“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph” - Thomas Paine. Conflict is what makes most stories exciting and worth reading. Two of the main characters from Ben Mikaelsen’s novel Touching Spirit Bear, Cole Matthews and Peter Driscal, undergo a great deal of internal and external conflict throughout the story. Cole and Peter also handle their conflicts in different ways, positively and negatively, throughout the story. Touching Spirit Bear includes many conflicts that all fall under three main types. The three conflict types are, person vs. self, person vs. person, and person vs. nature.
To begin, on page 7, Cole and Peter go through a conflict early on. Cole beats up Peter slamming his head onto a sidewalk leaving him with …show more content…
Cole is sent to this island for one year to deal with his mistakes, but all he plans to do is escape. Before Cole is sent to the island alone, Edwin, a Native American elder who was once on the island to reflect on his mistakes, warns Cole to respect the natural world and that there's a huge white mystical bear called a Spirit Bear that might show up. Cole is brought to the island and awaiting him is a shelter and many supplies. Immediately after he is left alone, Cole burns all of the supplies and the shelter and tries to escape swimming in ice cold water to the next island. The tide pushes him back to shore when he becomes exhausted after realizing for every 1 stroke he takes, he gets pushed back 2. Cole plans to escape again, but before he can he sees the white spirit bear. Cole did not respect the bear however, he tried to kill him. The bear did not sit well with this and instead mauled Cole. Cole was left in severe pain and bleeding vigorously. The bear broke Cole’s ribs, a leg, ripped open his flesh, and permanently destroyed one of his arms. Cole faces death in this person vs. nature conflict. In the time before he is rescued by Edwin and his parole officer Garvey, Cole does a lot of thinking. He thinks about his life and all the mistakes he has made. On pages 96 and 97, after the bear had mauled Cole, the author gives some insight into Cole’s thoughts. “A strange thought occurred to Cole: the world was beautiful. Yes, the world was beautiful….He wondered why he had never noticed this all before. How much beauty had he missed in his lifetime? How much beauty had he destroyed?” Cole reacted to this conflict very positively. It taught him so much! It taught him to not take his life for granted and it also made him feel very sorry for
To begin, on page 7, Cole and Peter go through a conflict early on. Cole beats up Peter slamming his head onto a sidewalk leaving him with …show more content…
Cole is sent to this island for one year to deal with his mistakes, but all he plans to do is escape. Before Cole is sent to the island alone, Edwin, a Native American elder who was once on the island to reflect on his mistakes, warns Cole to respect the natural world and that there's a huge white mystical bear called a Spirit Bear that might show up. Cole is brought to the island and awaiting him is a shelter and many supplies. Immediately after he is left alone, Cole burns all of the supplies and the shelter and tries to escape swimming in ice cold water to the next island. The tide pushes him back to shore when he becomes exhausted after realizing for every 1 stroke he takes, he gets pushed back 2. Cole plans to escape again, but before he can he sees the white spirit bear. Cole did not respect the bear however, he tried to kill him. The bear did not sit well with this and instead mauled Cole. Cole was left in severe pain and bleeding vigorously. The bear broke Cole’s ribs, a leg, ripped open his flesh, and permanently destroyed one of his arms. Cole faces death in this person vs. nature conflict. In the time before he is rescued by Edwin and his parole officer Garvey, Cole does a lot of thinking. He thinks about his life and all the mistakes he has made. On pages 96 and 97, after the bear had mauled Cole, the author gives some insight into Cole’s thoughts. “A strange thought occurred to Cole: the world was beautiful. Yes, the world was beautiful….He wondered why he had never noticed this all before. How much beauty had he missed in his lifetime? How much beauty had he destroyed?” Cole reacted to this conflict very positively. It taught him so much! It taught him to not take his life for granted and it also made him feel very sorry for