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Touching Spirit Bear Analysis

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Conquering Anger In the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelson, Cole overcomes his anger and problems. Cole learns to overcome these by forgiving his dad, accepting responsibility for his actions, and by doing the morning ritual that Edwin taught him. Doing these things helps him realize that anger is a memory and he has use it to grow as an individual. Cole conquers his anger by working through many detrimental internal and external conflicts, and learning to forgive those who have hurt him. Cole learns to forgive his Dad in order to unload the anger he has directed towards him. The years of abuse have led Cole to see himself as a whale because he has no home and doesn't trust his family.This is why he was so angry and always lashed out at people. He wades through information that tells him his Dad doesn’t hate him, but he was beaten as a kid to. If he grew up learning that it was okay to do bad things to people then he still thinks that it is okay now. “I just realized that I’m not a bad person. Nobody …show more content…

His morning ritual includes going to the ice pool soaking in it until he feels numb. When he is numb he will no longer be angry. Then he carries the ancestor rock up the hill where the rock becomes his anger. Everytime he pushes the his anger away he feels triumph. He feels this because he is controlling his anger, and pushing it deeper and deeper into the back of his mind. Edwin describes Cole as a person who will “only look at the left end of the left end of the stick and at the cloudy sky because your experiences have made it a habit.” The morning ritual helps Cole change his habits and look on the bright side everyday instead of always finding the bad in a situation. If you visualize your anger going away it eventually will. As Cole grows as a person this helps him heal and push through the conflicts in the book. Edwins ritual helps Cole overcome his anger by visualizing

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