A.J Wiesman 2/22/12

“Through the Storm”

            Authors Note: The theme survival is universal it can mean multiple things in a book this piece is to explain how the theme survival in the book “Touching Spirit Bear” by Ben Mikaelsen is portrayed in different ways throughout the novel.

           

 When someone says survival what do you think of? The theme survival in book generally means physically surviving in the outdoors and is a very universal theme in books like “The Hatchet” or “Touching Spirit Bear”. Ben Mikaelsen adds some different elements to the theme as well as physically surviving.

             

Right away the book jumps into the physical aspect of surviving. This is shown after Cole beat the heck out of the other kid and has to go and survive on the island with a bear that will really put him in his place. Cole thinks that he can make the bear be scared of him, but the bear has other plans and Cole has to cope to survive.

             

Contradicting physically surviving Cole needs to battle himself and survive mentally. Not far into the book Cole starts to go a little crazy and tries to swim off the island. You would have to be a little crazy to try and swim off of an island especially in Alaska. This shows that he starts to have to battle himself to survive because if he were to go any crazier he could end up killing himself.

            

 The elder puts it in a perspective of physically and mentally surviving when he says to Cole "Animals feel the same way. Don't forget that. You aren't the only creature here. You're part of a much bigger circle. Learn you place or you'll have a rough time."  This quote shows the theme survival first physically by summing up that the bear will kill him if he doesn’t respect it. Mentally the elder is telling Cole that he needs to think for a while and fins his place before something even worse happens.

 Survival is definitely the most obvious theme is Touching Spirit Bear. The author was very clever in how it was portrayed physically and mentally to really set in the theme. Survival is shown in many ways throughout the novel.

A.J Wiesman 2/22/12
Dude you need to Think

Authors note: This creative essay is to show cause and effect in the point of view of a different character from a different story

Dear Cole, this is Ty Lewis writing to you about the effects you are casing on yourself because of the action you take without thinking. When you beat the crap out of that kid you weren’t thinking and you know it. If you were thinking of the effects that would have on your life you might have just walked away and let it go. In a way though your punishment affected you life in a good way.

The major cause was that you were dumb enough to beat the kid to a pulp so badly you permanently crippled him. The effect from that was you had to go to the island for a long time to fend for food and water. This made you go mad and you tried to swim off the island just to be carried back in by the current.

This all could have all been avoiding if you thought about the stuff you do and the possible effect I think you would be a lot better of a person and people would think a lot better of you. You seem like you don’t care at all, but you have to admit that you would wish people would stop calling you criminal or a bum. The island changed you so in the end you got lucky that the effect affected you in a good way.

The Big Picture

 Authors Note: This is a piece on the quote when the potbellied elder tells Cole"Animals feel the same way. Don't forget that. You aren't the only creature here. You're part of a much bigger circle. Learn you place or you'll have a rough time."

I feel the biggest quote of the book is on the first cover page. It is the potbellied elder basically telling Cole that he need to change. Before that Cole was a careless I'm "gonna" beat you up for reason I don't care type of guy. Without the old man telling col about this he might have never change, this is the most important quote of the whole book.

This was most important because it is Cole's affinity of what he need to do.. Without it Cole would have been probably killed by the bear. This almost sums the whole moral of the story up in just a few lines. The moral of the any story is the purpose of the whole thing. In some book's the moral is stared in a quote from teh story the is a clear case of that.

This quote is a great one for any story. When I opened it up and saw it on the first page, I really knew that it was the most important part of the story. Really this quote is awesome in hit me straight on and I knew that's what i wanted to write on. This quote is the absolute most important of the whole entire book

It's all about Location

It’s all about Location
Authors Note: This is a speech I prepared to explain the importance of the setting from the book "Touching Spirit Bear".

To me this book is all about location, not directly but it is the biggest aspect of the book “Touching Spirit Bear”. When Cole beats the heck out of the other kid and is sentenced to a year in prison or a year on an isolated island with a wild spirit bear you feel how the book is going to move forward. If Cole would have chosen prison and he would he would have never learned the lessons he learns on the island and he would still have the mindset the he’s right all the time and anybody who doesn’t think so shall be beaten to a pulp.

                 

On the island setting he sees a spirit bear and want the bear to afraid of him like other people. He throws rocks at the bear. The bear came back and beat him to a pulp. Cole starts to realize that the bear is more powerful than him and the bear has dominance and he must listen. This gets Cole thinking about how he could be wrong in his home life and that other people have the same feelings and should be respected This  would have never happened if the book had a different setting.