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Hatchet
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Brian works out that the searchers may not find him for days, then tells himself they would find him soon. Is that hope he needs, or a comfort he cannot trust?
The tension Brian's careful reasoning about the rudder pedal and the flight plan pulls against his need to believe that rescue is close.
Notice how Brian moves between what he knows and what he hopes while he waits to be rescued.
Brian wakes sunburned and thirsty, drinks from the lake, and tries to sort out where he is. He expects the searchers soon, grows hungry, and lays out what is in his pockets. Then he remembers the pilot's foot on the rudder pedal and sees that he may be far off the flight plan. The chapter ends with Brian on his feet, saying he has to do something.
Start with the pocket inventory. Ask what Brian has, and what he does not.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: waking thirsty, drinking at the lake, thinking it through, the pocket inventory, the shout, and the worry about the flight plan.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes three sentences in the same pattern: a feeling that starts, how someone fights it down, and the plain thought that comes out.
Debate Take sides on the big question: is Brian's thought that they would find him soon a hope he needs or a comfort he cannot trust? Each side must use at least one quote from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why Paulsen lets Brian's hope and his worry sit side by side in one chapter.
Easier Read the pocket inventory aloud together and talk through discussion questions 2 and 3 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 hope and his reasoning disagree, and to add it to a critical-thinking answer.
1. Brian expects to be home "by late night or early morning." What is that expectation built on?Inference
What it asks It asks what Brian's early confidence rests on: things he has seen about searches, or things he wants to be true.
He is reasoning from what he knows about how searches work.
Brian had seen searches on the news, seen movies about lost planes.
Pilots all filed flight plans
He is leaning on what he wishes, and the picture of food shows it.
Yeah, they would probably come today.
home where he could sit down and eat a large, cheesy, juicy burger with tomatoes and double fries with ketchup and a thick chocolate shake
A strong answer Part of his hope is reasoned. Brian has seen searches on the news and in movies, and he knows pilots file a flight plan, so he thinks searchers would start as soon as the plane did not arrive. But he also says they would probably come today and then jumps to a burger and a shake, so wishing is mixed in with knowing. A strong answer separates what Brian knows from what he wants, and uses a line for each.
2. Brian yells "I'm hungry" until the whole forest goes quiet. Why might he need to say it so loudly?Character
What it asks It asks what the shout does for Brian: lets out what he feels, or shows him how alone he is.
The shout lets the feeling out, so he does not have to hold it in.
In normal tones at first, then louder and louder until he was yelling it.
I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry!
The shout shows him how alone he is, because nothing answers and the forest goes silent.
The noise of his voice had startled everything and it was quiet.
in all his life he had never heard silence before
A strong answer Brian says it in normal tones at first, then louder and louder until he is yelling. One strong reading is that he needs to let the feeling out; the hunger has been building and he has had no one to say it to. But when he stops, the forest goes silent and he realizes he has never heard complete silence before, which shows how alone he is. A strong answer says what the shout does for him and what the silence does to him.
3. Brian lays out everything he has, then adds the one thing Perpich says he always has: himself. Does that count for much out here?Theme
What it asks It asks whether having yourself is real help or only a teacher's saying, once everything else is a few coins and a hatchet.
It counts for a lot: he is the one who can think, plan and use the hatchet.
For the first time since the crash his mind started to work, his brain triggered and he began thinking.
Those were all the things he had, but he also had himself.
It counts for little: he has almost nothing, and he himself is hurt, hungry and burned.
It was pitiful enough.
It kept coming back to that. He had nothing.
A strong answer The list in the grass is pitiful: a few coins, a fingernail clipper, a billfold, a hatchet, a broken watch. Against that, Brian himself is the only thing that can plan, and the chapter shows his mind starting to work for the first time since the crash. But he is also hungry, sunburned and sore, so the answer is not simple. A strong answer weighs both sides and says which one Brian would have to rely on.
4. Brian keeps measuring his own trouble against the movies. Why might Paulsen keep bringing the movies in?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what the comparison with movie heroes does: show how unprepared Brian is, or show the stories he still lets guide him.
It shows the gap between pictures of survival and the real thing.
but in the movies they didn't have plane wrecks and swollen foreheads and aching bodies and thirst that tore at the hero until he couldn't think
It shows that movies are all Brian has to go on, so he still reaches for them.
What did they do in the movies when they got stranded like this?
Oh, yes, the hero usually found some kind of plant that he knew was good to eat and that took care of it.
A strong answer Twice Brian thinks of the movie hero, once for water and once for food, and each time his real day is harder than the movie. That shows how little his pictures of survival prepared him. It also shows he has nothing else to go on, so he asks what they did in the movies. A strong answer says what the comparison does for the reader and gives a moment for it.
5. Brian wakes thirsty and ends the chapter on his feet, saying he has to do something. What moves him from one to the other?Plot structure
What it asks It asks what carries Brian from raw thirst to a plan: fear, thinking, or both.
Fear moves him: night, animals and days of waiting make sitting still feel unsafe.
Things might be looking at him right now, waiting for him—waiting for dark so they could move in and take him.
He felt his heartbeat increase as the fear started.
Thinking moves him: he works out his situation and sees what he needs.
Slow down, he thought. Slow down more.
He had to have some kind of shelter and he had to have something to eat.
A strong answer At the start Brian can think only of his thirst. By the end he has drunk, sorted out where he is, counted what he has, and decided he must have shelter and food. Fear pushes him, since he imagines things waiting for dark, but so does thinking: he tells himself to slow down and takes one thing at a time. A strong answer says which push seems bigger and why.
1. Brian drinks the lake water even though he does not know if he can. Using two pieces of evidence, explain why he does it.
What it asks It asks what overcomes Brian's doubt about the water: need, reasoning, or both.
Thirst overpowers his doubt.
his mouth and throat raged with the thirst
It was as if the water were more than water, as if the water had become all of life, and he could not stop.
He reasons it through and finds no better choice.
he did not know where there might be another form of water he could drink
he had probably swallowed a ton of it while he was swimming out of the plane and getting to shore
A strong answer Brian is not sure the water is safe: nobody ever told him whether you can drink lakes, and he thinks of the pilot down in the lake. But thirst tears at him until he cannot think, and he reasons that he knows no other water and has probably swallowed a ton of it already. A strong answer names what beats his doubt and backs it with two different moments.
2. Brian works out that the plane may be far from where searchers will look. Using two pieces of evidence, explain how he reaches that.
What it asks It asks the student to follow Brian's chain of reasoning from the rudder pedal to the idea that he is far off course.
The pilot's foot on the pedal changed the course, so every mile after that added to the error.
the moment when the pilot had his heart attack his right foot had jerked down on the rudder pedal and the plane had slewed sideways
after that, with the pilot dead, Brian had flown for hour after hour on the new course
The hours at high speed turn even a small error into hundreds of miles.
Many hours, at maybe 160 miles an hour.
he could easily be three, four hundred miles to the side
A strong answer Brian remembers that the pilot's foot jerked down on the rudder pedal and the plane slewed sideways, so it left the filed flight plan. Then Brian flew for hour after hour on the new course at maybe 160 miles an hour, so even a small error could put him three or four hundred miles to the side. A strong answer links the jerk to the hours and says what that means for where the searchers will look.
3. Brian tells himself to slow down and think in short thoughts. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what that does for him.
What it asks It asks how short, plain thoughts help Brian, who a moment before could not take in what had happened.
They turn a jumble into facts he can hold.
The whole thing turned into a confused jumble that made no sense.
My name is Brian Robeson and I am thirteen years old and I am alone in the north woods of Canada.
They lead him to the hardest fact, that nobody knows where he is.
I do not know where I am.
they do not know where I am
A strong answer When everything tries to come in with a rush it turns into a confused jumble, so Brian fights it down and takes one thing at a time. The short thoughts name who he is and what he does not know, which gives him facts he can hold, and the last one brings him to the more important fact: nobody else knows where he is either. A strong answer says what the short thoughts do and backs it with two different moments.