The main theme that is seen throughout the novel Hatchet is man vs. nature. The main character, Brian Robeson, is flying to visit his father when suddenly the pilot has a heart attack. The plane crashes into a lake, and although Brian manages to get himself out of the plane and onto the shore, he is now stranded in the middle of the wilderness. He soon learns that to survive in nature, you have to learn to respect your surroundings. When Brian got hungry …show more content…
In his earlier time of settling down he thinks " in all his life he had never heard silence before. Complete silence. There had always been some sound, some kind of sound" (Paulsen 47). This shows how the sudden silence in the forest effects him.
In conclusion, Gary Paulsen uses themes in his novel Hatchet to give the reading a deeper meaning. By putting themes into text, it gives the reader a message to take from the text. The themes in Hatchet that I chose to analyze were man vs. nature, the power of positive thinking, and the natural world vs. the city. These all contribute to the possible messages that can be gathered upon a closer inspection of the