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!