Adversity and Growth Theme Analysis

At the start of the book, Hatchet’s protagonist, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, is a privileged city boy who is accustomed to the comforts of home and shocked at the unexpected changes brought about by his parents’ divorce. Brian initially views such adversity as a negative force that ruins the things he values. However, after a tragic plane crash that leaves him stranded alone in the Canadian wilderness, Brian finds himself facing much greater adversity than before. Through this extreme challenge, he eventually comes to understand that when combined with perspective and courage, adversity can be a source of positive change rather than pure destruction. Through his depiction of Brian’s personal evolution, Paulsen argues that while adversity can be a powerful catalyst for growth, it is not on its own enough to cause profound change in a person. In order to grow through adversity, an individual must meet challenges with patience, thoughtfulness, and hope.

Brian’s despair at the book’s start demonstrates his initial inability to gain perspective on his difficulties. To Brian, his parents’ divorce is all-consuming, and at this early stage, he is unable to imagine it as anything other than a force of destruction and ruin. Even as he is immersed in the new experience of flying in a plane above beautiful scenery, Brian can’t stop contemplating his parents’ divorce. Paulsen describes Brian’s interpretation of the word “divorce” as “a tearing, ugly word […] the breaking and shattering of all the solid things.” After the crash, Brian’s first reaction is to focus on what he lacks, echoing his despair and pessimism over his parents’ divorce. Considering what he’ll need to survive, Brian perceives himself to have no assets at all, thinking: “It kept coming back to that. He had nothing.” This simplistic view of events underscores Brian’s initial immaturity and inability to find anything positive in his challenging situation. Even after gaining some early mastery of his surroundings and attempting to find ways to survive, Brian continues to feel sorry for himself and focus on the destructive results of his situation. He sees his reflection in the water and, reacting to all the ways that he has been harmed, cries “long tears, wasted tears, self-pity tears.” Although Brian’s feelings are understandable given the circumstances, Paulsen’s word choice and description of these tears as “wasted” highlights his argument that for Brian to grow from his painful experiences, he will have to move past self-pity and find a more productive way to interpret the adversity he faces.

As Brian’s ordeal continues, his perspective slowly shifts from one of victimhood to one of empowerment and agency. After admitting to himself that his self-pity is holding him back, Brian gradually teaches himself glean lessons from the challenges he faces. In this way, he transforms his experience into one that brings him both a greater chance of survival and greater personal satisfaction. As his adversity increases, so too do the rewards he finds by looking for the benefits within his new challenges. After being attacked by a porcupine, Brian thinks repeatedly that he “can’t do this” and succumbs to a final bout of self-pity. However, this time he comes out of his despair with the new understanding that “feeling sorry for [himself] didn’t work.” Though he remains tempted by self-pity after this point, Brian’s acceptance of its futility is a crucial turning point in his ability to survive. Immediately after the episode with the porcupine, Brian’s newfound commitment to searching for wisdom in his challenges allows him to discover how to make fire with the hatchet. By rewarding Brian with the crucial tool of fire so soon after his rejection of self-pity, Paulsen promotes the idea that a positive mindset is a necessary component of growing through adversity.

Brian’s ability to maintain this new mindset is tested by greater and greater setbacks during the rest of the novel. When the rescue plane flies away without seeing his smoke signal, Brian is so overcome with despair that he contemplates suicide, but rather than giving in to misery as he has in the past, Brian emerges knowing that “the disappointment cut him down and made him new.” Abandoning hope of a speedy rescue, Brian instead finds a fresh resolve that he calls “tough hope,” which rests not on an external savior but on his ability to take care of himself. Brian’s survival skills increase dramatically as a result of this “tough hope,” indicating that it is a superior, more useful mode of thought than playing the victim. The most dramatic example of Brian’s ability to find strength within disaster comes when the tornado destroys Brian’s camp. Instead of despairing over what he has lost, Brian notices that he can now access the sunken plane and, through grueling work, he finds within it the resources he needs to finally get home. Brian’s rescue comes only when he has genuinely learned to survive without it, again underscoring Paulsen’s argument that determination in the face of adversity is essential for true growth.

By the novel’s conclusion, Brian’s priorities and perspective have undergone a profound shift. His newfound familiarity with life’s most essential needs—food, shelter, survival—helps him reinterpret adversity as a force for building strength rather than breaking it. Brian’s changed priorities are a crucial piece of his success in escaping the wilderness. Excited by the prospect of searching the plane after the tornado, Brian remembers to slow down and eat before beginning, thinking: “First food, then thought, then action.” Paulsen indicates that approaching his difficulties with thoughtfulness and careful observation has made Brian more able to confront change with wisdom. When Brian at last reaches his family after his ordeal, the thought of his mother’s affair no longer seems to hold any power over him. Although “The Secret” haunted him at the beginning of the book, Brian has grown enough to recognize its relative unimportance, and he does not bring it up with his father. What once seemed an insurmountable force of destruction is now just another part of Brian’s life, a change that again underscores the importance of the individual’s interpretation of adverse circumstances.