Summary for Hatchet
By Gary Paulsen

Hatchet is a story about a boy whose parents get divorced and his dad moves to Canada. The story starts with Brian Robeson in a plane going to visit his dad. Then as they are flying the pilot has a heart attack and Brian has to fly the plane on his own. But when he tries to land in an L shaped lake he crashes into the trees and then in the lake. The plane starts to sink and Brian has to get out. He gets out and tries to find a place for a shelter. After a while he finds a shelter. He has no food so he tries to find some. He finds some berries that he calls gut cherries because they made him throw up. Then he finds some raspberries but as he is picking he hears a growl, so he turns around and sees a bear! The bear did not attack him but he ran back to the shelter.

Next he tries to make a fire, but he can’t figure out how. At night a porcupine sneaks into Brian’s shelter, so he tries to throw his hatchet. When he does the hatchet hits the wall and makes sparks. The sparks scare the porcupine, so it hits Brian in the knee with its tail. The next morning Brian realized that he could make fire with his hatchet. Then he made a spear that he tried to fish with, but he didn’t catch any fish with it. Then he makes a bow but he doesn’t catch any fish with that either until he remembers that water reflects the object. Later he builds a gate to keep the fish, a shelter door, (because he was also attacked by a skunk) and a berry store room. Then he tries to get some fool birds, but every time he gets near one it flies away. So he memorizes the shape. Then he moves slowly sideways when he sees the bird he shoots it and kills it. Then he cooks the bird, and as he is eating he remembers the plane’s survival pack.

He builds a raft to get to the tail of the plane, (which was blown up by a tornado). He uses his hatchet to cut into the plane, but he drops his hatchet into the water. After a few dives he sees his hatchet sticking out of the mud. He grabs it and swims to the surface. Once inside the plane, he dives down and feels some canvas. He tries to get the bag out and when he is swimming up he sees the pilot’s face that was being eaten by the fish he had been eating. When he gets back up to the raft he paddles back to his shelter and sleeps. In the morning he goes through the survival pack. It contained a transmitter, but it doesn’t seem to work. So he decides to have a feast. He makes three orange drinks and as he is drinking, a bush plane lands by the lake. They eat the food and then Brian goes home!