Saturday, October 25, 2014

How does Brian's dream contribute to the plot of Hatchet by Gary Paulsen?

Brian often dreams of the secret, and it is because of the secret that he was headed to Canada.


As with many kids, the divorce of Brian’s parents hit him hard psychologically.  He was young enough not to understand everything, but old enough to be troubled by the details he knew.  The hardest thing for Brian was the fact that he knew the Secret.


No, not secrets so much as just the Secret. What he...

Brian often dreams of the secret, and it is because of the secret that he was headed to Canada.


As with many kids, the divorce of Brian’s parents hit him hard psychologically.  He was young enough not to understand everything, but old enough to be troubled by the details he knew.  The hardest thing for Brian was the fact that he knew the Secret.



No, not secrets so much as just the Secret. What he knew and had not told anybody, what he knew about his mother that had caused the divorce, what he knew, what he knew—the Secret. (Ch. 1) 



To Brian, divorce is an ugly word.  He seems to blame his mother for the divorce, and when he gets into the little plane to go see his father, he is almost in a daze.  He is having a hard time trusting her because of the divorce.  To Brian, his mother having an affair was a betrayal to him and his father. 


Brian has seen his mother kissing the “man with short blond hair.”  He does not know how to tell his mother this.  The vision and the Secret haunt him. 



And there were the words again. Divorce. Split. The Secret. How could he tell her what he knew? So he had remained silent, shook his head and continued to stare unseeing at the countryside, and his mother had gone back to driving only to speak to him one more time when they were close to Hampton (Ch. 1). 



Brian later has another dream where he sees his father and a friend, and he feels like they are trying to tell him something.  He gets frustrated, but feels like he needs a fire.  He decides to use the hatchet to create a fire.  After that, Brian dreams of food a lot.  It makes sense when you are starving!

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