A heart attack, a dead pilot, and a plane crash, together equal pure disaster. What exactly would most people do? Perhaps laugh? Cry? Become hysterical? Or maybe wet yourself. For me, it would definitely be all of the above. But in my favorite book, “Hatchet”, Bryan Robenson took a different perspective. Thanks to his background in nature and survival, he was able to survive his time in the wilderness by going on dangerous adventures and surviving on his own.

Bryan had marvelous skills in nature. Before his parent’s divorce, Bryan would go on camping trips with his dad. There they would fish, sit around the fire and talk, normal camping things. In fact, the reason why Bryan was stranded was because of the divorce. He was going up to Canada to go camping with his dad, but then the pilot had a heart attack, the plane crashed and all mayhem broke loose. But thanks to his skills in nature, the survival techniques kicked in.

His survival skills helped him to do and act wisely. Such as setting up a fire and setting up a shelter. Good thing he had his hatchet that his mom gave him before he left home. That was his most reliable tool. It helped him craft a bow, some arrows and a fishing spear. Using these tools, he was able to survive using those tools. His survival skills made him make decisions and go on dangerous adventures.

He needed to survive, and order for him to do that, he needed one thing: food. He hunted deer, rabbits, and anything else that he could find. Fishing was a little bit more trickier. He had to remember that when he was spear fishing, the water refracted his spear which would cause him to miss. But once he remembered this, it benefited him very much. This helped him survive longer by getting the protein that he needed.


His nature and survival skills, and adventures helped him live. This is one of the many reasons why I like this book. It is full of tons of suspense and action. So, after all the heart attacks, dead pilots and plane crashes, and time spent drying pants, hopefully I would have been able to make it through those long hours and days and not ending up a nut case. After reading this book, I admire Bryan and somewhat wish I was him. It just goes to prove that a background in nature can help a lot in the long run.