chapter 19 and the epillogue

In the morning Brian opens the survival pack and find many useful items, including a sleeping bag, a foam sleeping pad, a cookset, matches, lighters, a knife, a compass, a first-aid kit, a cap, and a fishing kit. Surprised to find a survivor rifle among the pack's contents, Brian is uneasy about it as he starts to feel separates from the natural environment to which he has become accustomed. Although his daily patterns would become much easier with the use of a rifle, and with many of the tools in the kit, he feels attached to his old ways and to the self-sufficiency they represent. Brian notes his "up and down" feelings regarding the discovery of the survival pack. Oh god! I think Brian should se the survival pack, but only in rations and he should store the rifle in a very safe place. He then comes across an emergency transmitter and, attempting to turn it on with no evident success, Brian reasons that it had been broken in the crash. What if he had found this earlier? Maybe it would have been working! The survival pack also contains several freeze-dried food packets, which he determines to carefully ration after he feasts just once on a meal of his choice. He begins to prepare this feast with much anticipation when he hears the drone of an engine above him. The plane flies low and lands on the lake. The pilot emerges and reports to Brian that he had heard the transmitter signal. In saying this, the pilot slowly makes the connection that the searchers he had heard about were looking for Brian, who stands before him. Dumbfounded and initially unable to comprehend the situation, Brian simply says, "My name is Brian Robeson…. Would you like something to eat?" Ha, yes! He's been rescued! SUCCESS! Brian later learns that the man who rescued him is a fur buyer out to survey Cree trapping camps. Brian had lost a lot of his body weight since the crash, and he remains thin for years. Many of the changes Brian underwent in the wilderness seem permanent, such as his observant and thoughtful nature, and food never loses its wonder for him. I wonder if that is a good or bad thing in the real world. Reporters become briefly interested in covering his story, but soon the attention severes. Brian has many dreams in which he recalls his time in the woods,many pleasant. If Brian had had to survive the winter there, it would have been very difficult. While his parents react with such joy at knowing their son has survived, and even get back together briefly, they soon return to their respective homes. Although he repeatedly intends to, Brian never actually tells his father about "The Secret." I noticed at how in the beginning Brian kind of only wanted to survive so he can tell his dad the secret, but as he got more and more in touch with nature, he started to live for himself. I am finished with the book, and let me tell you, it was amazing! I recommend this book 100%!

chapter.16 17 18

Brian proudly recalls the major events since the plane crash, which he calls "First Days." For example, on "First Arrow Day" he had successfully made a straight-shooting arrow, and on "First Rabbit Day" he had killed his first rabbit, using similar methods as he had used to kill the foolbird. He alternates between rabbits and foolbirds, so he is able to satisfy himself with good meat. In time he perfects his skills at catching foolbirds, once even catching a bird with his bare hands. His bare hands! Can you do that, because.I sure can't. While washing his hands in the lake, he senses something and turns around just in time to face a huge moose. The moose attacks him, throwing him into the water, thrashing him around, and badly hurting his ribs and his shoulder. Not again! Last time he got hurt badly was the porcupine. Getting his bow, spear, and foolbird from the water's edge, Brian, in gigantic pain, attempts to make sense of the attack before falling asleep. A far-off roar awakens Brian in the middle of the night. Suddenly, a tornado pushes down on him, slamming him on the side of his home. The tornado leaves as quickly as it had arrived,leaving Brian out in the open, his shelter and fire completley destroyed. Without the protection of the fire, mosquitoes find him once again and he lies sleepless for the remainder of the night, contemplating how his situation has changed so much in one day. It seems as if I was right with him and luck and repurcussions. In the aftermath of the moose attack and the tornado he has little to nothing left. Nonetheless, Brian doesn't go shock but instead remains calm. How ks he doing this? I would have died buy the 2nd day, then again, every human has animal instincts deep inside of them, all they need is a little boost. In his resolve to rebuild using the hatchet, his only remaining tool, still at his belt. Right before dawn Brian dozes off, and awakens later to assess the tornado's damage. The tornado had scattered the pieces of his shelter but they stayed in the area. Looking out over the lake, Brian spots the tail of the Cessna plane sticking out of the water. He thinks of the pilot, dead in the plane, and a huge weighty sadness sweeps over him. Compelled to say a few words for him, Brain hesitates because he does not know the "right words," the words of organized religion. He decides to simply concentrate and wish the pilot a peaceful rest. I think it's good Brian finds some closure, but he should never blame himself in the situation. Brian works to fix his shelter to its former shape and to gather more firewood. Tired from a day of hard work, he lies down to go to sleep when it occurs to him that the survival pack that the pilot had mentioned might still be in the plane, and perhaps he could access it. After all this time, he finally remembers the pack that could have saved him much earlier on. I guess things happen for a reason. Wondering what it might contain, Brian hopes that he will find food or tools, and decides to try to find it the following day. He falls asleep with the picture of the tail of the plane in his mind. The next morning he eats some fish to gain some energy for his big task at hand and reasons that a raft would be the best method to get out to the plane. Finding the construction of the raft difficult, Brian must find a way to attach the logs to each other. After many frustrating attempts, Brian interweaves branches into the logs to hold them together. Moving the raft shows another time-consuming challenge, and, as night approaches, Brian decides to return back to his shelter for the night and try again in the morning. Brian sensed fall in the air on this beautiful night in the woods. In the morning, he sets out for the plane on his raft. Attaching the raft to the plane, Brian shutters as it occurs to him that he might see the pilot down underwater. I really hope that the pilot would not be there, seeing a dead corpse seems really unnecessary infornmationn on Brian's life when he 's dealing with survival. Frustrated by his inability to access the inside of the plane, Brian strikes it with his fist and the aluminum covering opens. Using the hatchet to cut through the rest of the sections, Brian is hacking away at a furious pace when he suddenly drops the hatchet and it falls to the bottom of the lake. After a few tries, Brian succeeds in picking the hatchet up from the bottom, having barely enough air in his lungs to return to the surface. I really think he should stay and get the hatchet, it gave him everything and more. He continues to cut into the plane and swims down into it to retrieve the survival pack. On his way back up he sees the pilot's head, the flesh eaten away by fish. Traumatized, Brian gets sick in the water and, struggling to free the pack from the plane, and arrives at the surface. Exhausted from his efforts, Brian drags the survival pack to his shelter and falls immediately into a deep sleep. I wonder if they held funerals for them or not.

13, 14 and 15

While Brian searches for foolbirds, as he calls the chicken-like birds he has discovered, his instincts tell him that some dangerous animal is nearby. At that moment he spots a big beautiful wolf, which then walks up the hill and away from Brian, followed by three others. They left him alone... can you believe it!? Amazing how they didn't attack him. They probably didn't find any fear in him. After the plane flies by him without spotting him, Brian feels incredibly deflated. He even tries commiting suicide by cutting himself with his hatchet, but it didnt turn out quite the he wanted it to. When he survives, he determines never to let death tempt him again, and in that moment Brian transforms himself into the "New Brian." He finally figures out how to catch the many fish in the lake when he realizes he must look at them for the refraction of light underwater and readjust his aim. On that first day that he catches fish, he feasts on them and, is satisfied with his accomplishment and the wealth of food it produced, feels hopeful. This hope, however, differs from his earlier hope that he will be rescued. He now believes the chances of his being rescued are slim tto maybe none. Instead, he believes in "tough hope" that he can survive on his own with his new knowledge of the wilderness. I agree wit Brian, he should stop relying on when people will come for you, but instead on when should he go hunting for his next meal. A skunk comes to search for the spot in the sand where the turtle has laid its eggs. Brian yells at the skunk, which reacts by spraying him. He gets blinded for nearly two hours as a result of the spray. Brian runs into the lake to wash himself. Ha, only if he had tomato juice with him, then the scent would come off for sure. The skunk has also eaten the eggs he had stored on the shore. Oh what will he eat now? Brian learned two lessons from this incident: make a sturdy shelter and put food in a protected place. Amazing how this book has to do with survival but the key point to survival must be food. Spending days strengthening his shelter with additional wood, and finding a high tree for a food shelf that bears would be unable to reach, Brian still faces the problem of a lack of food. After thinking about this problem, he resolves to construct a small pond in which he may store the fish he has caught, attracted by the remains of the fish he had already eaten. Brian shows his ideas of survival but not only finding food for the moment, but also developing some system of storage for the future. While still in the woods he finds the time by events he experiences rather than by societal measures of time, although he does mark the passing days on the stone next to his shelter. His real sense of time, however, revolves around events such as the day of First Meat. Living off berries and fish, Brian still had still craved more substantial food, meat in particular. He has thought of trying to catch the foolbirds that abound in the woods,but despite their stupidity has a difficult time catching them. They tend to fly away at the last second, and they are difficult to spot. Training his eyes to see the outline of a foolbird, Brian decides to employ his spear rather than his bow and arrow, which makes him able to lunge at the birds instead. Moving sideways rather than straight at the bird and lunging at it at the last second, he catches his first meat. I noticed how much Brian has changed, he has turned into a hunter! Cleaning the chicken proves harder than he had expected, and he remembers once more that in the past, and in a world where his mother had cooked for him, such a duty would never have occurred to him. Brian makes up a system to rotate the chicken over a flame and sits back to watch it cook. Anxious to have his first bite, Brian pulls off a piece that has not quite cooked fully yet. He reminded himself of the importance of patience, and when the meat has finally cooked through, Brian enjoys his feast more than anything he has ever eaten. I think that it's good that Brian is being patient, after all they say patience is key in life.

Chapter 10, 11 and 12

Brian takes such comfort from the fire that he feels reluctant to leave it alone. I think Brian will become a little obsessed with the fire. Knowing he will need to keep the fire going, he spends the afternoon gathering wood for the night and the coming days, falling into a deep sleep when he completes his work. He wakes up to a strange noise in the middle of the night, but nothing enters his home and he dozes off again. In the morning he finds tracks to and from the water. Brian follows them in the sand and comes to a pile where many eggs are in a hole. A turtle had come up from the water to lay its eggs. Thinking of his Uncle Carter, who used to eat raw eggs in the morning, he decides that he needs nourishment badly enough to do so himself. Overcoming the odd taste, Brian eats several eggs and, saving the others, decides to eat one a day. Thinking of the searchers, Brian hopes they will soon rescue him. Brian occupies himself by storing the eggs, cleaning his camp, and stacking wood; these chores help keep him from falling into depression or craziness of being secluded from the world. Seeing his reflection in the lake, Brian notes how his body has changed. His stomach now curves in, instead of bulging from after eating a hamburger and fries and his skin has also browned. More significantly, however, he realizes the mental transformation he has gone through. He observes his surroundings with a new keenness, his senses formed to pick up on the goings-on of the woods. His mind and body have also made a connection that had not existed before his stay in the woods. Standing atop a bluff overlooking the lake, the beauty of the lake and woods overwhelm him. He soon has an important realization that he can catch fish in the lake for food. Upon closer inspection, he notices that the lake appears full of fish of many kinds. In the beginning he wttmepts to grab them, but suddenly realizes that he needs a weapon like a spear to kill them. He spends many hours perfecting his fish spear, but in the end it fails to help him catch any fish. He needs of a way to send the spear into the water, so Brian decides to make a bow and arrow. While searching for wood, Brian almost steps on a bird and it flies up in a flurry of feathers. It occurs to Brian to try to catch these birds, slightly smaller than chickens, which he calls "foolbirds." At that moment a plane flies overhead, giving Brian hope that the searchers have come for him. Gesturing and yelling at the top of his lungs, Brian falls into despair and hopelessness when the plane flies past him and away into the horizon. He begins to lose faith that he will ever see his family and friends again, and experiences a surplus amount of emptiness and loneliness. I almost wanted to cry at this moment! Why couldn't the plane have looked down, then Brian would 've been saved!

Chapter 8 and 9

It seems as if after being lucky, the repercussions happen. Brian woke to something threatening. He thought of all the mythical creatures but settled for a snake or something. He waited then threw his hatchet when he felt a presence. it hit the wall and made sparks but missed the intruder. Pain surged threw his leg and the intruder left threw the door leaving Brian. He picked out the 4 spikes that could only come from a porcupine. He once again fell in self pity and started to cry, he couldn't handle it anymore. Once he was done he looked out and saw the sky turn a reddish color. Then an idea hit him, the hatchet made a spark hit the wall. The hatchet. The hatchet was the key to fire. He grabbed dried grass and twigs but neither of those worked, not even his 20 dollar bill. He looked around and finally found some bark on a tree that was coming off. He grabbed a bunch of it and went back. the sparks would catch but not on fire. He finally realized the last ingredient, he needed air. the first time he tried he blew to hard and the sparks went out, and then next time he blew just the right amount for the fire. He sudden;y realized that the fire needed more fuel, it was burning fast.He grabbed pine cones and twigs and was finally satisfied when the giant piece of wood caught on fire. He had made a friend, fire. Not only a friend, but a guard that would stop intruders. He was also satisfied with how the heat was kept in the shelter-rock. Amazing how Brian finally figured it out. I'm so excited to see what other tricks the Hatchet can do. Now that he has a fire and berries, he'll have the necessities of life, food,water, shelter and if your in the wilderness, fire. Under i have found a link to a boy who survived a meteorite straight to him. this reminds me of Brian because they both had to go through so much pain, but Brian is much more long lived.




>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Boy survived space meteorite ><<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Chapter 6 and 7

Chapter 6 starts off as a flashback with Brian's friend Terry and when they were younger they'd pretend that they were lost in the woods in the park where there was a lot of trees and they would name and list all the things they would do and bring. Brian wishes Terry was there with him but with matches and a knife. He comes back to reality and starts thinking of a way to find shelter. He decides to stay near the river so travels to they rocks near it. lucky for him up towards the northern part he finds a scooped out rock, probably caused by a glacier, that's not deep enough to be a cave but it fairly good and uses that as his shelter. He sat under the rock letting the nice shade. He felt weak, but also hunger. This story has a lot to do with hunger, probably due to the lack of food, it shows how we take life for granted with our fast food restaurants taking over almost every other block. He keeps thinking about food, like Thanksgiving when there was a giant turkey, only if he had that turkey now... I noticed how Brian is always comparing his problem to the ones in TV shows and movies, like now he thinks of a show where pilots got stranded in a desert and ate lizards, but this wasn't the desert. He stood up and started looking for berry bushes like how they did in the desert, but with beans. His mind wandered to the divorce but quickly left that topic, he didn't need that kind of stuff in his mind right now. He got to a tree with a lot of birds in it but soon they left leaving Brian with a tree full of unknown berries. he put one in his mouth then soon started to stuff them in his mouth. He was really hungry. Once his stomach was full, he picked a bunch and made a pouch from his jacket and brought them back to the rock/shelter. Now he needed a fire, he took 2 sticks and started rubbing them, but after 20 minutes they were still cold to the touch. he gave up on the fire and started on the shelter to make it more livable/safer. He took dead tree branches and sticks and wove them together and after 2 hours he finally had a wall to cover up the opening of the rock, and a door way of about 3 feet. He went inside while the sun was setting and fell asleep. Later he woke up with an abrupt pain surging through his stomach. He layed there yelling mother from the pain of the berries as if their pits bursted in his stomach. He crawled outside and threw up in the sand until all the berries were out of his system. Brian really should have been more aware of what he was eating, but then again hunger will do crazy things to you. He crawled back inside and thought back to the secret and how he was with Terry when he saw his mom with another man. he finally fell asleep again. He woke again in the morning and walked out and used sticks to cover up his mess that he made. It was just before dawn when he checked himself in the water. He was dirty and had cuts and scrapes everywhere, not to mention the 2 days worth of bug bites all over his face and body. That is where he was drowned in self-pity. He went and grabbed a handful of the berries that made him up-chuck or "gut cherries" as he now calls it. He washed them and ate them slowly, hoping to fend off the hunger for a little. he studied his shelter and after 3 days of living in the wild he is now referring to it as home. he started to look for better things to eat. 100 yards away from home, he had found raspberries. Brian smiled and started eating. he ate slow learning his lesson from before. It soon faltered when he looked next to him. A large bear came over, he examined the frozen Brian then started eating the Raspberries. Brian quickly turned and ran but then broke into walk after 50 yards when his brain finally came to its senses. If the bear wanted to it could have already hurt him. He went back later and picked a bunch of the berries and put then in his jacket. He sat in his home when it began to rain, after the rain he went to the lake to clean himself off a little then went to sleep with his hatchet right next to him, thinking about the bear. If I were in Brian's shoes when the bear came, I would have started to cry. He is a very brave boy for not freaking out really bad. i worry for Brian with what's to come. I wonder what would've happened if Brian were to get injured, like getting bitten by the bear or something along the lines of that. There is a link to a story about a toddler that survived after being half-eaten to death.














Toddler Survives after being partially eaten

Chapter 4 and 5

Brian is alive, but can't grasp what just happened. He is in total shock about everything, the pilot, the crash...the secret. In the morning when the sun is rising he wakes and starts getting attacked by mosquitoes and other little black flies that bite him to no end. He only has his torn windbreaker that doesn't help so by the time the the sun is high in the sky and the bugs disappear he is bit all over the face and arms leaving an itchy feeling ans swollen spots. He suddenly thinks of the  movies and how they never showed this part, getting bit, but then again the don't really have a 13 year old boy stranded with nothing either. He sat by a tree and noticed how beautiful the scenery was here where everything is green and blue here he is used to the grey and black of the city. Here he sat and just compared and contrasted the city to this then fell asleep again. A couple hours later he abruptly woke up from none other than thirst. Not just a small parch he was going to die without it. He went down the the L-shaped lake and started drinking, even though it didn't look like the beautiful springs in the movies. After his large gulps he threw up most of it but his quench for water was gone. he started thinking about who would start searching for him. His parents of course and they would search for him until the end of the world, so they will probably find him by the night if not the next day he was sure, but then a memory came up again of right before the pilot died, while he was having the attack, he pushed down on the right pedal a little which could have only changed the course a little but because of the the speed and distance the plane went he suddenly thought he could be way off course and they wouldn't find him for days. Then the hunger hit. sure he had water but that didn't stop the hunger from taking over. then he thought about the movies, by now the hero would have found an edible plant or make a cute animal trap and cook it over a fire. of course this wasn't the movies so he did not have this luxury.All that came to his mind was his English teacher Perpich. He would have said to stay positive and stay on top of things. Brian wondered how to do that but then his teacher also said to get motivated.He looked through his pockets but didn't find anything so he went to look for food. He kept thinking of a nice luscious hamburger and fries but it only made his hunger worse. Then he thought about what he'd do at night. there could be wolves and bears here maybe even watching him so he's have to make a shelter. He touched his hatchet, it was the only weapon he had but at least he had it. I noticed how Brian always compared his situation to the movies but then again who hasn't? I think that it's good that Brian is listening to his old English teacher and is staying positive and getting motivated. For example he now knows that they probably won't be here for a few days so goes and starts searching for a shelter. On the bottom, there is a link to a story of someone who had survived in the woods and had to scavenge for things like Brian.  

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>True Survival Stories<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<