Every so often, I like to publish exemplary student work. This essay is from my sixth grade student, Aidan. If you want to read more student work, click the tab above that says All Yours.
Survival Comparison Essay
by Aidan
In Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, Brian struggles to survive, but during this struggle he learns a few things that real people today try to teach. Today we talk about survival and a few things we learned are how to make a fire, If you want to survive you actually have to do something, and in a crisis or after we should stop slow down and think about what happened. In Hatchet Brian shows a lot of what we learned when he was surviving out in the wild.
Out in the wild one thing you really need is a fire. It provides light, warmth, and a way to cook food or purify water. In an article called Survival by the number, It says that when making a fire you should always recall the 3 elements of the fire triangle. In Hatchet on page 85 Brian recalls the fire triangle from his studies in school. “He shook his head, tried to focus his thoughts. What did it take? You have to have fuel, he thought-and he had that. The bark was fuel. Oxygen-there had to be air.He needed to add air. He had to fan on it blow on it.” In the end Brian got his fire giving him warmth and protection from the mosquitoes.
When surviving, you need to want to survive and If you want to do that you have to work. In Survival by Numbers It says that the only person you can count on while surviving is yourself. You have to work if you want to survive and you can’t expect anybody to do it for you. To lift the weight off your back. In Hatchet, chapter 8 Brian cries when a porcupine attacks hima and afterward the mosquitos attack him. After crying for a long time Brian realizes something. Self pity did not work. After crying his leg still hurt and nothing had changed. From this he learned that feeling sorry for yourself didn’t help and that he had to work and do stuff to actually get work done.
When a crisis has happened what you have to do is stop and slow down. Think about it for a while. Panicking won’t help anybody. In an article called What Would Peter Do?, It shows a man going out to hunt some elk.When he loses the elk tracks, and can’t find his way he starts to panic. Then he thought, What would peter do?. Peter was a guy that had told him about survival. The guy followed a few steps in this order. “Get off of your feet and sit down. You can’t walk when you’re sitting on your butt – and that’s good! Have a drink of water. It will calm you down!” “Stay there for at least thirty minutes! It takes at least thirty minutes, for the adrenaline and cortisone that put into a flight or fight mode, to flush out of your system. During this time you are just reacting – not thinking! Once your fears have subsided and your head clears you’ll be able to make better decisions regarding your situation.” In Hatchet, During the crash landing Brian starts to panic. He quickly kept his mind on focusing and head for the lake. After the crash Brian finally starts to think. Instead of panicking he kept his thoughts small and positive getting through the day.
Brian had learned a lot of the things we learned from these articles and did a lot of the things from the article to keep him alive. After all this it left Brian changed in many internal and external ways. Teaching him the natural way to make fire, making him rely more on himself and using less self pity, and Think about the situation carefully are just a touch of what he learned and of what he did right and what he did wrong.
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