Hatchet

These prompts can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before or after reading the novel.

Pre-Reading Warm-Up

Imagine you are going to spend 100 days surviving in the wilderness. You are allowed to choose ten items (other than your clothing) to carry with you. What ten items would you choose, and why?

Teaching Suggestion: Divide students into groups of three or four and have them reach a consensus of 10 items as a group. Walk them through reminders of basic human needs like warmth, shelter, food, and water as well as the steps necessary to obtain those things. You could also provide a list of items from which they can choose. Tell students that they must be able to carry the items (for example, they can’t choose to bring a grocery store, because it can’t be carried), and that there will be no possibility of accessing the Internet or cellular service.

• Alone, a History Channel TV show, follows contestants as they attempt to survive in isolation in the Canadian wilderness. Contestants are allowed to bring 10 items of their choosing. You may wish to explore the Alone website and view the types of items contestants bring, or even watch a segment of the show as a class to help students envision a survival situation.

Personal Response

Read the quote and free write in response to the questions that follow:

“When he stopped there was sudden silence, not just from him but the clicks and blurps and bird sounds of the forest as well. The noise of his voice had startled everything and it was quiet. He looked around, listened with his mouth open, and realized that in all his life he had never heard silence before. Complete silence. There had always been some sound, some kind of sound.” (Chapter 5, Page 51)

Write about a time when you experienced complete silence. Where were you? What types of sounds were absent? Describe how it felt and how you responded to the quiet. What did you think about? If you can’t think of a time when you experience silence, use your imagination to think of a situation of total silence for use in responding to the questions.

Post-Reading Analysis

1. Brian often creates new terms and names for things. For example:

• The Secret
• Gut Cherries
• Foolbirds
• Tough Hope
• First Meat

Choose one of the terms Brian created, either from the list above or a different one you remember from the novel. Why do you think Brian chose that name, and what does it mean? Why do you think Brian comes up with his own names for things? What purpose do his name choices serve collectively? Do you ever come up with your own terms or names for things or people? Explain.

Teaching Suggestion: If students share responses, class discussion can connect to Brian’s sense of individualism and changes in perspective.

2. Retrieving the survival pack from the plane seems like a simple task at first, but it ends up being a multi-day project. What are some other tasks we think of as “simple” that Brian has to work hard to accomplish out in the woods? Make a bullet-pointed list, then choose one task from your list and create a graphic that shows the many steps in the process of completing that task.

Teaching Suggestion: Allow students to exercise their creativity with their drawings and suggest different approaches they might take. Some possibilities include creating a comic strip-style graphic, an infographic that includes descriptions of each step of the process, or a graphic resembling those in an instruction manual. Encourage students to find the description of their chosen task in the novel, so that they won’t forget any details of the process Brian must go through to complete that task. Include in your class discussion about the chosen multi-step tasks and guides a connection to themes of Man versus Nature and changes in perspective.