.
here he took special time to weave a door of willows in so tight a mesh
by arranging some cut-off limbs at the top in the right way he had a method to hook the door in place
A strong answer The first shelter was brush woven across the front. This time Brian brings down heavier logs, buries them in the sand, and weaves branches through them until he cannot find a place to put his fist through. He also takes special time over the door, a willow weave so tight that nothing small could get through. A strong answer says what is different and uses two moments.
3. Brian looks for a place to keep food. Using two pieces of evidence, explain why he chooses the ledge over the ground.
What it asks It asks the student to follow Brian's reasoning from what he cannot do to what he can, and why the ledge solves it.
The ground is not safe for food: animals can reach it.
He couldn't bury food again, couldn't leave it in the shelter, because something like a bear could get at it right away.
It had to be high, somehow, high and safe.
The ledge is high and he can get to it with a ladder.
a small ledge that could make a natural storage place, unreachable to animals—except that it was unreachable to him as well
when he propped it up he found he could climb to the ledge with ease
A strong answer Food on the ground or in the shelter could be reached by something like a bear, so it has to be high and safe. The ledge is unreachable to animals, and Brian solves the problem that it is unreachable to him as well by making a ladder from a dead pine. A strong answer says why the ground fails and why the ledge works, using two different moments.