Hatchet By Gary Paulsen Character Development

Brian Roberson, 13 years old, the main character of the novel Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, is forced to mature and act as an adult after he founds himself alone in the middle of nowhere. At the beginning of the novel, Brian is flying in a small plane to the oil fields of Canada to visit his father. While he is in the plane he is frustrated because of his parents’ recent divorce. The divorce and a secret are keeping him unhappy; everything he cares and thinks about is this. After the pilot of the plane, the only other person in the plane, has had a heart attack, Brian is unable to act. He acts as a 13 year old boy, he is motionless and frantic.
“FOR A TIME that he could not understand Brian could do nothing. Even after his mind began working and he could see what had happened he could do nothing. It was as if his hands and

As it is said by Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson and Stefanie Mollborn in the article “Growing up Faster, Feeling Older: Hardship in Childhood and Adolescence” “...adulthood is marked by qualities of character such as responsibility. [...] When children and adolescents take on a level of responsibility that is understood as more typical for those at older ages, [...] young people begin to feel like adults. Certain responsibilities during childhood and adolescence can be expected to challenge cultural understandings of these life stages as relatively carefree and dependent upon others.”
Brian has to fly the plane, land as best as he can and then, clearly, survive in the middle of nowhere hopping he will be rescued as soon as possible. Anyway, after he has spent some days next to the L-shaped-lake he has been able to land next to, not only his body but also his personality and mind start to change. He learns how to survive, he finds berries, he builds a shelter, and he learns how to fish, hunt and make fire. A quote from the novel will help us understand his