72 pages • 2 hours read
Gary PaulsenA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Brian’s experience of nature is limited before he crashes into the lake. He is a self-described city boy, and it takes him quite a while to acclimate to living in the wilderness. He must learn to distinguish between foreign sights, sounds, and smells to survive. He must learn to think like an animal to protect himself. When he achieves this change in perspective, he states, “I am not the same […] I see, I hear differently” (100). He finds that all creatures are similarly motivated. They each have simple desires—to find food, water, and shelter. Once he understands the similarities between himself and the animals of the forest, Brian finds a peaceful clarity about his position in the ecosystem: “Brian knew the wolf for what it was—another part of the woods, another part of all of it […] he knew the wolf now, as the wolf knew him” (115).
Brian also learns to differentiate blind fear from keen awareness. This transformation is most apparent after Brian’s attempted suicide. After succumbing to isolation and hopelessness, Brian wakes to realize he failed to kill himself. This moment represents a rebirth: Hating “what he had done to himself when he was the old Brian and was weak,” Brian resolves to never “let death in again” (117).
By Gary Paulsen
Brian's Hunt
Gary Paulsen
Brian's Return
Gary Paulsen
Brian's Winter
Gary Paulsen
Canyons
Gary Paulsen
Dogsong
Gary Paulsen
Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books
Gary Paulsen
Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered
Gary Paulsen
How Angel Peterson Got His Name
Gary Paulsen
Lawn Boy
Gary Paulsen
Liar, Liar
Gary Paulsen
Masters of Disaster
Gary Paulsen
My Life in Dog Years
Gary Paulsen
Nightjohn
Gary Paulsen
Northwind
Gary Paulsen
Soldiers Heart: Being the Story of the Enlistment and Due Service of the Boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers
Gary Paulsen
The Crossing
Gary Paulsen
The Monument
Gary Paulsen
The River
Gary Paulsen
The Transall Saga
Gary Paulsen
The Voyage of the Frog
Gary Paulsen