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Hatchet
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Brian works out that it hardly matters whether the plane goes down now or later, yet he cannot make himself stop the engine. Which should he trust more, his reasoning or his reluctance?
The tension Brian's careful reasoning says going down now or later makes little difference, while everything in him refuses to let the plane fall.
Notice how Brian weighs his choices when he has almost no information, and what holds him back even when his reasoning says it makes little difference.
Brian goes from frozen to action: he touches the pilot, steadies the plane, finds the radio and screams until he learns to release the switch. A faint voice answers and then fades. Hours pass while Brian weighs his choices, works out a plan to land beside a lake, and calls every ten minutes. Between the seventeenth and eighteenth call, the engine dies.
Start with Brian's choice to keep the plane flying. Ask what he gets by waiting, and what he gives up.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the pilot, the plane's first swoops, the radio, the weighing of choices, the plan for landing, and the engine dying.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes two sentences in the same pattern: a short one about what a person feels, then a long one about the doubt that goes with it.
Debate Take sides on the big question: should Brian trust his reasoning or his reluctance? Each side must use at least one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why Paulsen shows Brian's reasoning step by step before the engine dies.
Easier Read the radio scene aloud together and talk through discussion questions 3 and 4 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's feelings and his thinking disagree, and to add it to a critical-thinking answer.
1. Brian's mind screams at the pilot, "Be asleep." What might that wish do for him just then?Character
What it asks It asks what the wish that none of this has happened does for Brian, helping him cope or keeping him stuck.
The wish is his mind's first step toward coping; right after it he turns to help.
Then he looked for ways for it not to have happened.
He had to help.
The wish holds him in place, because while he hopes he does nothing.
Even after his mind began working and he could see what had happened he could do nothing.
but it did not happen
A strong answer The wish gives Brian somewhere to put his terror: if the pilot would only be asleep, everything could go back. It also costs him time, since for a while he can do nothing and his hands and arms feel like lead. But the wish ends when the pilot does not move, and then Brian tells himself he has to help. A strong answer says what the wish does and gives a reason the chapter supports for why it helps or why it holds him back.
2. Paulsen puts the hardest moments in single words, like "Hit." and "Period." Why might he write them that way?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what the very short lines do to the reader at the points where Brian's danger is greatest.
The one-word lines hit the reader hard and leave no room to look away.
Period.
Hit.
They sound like Brian's own mind, shrinking down to what it can bear.
Easy say, hard do. Easy say, hard do. It became a chant that beat with the engine.
A strong answer The short lines land like a door closing. Brian has worked out that the plane will run out of fuel and go down, and the page gives that fact one word, Period, with nothing around it. The same goes for Hit. These lines may press the reader into the moment, or they may copy a mind that can only think a word at a time, as in the chant that beat with the engine. A strong answer names what the shortness does and compares it with the long, winding sentences nearby.
3. Brian screams into the radio and hears only his own voice. What does that moment show about being afraid?Theme
What it asks It asks what the radio scene shows about fear: how it can block the help a person needs, and how it can pass.
Fear can block help: his screams cover the very answer he wants.
his own screams mocking him, coming back into his ears
You had to turn the mike switch off to hear anybody else.
Fear does not last: a calmer part of him remembers what to do.
Panic came then.
Awareness cut into him.
A strong answer While Brian screams he cannot hear anyone, because he is holding the switch down, so his panic gets in the way of the very help he wants. Then awareness cut into him: he remembers the CB radio in his uncle's pickup and lets the switch go, and a voice comes through. The scene shows fear at its worst and the moment it eases. A strong answer says what the fear does and what lets Brian find his way out of it.
4. Brian could bring the plane down now or let it fly on. What might each choice cost him?Inference
What it asks It asks the student to lay out what is at stake in each choice before anyone decides which is better.
Going down now would cost him every chance of help and of getting farther along.
If he waited for the plane to run out of fuel he would go farther
it was, he knew, in the end all he had
Flying on only delays the same crash and keeps the dread going.
When the plane ran out of fuel it would go down.
Over and over his mind ran the picture of how it would go.
A strong answer Going down now costs the thing Brian is clinging to: the radio is all he has, and the plane is still flying while he tries it. Staying up costs him hours of dread, rehearsing a crash he knows is coming when the fuel runs out. Neither choice is free, and the chapter shows Brian counting both. A strong answer gives each choice its real cost and does not call either one free.
5. Brian feels like a prisoner in a small cell hurtling through the sky. What does that picture help us feel?Tone
What it asks It asks what the comparison to a prisoner adds to the mood of the long hours in the cockpit.
It makes him feel trapped and carried toward something he cannot stop.
He felt like a prisoner, kept in a small cell that was hurtling through the sky
It sets his tiny cockpit against the huge empty land outside, so he feels shut in even while surrounded by space.
Just the green of the trees, endless green, and lakes scattered more and more thickly as the plane flew—where?
A strong answer A prisoner cannot choose where he goes, and Brian cannot either: he does not know where the plane is headed. The picture also sets a tiny cabin against endless green below, so the space outside makes him feel smaller rather than free. A strong answer names the feeling the comparison makes and points to the cell or the view to support it.
1. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how much Brian really knows about flying this plane.
What it asks It asks the student to weigh what Brian truly knows against what he only guesses, using his own thoughts at the controls.
He knows more than he thinks, because he pulls from reading and from other machines he has used.
You pulled back on the stick to raise the plane, he knew that from reading.
He had used a CB radio in his uncle's pickup once.
He is mostly guessing, and unsure of his own guesses.
which he thought—only thought—might be the altimeter
he thought he may have read that somewhere, or it just came to him
A strong answer Brian knows a few real things: from reading he knows you pull back on the wheel to raise the plane, and from his uncle's pickup he knows how a radio switch works. Yet about the dials he can only say that he thought, only thought, one might be the altimeter. A strong answer says which side the evidence favors and gives two different moments for it.
2. Brian does not want to touch the pilot, but he does. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what pushes him to do it.
What it asks It asks what overcomes his fear of touching the pilot: the need for the radio, or the knowledge that no one else can help.
The radio is his only way to call for help, so he has to get the headset.
Had to reach over and get the headset from the pilot or he would not be able to use the radio to call for help.
it hit him, finally, that this was the radio
He has accepted that the pilot cannot help him, so everything depends on Brian.
He had to help himself.
The pilot was gone, beyond anything he could do.
A strong answer Two things push him. The headset is the only way he can call for help, so he has to get it. And he has worked out that the pilot is gone, beyond anything he could do, which leaves Brian to help himself. The chapter admits it is hard: his hands begin trembling and he does not want to reach for him. A strong answer picks what pushes him most and backs it with two different moments.
3. Brian keeps calling every ten minutes on the radio. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what that routine gives him.
What it asks It asks whether the routine gives Brian real hope and purpose, or only fills the waiting.
It gives him a task and a sense of hope.
He worked out a system.
it was, he knew, in the end all he had
It gives him very little: it fills the time without changing anything.
Even if he did get somebody, what could anybody do? Tell him to be careful?
He repeated the radio call seventeen times at the ten-minute intervals
A strong answer The routine gives Brian something to do with his hands and his mind: he works out a system and uses the dashboard clock to keep it. Between calls he gets ready for the landing, so the waiting is not empty. But he also doubts it will help, asking what anybody could do from far away. A strong answer says what the routine gives him and backs it with two different moments.