Touching Spirit Bear Analysis

Touching Spirit Bear: Cole’s Conflicts

Have you ever thought about all the conflicts in your life? If you look back you probably realize that a lot of them were bad, but you must have overcome them if you are thinking about them now. You’d most likely figure that a fifteen-year-old wouldn’t have to much to worry about yet, but Cole Matthews is unlike any child that you could ever imagine. Lets just say that some of his conflicts include being beat by his father and in general being ignored by both his mother and father, he was mauled by a bear (the Spirit Bear if you will), and he has to attempt to help Peter Driscal, the boy he hurt at the beginning of the story, but do you know how hard it is to even try to talk to the person whose head you

No one is there to even love you or ask how your day was, that’s how Cole feels all day, every day. It isn’t the nicest feeling to have, to know you are unloved or unwanted, but that’s how Cole feels everyday of his life. “It was the next voice that made Cole explode. His father held the feather, toying with it in his fingers. ‘We’ve always wanted the best for Cole,’ he said. ‘His mother and I have devoted our lives to him, but he-’ ‘That’s bull!’ Cole shouted suddenly, although he wasn’t holding the feather. ‘You drink until you can’t stand up, and you’re gone all the time. A devoted parent doesn’t whip his kid until a shirt can’t hide all the bruises!” (Touching Spirit Bear, by: Ben Mikaelsen, pg. 46) This is a major conflict of Cole’s throughout the book because it just ties into everything Cole does like beating up Peter Driscal, a ninth grader that he had picked on many times, just for the fun of it, because what you do to your children, will reflect what they do in life. If you care for them and love them properly, because mind you, children or living, breathing things and they have feelings too, then they will return the love to the world and try to make it a better place, but if you beat them until they are numb, you shouldn’t expect the love in return, and they will continue the beatings children and other people receive almost every single day. Cole beat Peter up because this was all he knew. Toward the beginning of the second part in

Anger never goes away, it is just like happiness. You can control it or let the inner beast roam wild. In order to help him take control of this burning anger inside of him he must go to a remote island off the coast of Alaska, an island that contain many animals including the Spirit Bear. Obviously the Spirit Bear doesn’t exist, it’s just a metaphor or something to help Cole get over his anger, right? WRONG! The Spirit Bear is probably one of the top smartest things in the entire book, he/she is always their for Cole, trying to tell him that their is someone in the world that will always be there watching over him, to help him and to guide him. Cole on the other hand is probably the most stupidest character at the beginning of the book. He believes that he can take on a full fledged bear and kill it with a spear. Yeah, um, I don’t think so. “A blur of white motion deflected the shaft down into the grass as the bear lunged. Cole never even had time to raise the knife before the bear was on him, clubbing him down with a powerful blow.” (Touching Spirit Bear, by: Ben Mikaelsen, pg. 65) In my opinion I feel as if this is a conflict that resembles him and Peter. Cole continuously slammed Peter’s head into the sidewalk and punched him over and over until he was unrecognizable, and now he is suffering permanent damage like slurred speech