Coming Of Age In Hatchet By Gary Paulsen

850 Words4 Pages

Coming of Age It is possible for a young boy to learn new things and change their entire state of mind. In Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, a boy going to see his father by plane, after his parents divorce, crashes in the Canadian wilderness. After the accident, he is alone in the forest but at the same time, he is learning a whole new lifestyle. But in “Juvenile Justice Program Teaches Boys Life Lessons and Accountability” by the Dallas Morning News, young men who had conflict with the law get to go to Diversion Male Court (DMC). DMC is a program where young men go to a rehabilitation program for 6 months. They learn new manners, and get to learn how to have a better future for themselves. The coming of age, no matter what age, is an important …show more content…

“... if he did not go back and get the berries, he would have to eat the gut cherries again tonight. That convinced him and he walked slowly back to the raspberry patch and continued picking for the entire morning, although with great caution, and once when a squirrel rustled some pine needles at the base of a tree he nearly jumped out of his skin” (Paulsen 76).
He was very careful of what he heard. Even when he heard the tiniest rustle he would check to make sure it wasn’t a bear or something even more dangerous. Furthermore, Brian has been more self-less and has been thinking more about other things: “For the first time since the crash, he was not thinking of himself, of his own life. Brian was wondering if the bear was as surprised as he to find another being in the berries” (Paulsen 77). As said, Brian has had more maturity and awareness since his plane crashed. The boys in DMC are wanted and told to have a specific attire and …show more content…

The youthful boys get promoted for doing the correct things, but mostly for the things DMC requires.
Brian soon thinks of a skill he wouldn’t have thought of before the accident: “The hatchet was the answer. That’s what his father and terry had been trying to tell him. Somehow he could get fire from the hatchet. The sparks would make fire” (Paulsen 86). He starts to realize that the hatchet an be useful to him, that it’s his most valuable tool. The accident has provided him with the thought of having something useful alongside him. As a similar idea, the article starts to state that boys have improved since the DMC program came to them.
“Probation officers meet with each boy weekly to see if he is abiding by the 7pm curfew and how he is doing at school. The officer also administers random drug tests. Another officer who is in charge of making sure the boy does not skip school may call the boy each morning to wake him up, and text him throughout the day to check on his whereabouts. Each boy must keep up with his school work and is tutored if necessary” (“Juvenile Justice”, Dallas Morning News ¶

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