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   akannan Teacher
   Middle School

   eNotes Editor

   At this point in the novel, Brian's primary change is the development of his notion of "tough hope."  We start seeing that while Brian is still hopeful that he will be rescued, he becomes animated by the idea that survival is the most important element in this situation.  His sense of mental toughness and resolve seems to be increasing at this point in the novel.  For example, the opening pages of chapter 13 talk about how "there were things to do."  Brian is not wallowing in the self hate and self pity about his condition and not being rescued.  Rather, he is driving himself to do things to keep his mind on surviving and not being pinned underneath the weight of hope that might not arrive or be delayed in its emergence.  He begins to collect turtle eggs for food, and also starts to collect more wood for the fire, while cleaning up the camp area.  Paulsen states that "the more things there are to do, the depression seemed to leave."  This indicates Brian's emergence to this idea of "tough hope," a belief he will be rescued, but an equally compelling need to survive the elements.  He realizes this change within him, which allows him to think about how to trap fish for a greater food source and develop wooden spears to trap the fish.  We can also see Brian practice more and not get discouraged about catching such a food source.  Showing this resilience, Brian also discovers the birds, "foolbirds", as a source of food as well.  Finally, when Brian no longer is scared of the elements, able to stare down the wolf, we see a completely changed form of identity from what we was when the plane went down in the early chapters.

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   Posted by akannan on Saturday August 29, 2009 at 6:44 PM