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Hatchet
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
After the crash Brian calls it good luck that he missed the rocks, then decides that following good luck backward leads to bad luck. Was he right to take the word back?
The tension Brian's relief at being alive pulls against his sense that the chain of events behind it was anything but lucky.
Notice how Brian first calls his escape luck and then looks again at the word.
Brian wakes screaming from a memory of the Secret: his mother in a station wagon with a man. He finds himself at the edge of the lake, crawls out of the water, sleeps through the night, and wakes at dawn battered but with nothing broken. Mosquitoes swarm him until the sun is fully up. He looks over the lake, sees the rocks he missed, thinks about luck, and falls asleep again against a tree.
Start with the rocky ridge. Ask what Brian thinks about when he sees how close the plane came to it.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the memory, waking at the lake, the night, the mosquitoes, the view over the water, and sleep against the tree.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes two sentences in the same pattern: a long one about what might have happened, then a one-word sentence for the worst of it.
Debate Take sides on the big question: was Brian right to take back the word luck? Each side must use at least one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why Paulsen puts the memory of the Secret beside the crash and the missed rocks.
Easier Read the memory of the Secret aloud together and talk through discussion questions 1 and 5 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 thought over and changes his mind, and to add it to a critical-thinking answer.
1. Brian thinks, "I'm alive," and soon after, "Like the pilot." What might each thought do to him?Character
What it asks It asks what the relief of being alive and the thought of the pilot each do to Brian, and whether the two thoughts help or hurt him.
Being alive steadies him, and the thought of the pilot shows him how close he came.
I'm alive, he thought. I'm alive. It could have been different.
Like the pilot, he thought suddenly.
The picture of the pilot spoils the relief and he has to push it away.
The pilot in the plane, down into the water, down into the blue water strapped in the seat...
That wasn't something to think about.
A strong answer The first thought gives Brian something solid: he is alive, and it could have been different. The second thought takes some of that away, because the pilot is still strapped in his seat under the water. Later Brian shakes his head and tells himself that is not something to think about. A strong answer says what each thought does to Brian and gives a reason from the chapter for which one weighs more.
2. Brian screams awake from the memory of the Secret. Why might it come back to him now, after the crash?Inference
What it asks It asks why the memory of the Secret returns at this moment, and what the crash has to do with it.
The pain of the crash opens the older pain, so the two arrive together.
Pain. Memory.
The memory was like a knife cutting into him.
He is alone and still, with nothing left to push the memory away, so it floods in.
How could it be so quiet?
Then silence, filled with sobs as he pulled in air, half crying.
A strong answer The chapter puts Pain and Memory side by side, and Brian wakes sure that the crash is still happening. The hurt of the crash may open the older hurt, or the sudden quiet may leave him with nothing else to think about. Either way the memory arrives in exact pieces, like slices. A strong answer gives one reason from the chapter and does not claim to know more about the Secret than the memory shows.
3. On the still lake Brian sees "an upside-down forest to match the real one." Why might Paulsen give us that picture here?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what the mirrored forest does in the chapter: set the scene, show Brian's state of mind, or both.
It shows a calm, strange place that is new to Brian after the noise of the crash.
In the morning light and calm the water was absolutely, perfectly still.
reflection-bird matched it, both flying out over the water
It hints at seeing the same thing from two sides, which fits a boy turning over what happened to him.
an upside-down forest to match the real one
If you keep walking back from good luck, he thought, you'll come to bad luck.
A strong answer After the roar and tearing of the crash, the still lake and its doubled forest are a quiet picture that Brian can only watch. The mirrored trees can be read as simple scenery, or as a hint that one thing can look different when turned around, as Brian's own thoughts are doing. A strong answer says what the picture does for the reader and gives one reason from the chapter.
4. Brian says the nature shows "never once" mentioned the mosquitoes. What might he have expected the wilderness to be like?Theme
What it asks It asks what picture of the wilderness Brian carried in and how the morning's mosquitoes change it.
He expected a beautiful, easy place, like the shows.
All they ever showed on the naturalist shows was beautiful scenery or animals jumping around having a good time.
He had only the city and television to go on, so he did not really know what to expect.
Never, in all the reading, in the movies he had watched on television about the outdoors, never once had they mentioned the mosquitoes or flies.
he was used to the gray and black of the city, the sounds of the city
A strong answer Brian's picture of the wilderness came from reading and television, and the shows showed beautiful scenery and animals having a good time. He is a boy used to the gray and black of the city, so the mosquitoes are a shock that nobody warned him about. A strong answer says what Brian expected and what he found, and notices that all he had to go on was what other people showed him.
5. The chapter opens with the Secret and ends with Brian asleep by the lake. Why might Paulsen begin with the memory?Plot structure
What it asks It asks what the memory at the start does for the rest of the chapter and why it comes before the lake.
It tells the reader that Brian's hurt began before the crash.
The memory was like a knife cutting into him. Slicing deep into him with hate.
Brian saw this and more, saw the Secret and saw more later
It makes waking at the lake feel like coming out of a nightmare into another one.
Brian opened his eyes and screamed.
It was over then. The crash.
A strong answer Starting with the memory tells us that Brian has been carrying something heavy since before the plane. It also makes the lake feel like a waking from one bad thing into another. The chapter lets us see only pieces of the Secret: a station wagon, his mother, a man in a white shirt. A strong answer says what the opening does and keeps in mind how little we are told.
1. Brian feels himself over after the night. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how badly he is hurt.
What it asks It asks the student to weigh Brian's pain against what his check shows, and to decide how bad his state really is.
He is badly hurt: the pain is everywhere and his head is the worst.
He was still in pain, all-over pain.
Worst was a keening throb in his head that pulsed with every beat of his heart.
He is bruised more than broken, and he can move.
nothing seemed to be shattered or even sprained all that badly
Nothing broken. Just battered around a bit.
A strong answer Brian hurts all over, and his head is worst: a keening throb with every heartbeat. But when he feels his sides and legs and rubs his arms, nothing seems shattered or even sprained all that badly, and he decides he is just battered around a bit. A strong answer says how badly he is hurt and uses two different moments, one about the pain and one about what he finds.
2. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what Brian tries against the mosquitoes and what finally stops them.
What it asks It asks what Brian does about the mosquitoes, whether any of it works, and what in the end is responsible for the change.
Nothing he does works; the sun does what he cannot.
tried to shelter in it but the jacket was full of rips and it didn't work
the mosquitoes and flies disappeared
He gets through by holding on, and then he works out why they left.
In the end he sat with the windbreaker pulled up, brushed with his hands and took it
Apparently they didn't like the deep of night, perhaps because it was too cool, and they couldn't take the direct sunlight.
A strong answer Brian tries the windbreaker, which is full of rips, and then his T-shirt, which leaves his back bare, and neither works. In the end he just sits and takes it until the sun is fully up and the mosquitoes and flies disappear. Afterwards he works out that they did not like the deep of night or the direct sunlight. A strong answer says what he tries, what ends the swarm, and uses two different moments.
3. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how this new place feels to Brian: strange, peaceful, or both.
What it asks It asks the student to read Brian's first look at the lake and decide whether the place seems strange, calm, or both.
It feels strange and hard to take in.
there was great noise here, but a noise he did not know, and the colors were new to him
it was all a green and blue blur
It feels calm and pretty.
The scenery was very pretty, he thought
In the morning light and calm the water was absolutely, perfectly still.
A strong answer The place is both. Brian finds the scenery very pretty and the water absolutely still, but the noise is one he did not know and the colors blur together in his tired mind. He is used to the gray and black of the city, so everything here is new. A strong answer says which feeling is stronger and backs it with two different moments.