Brian's Return

“He had learned the most important fact of all, and the one that is so hard for many to understand or believe: Man proposes, nature disposes. He hadn’t conquered nature at all—he had become part of it. And it had become part of him, maybe all of him.”

Paulsen succinctly sums up one of the novels major themes: the power and unpredictability of nature. Brian recognizes and respects nature’s power and ability to catch him off guard. Although at different points in the novel Brian does not prepare adequately for possibilities nature may bring, he always learns from his mistakes. He is humbled and reminded of his place in the natural order, and sees himself as a part of his environment, not a conqueror over it. 

“He heard the sounds, nodded, tried to appear interested, but in the end, sitting alone in his room one evening, he realized that he couldn’t care less about any of it.” 

Brian becomes increasingly withdrawn despite his efforts to fit in with his peers. The activities that interest his friends feel meaningless to him because of the high-stakes situations he had to navigate in the woods. Paulsen illustrates that Brian has been changed by his time in the woods, and no matter how hard he tries, he will never be a typical teenager again.

“In that instant Brian totally reverted. He was no longer a boy walking into a pizza parlor. He was Brian back in the woods, Brian with the moose, Brian being attacked—Brian living because he was quick and focused and intent on staying alive—and Carl was the threat, the thing that had to be stopped, attacked. Destroyed.”

The fight in the pizza restaurant illustrates the fundamental changes in Brian’s identity. His survival instincts have not left him even though he has left the woods. This plot event acts as the inciting incident of the novel, necessitating Brian’s counseling sessions with Caleb, who in turn pushes him to return to the woods.

“I’m supposed to be helping you ‘recover your mental health,’ aren’t I? Well, it’s clear that for you to be mentally healthy you have to go back to the woods and find what you left there.”

Caleb, as a listener and friend, gives Brian the validation he needs that returning to the woods is the right thing for him to do. Having someone else in his life confirm his feelings gives Brian permission to do the unconventional—to trade a normal and comfortable life for one spent in nature and solitude.

“We’re down in the Cities now but once you’ve been in the woods—well, you can take the man out of the woods, but you can’t take the woods out of the man. We like to get back. Muskie fishing is just an excuse.”

The fishermen on the plane state in simple terms what Brian has been feeling and struggling with. Brian has the woods in him, and nothing can ever change that. Trying to fit in will always be frustrating for him because the woods are Brian’s home. The men also show that people who understand Brian’s experience do exist. 

“Brian decided he would still draw a line. If he went crazy and took everything available—guns, water makers, special clothing or gear—he would lose what he had found, the beauty, the connection with the wild that had come into him.”

Brian realizes he must find a balance between taking gear that will help him survive and maintaining his connection with nature. By cataloguing and explaining the items Brian takes, Paulsen shows that many of the modern conveniences and technologies people use for survival in nature may actually hinder their connection to nature. Brian goes to the woods to become a part of them, not to subdue them. 

“None of the things he had come to miss so much when he was in the woods before. They had all proved to be phony pleasures. He neither wanted them nor needed them in his life any longer.”

This quote signals the change that has taken place in Brian since his first survival experience in Hatchet. He used to long for particular foods like pizza and ice cream, but now those foods don’t hold the same allure for him. Brian is no longer that same person; he recognizes that the joy of being in nature, learning about his surroundings, and marveling at the beauty of nature surpasses any fleeting food cravings he may have.

“He did not hurry. He thought he might never hurry again and he quickly dropped into what he sometimes thought of as woods time. It wasn’t about time so much as about knowing what was happening and where it was happening. He often remembered the wolf he had seen moving through the woods, listening to everything, seeing everything, taking its time to not miss whatever there was to see.”

Paulsen highlights the time motif, showing that the sense of hurry that dominates everyday life for many people no longer applies while in the woods. Brian is not there to obtain a particular goal or complete a task; instead, he is there to observe.

“In half a second Brian went from being upright with not a care in the world, thinking how wonderful and grand everything was, to being upside down, lungs full of water, tangled up in canoe, gear, lily pads and mud.”

The incident of the deer jumping into Brian’s canoe is an illustration of the unpredictability of nature. Brian could never have foreseen such an unusual event, but in this case, he was prepared as best as he could be. This situation demonstrates Brian’s understanding that anything can happen in nature; although he cannot anticipate everything that that comes his way, he can make provisions for the worst.

“The fish boiled fast and was done in fifteen minutes. The rice took about half an hour. Brian picked the meat off the fish and put it in his metal cup until the rice was done; then he added the fish and some salt to the rice. He ate with a spoon, cleaned the pot well, then boiled water in the large pot to fill his two-quart canteen for the next day and furnish him with a cup of evening tea.” 

Descriptions such as this one are commonplace throughout the second half of the novel when Brian is in the woods. Paulsen describes Brian’s everyday routine, detailing the processes of fishing, cooking, setting up camp, and other daily tasks. The intentional repetition of mundane activities reminds the reader of the simple nature of Brian’s days. Although exciting and unexpected events happen, they are the exception. Paulsen highlights the theme of simplicity through his frequent descriptions of ordinary tasks, while presenting a contrast to Brian’s difficult and dramatic feats of survival in earlier novels in the series.

“Brian heard a hundred rustlings, rubbings, breaking of small twigs, brushing of hair against leaves. There, he thought, was a squirrel moving through trees, and there was a mouse or a rabbit moving over the forest floor—it was hard to tell them apart.”

Brian’s sight and hearing are particularly sharp, and because of his wilderness experience, he can identify sounds fairly accurately. In fact, one of his main reasons for returning to the woods is to observe the environment and learn more about it. Paulsen shows the importance of observation while in nature, both for survival purposes and for learning. 

“The water was absolutely still beneath the trees. He could see his reflection ahead of him and off to the side, so distinct it was as if he were gliding over a mirror. And the water was clear. On both edges were lily pad forests and beneath them he could see where schools of panfish lay hidden. Inside of half an hour he saw a muskie that had to be thirty or forty pounds hunting the edges of the pads.”

Paulsen uses imagery to describe the beauty of the pond through Brian’s eyes. Paulsen impresses upon the reader the untouched beauty Brian witnesses; this is something a photo could never capture. Part of what makes the pond so beautiful is its remoteness and the lack of human visitors to the area. That Brian sees his own reflection in the still water foreshadows his revelation that the wilderness is his true home and essential to his identity.

“Dear Caleb: Nothing much to report today, unless you count shooting yourself in the leg with an arrow.”

Once Brian is in the woods, Paulsen uses Brian’s daily journal entry to Caleb to begin each chapter. This structure foreshadows the events of the chapter and serves to pique the reader’s interest. For example, this quote hints that Brian is injured and entices the reader to continue reading to find out what happened. The entries to Caleb also allow Brian to process his days in the woods and compel him to describe his experiences, aiding his self-discovery.

“There. I’ve poked my leg, rolled down a bank and been hit in the head with the canoe. All simple things. All fixable things.” 

When issues compound due to the rainstorm, Brian demonstrates level-headedness. Instead of panicking, he thinks of one thing at a time to sort out what happened. Paulsen shows Brian’s character to be wise and experienced; although he wasn’t as prepared for the rainstorm as he could have been, his mindset allows him to stay calm and think clearly in a disorienting situation. This characterization is a typical feature of the survival and adventure genres.

“He had forgotten the most important thing about living in the wilderness, the one thing he’d thought he would never forget—expect the unexpected. What you didn’t think would get you, would get you. Plan on the worst and be happy when it didn’t come.”

Paulsen highlights the theme of nature’s unpredictability when Brian chides himself for failing to prepare for a storm. Even though Brian knows he should be over prepared, he fails in this regard on occasion. The storm acts as a reminder of nature’s power and is the catalyst Brian needs to take more precautions from that point onward. 

“It shook him, standing there on the side of a lake in the northern wilderness reading a love story written more than three hundred years earlier, to know how they felt, how they hurt.” 

When Brian reads a particular passage from Romeo and Juliet, his understanding of the characters’ emotions moves him. Paulsen suggests that Brian’s new appreciation for the story is due in part to his natural surroundings; reading the play aloud next to the lake provides clarity that Brian did not find the first time he read it.

“Brian waited until the wolf started its call and Brian matched it, harmonized with it, and they sang together that way, four more songs, a duet, boy and wolf in the moonlight, singing to beauty until at last the wolf grew tired of it and quieted.”

This moment highlights Paulsen’s use of imagery to describe Brian’s unique wilderness experience and his appreciation for wildlife. Moments like this are why Brian returned to the woods—to see, know, and be a part of nature. Paulsen’s heightened language emphasizes the intensity of Brian’s emotional experience.

“He did not sleep at first but lay thinking of the wolf and the moonlight and the loon and when he closed his eyes and sleep started to come he though he could see the wolf, or perhaps see as the wolf moving through the night, part of the night, the smells and sounds of the woods moving through the wolf like vapor, stopping to listen, moving on in a silent slide through the moonlight and forest, Brian and the wolf mixed, Brian-wolf, wolf-Brian.”

Paulsen develops the sleep motif through Brian’s dream of the wolf. The blending of Brian and the wolf suggests the collapsing boundaries between Brian and nature as he develops his sense of self. He has become a part of the woods with the ability to see and hear as the wolf does. Rather than fear the wolf, he joins it in song and dreams about viewing the forest through its eyes.

“It would have been an easy shot. A clean shot. You’re mine, Brian thought, and his throat seemed to choke with it, the excitement. Mine. The arrow was in the bow, so he raised the bow, drew the arrow, sighted it so he was looking over the broadhead straight at the deer’s heart, and then he paused again. He eased the string up and lowered the bow.”

Brian’s decision to spare the deer demonstrates his hunting morals. He knows he will not be able to eat all of the meat before it spoils, therefore shooting the deer would not be right. This highlights Brian’s respect for nature. Brian is not merely surviving in the woods; he has no need to conquer his environment but wants to embrace it. Still, Paulsen shows here how seductive notions of power and conquest can be—even for Brian.

“This, he thought, is what I have become. A hunter. The need to hurry disappeared, the need to kill was not as important as the need to see all there was to see, and he worked the afternoon away until evening, perhaps two hours before dark.” 

Brian’s way of hunting showcases the joy he finds in simply moving through the forest and soaking in his surroundings. Hunting for Brian is not about the result, but about the process. This quote relates to the hunting ethics motif, because it shows that hunting is more about the connection with nature than about the kill for Brian.

“It was your medicine deer, telling you the right way to go. […] I have a medicine crow that points for me. You have a deer to help you. Always listen to the deer.”

Billy introduces Brian to the concept of medicine, giving him a word to name a connection to nature to which Brian is already attuned. Billy’s explanation that they each have a particular animal guiding them through the woods suggests that nature recognizes and respects them as individuals. Through the idea of medicine, Paulsen shows the beneficial interconnectedness with nature that Brian has found and suggests that submission to the natural world is healing.

“If there had still been something of his old life left in him—and there may have been just a faint part of it—it left with the bear, left when he looked over the broadhead at the bear’s heart and knew that he was not afraid because he was as good as the bear, as quick, as ready to do what he had to do. Because he knew he could kill the bear, knew he would kill the bear, he didn’t have to kill. He was even with the bear. Even with the woods. Even with his life.”

Brian’s standoff with the bear helps him overcome any lingering doubts or fears he had about staying in the woods. His refusal to allow the bear to intimidate him shows Brian the inner strength he possesses. Brian now sees himself as an equal with his surroundings and is no longer chasing mental clarity or peace. He has found both in the woods.

“Billy was his medicine. The deer, perhaps, but Billy as well, and it hit him that when he’d met Billy he was meeting himself years from now, an old man who looked carved in wood moving through and with the forest, being of and with the woods, and he decided that it wouldn’t be so bad a thing to be.” 

Paulsen hints that Billy is Brian’s future, suggesting a kind of supernatural glimpse of who Brian will become. Up until this point in the novel, Brian has been unsure of whether he would stay in the woods or eventually return. After meeting Billy, however, that uncertainty doesn’t matter anymore. He will listen to his medicine and allow nature to point the way for him.