Touching Spirit Bear
“Touching Spirit Bear” Essay
In the book “Touching Spirit Bear” there are a many themes one of the most evident ones is what goes around come around .Cole Matthews is banished to a remote Alaskan island as punishment for beating his classmate Peter Driscal almost bad enough to kill him. Being banished on the island is a old native tradition of the Tlingit peoples to help turn around troubled youth. During Coles first stay on the island he is mauled by a pure white bear about a day after he has arrived. After the attack Coles views on how the world works are changed. And he is granted permission to travel to the island for a second time to prove he can manage his anger.
An example of this theme was during Coles first stay at the island he ends up burning all his supplies and shelter believing that he would escape the island by swimming. During his second stay there he has to build his own shelter and pawn his things to pay for supplies. Edwin tells Cole that he will not help because by burning down the shelter he had built, it was hurtful that Cole would burn it down to the ground. By burning down the shelter Cole had only hurt himself, now that he was responsible for building his own shelter it wouldn’t mean as much to Edwin or Garvey if he chose to burn it down.
Another way this is evident in the book is during the time Peter is on the island with Cole he attacks Cole closer to the end of the book. Peter attacks Cole as a form of payback for what Cole had done to him. This shows how much pent up anger Peter has towards Cole. This also shows the what goes around come around because Peter had beat up Cole just like Cole had done to him, with the exception of how brutal the beating was. This helped Peter get over what Cole had previously done to
In the book “Touching Spirit Bear” there are a many themes one of the most evident ones is what goes around come around .Cole Matthews is banished to a remote Alaskan island as punishment for beating his classmate Peter Driscal almost bad enough to kill him. Being banished on the island is a old native tradition of the Tlingit peoples to help turn around troubled youth. During Coles first stay on the island he is mauled by a pure white bear about a day after he has arrived. After the attack Coles views on how the world works are changed. And he is granted permission to travel to the island for a second time to prove he can manage his anger.
An example of this theme was during Coles first stay at the island he ends up burning all his supplies and shelter believing that he would escape the island by swimming. During his second stay there he has to build his own shelter and pawn his things to pay for supplies. Edwin tells Cole that he will not help because by burning down the shelter he had built, it was hurtful that Cole would burn it down to the ground. By burning down the shelter Cole had only hurt himself, now that he was responsible for building his own shelter it wouldn’t mean as much to Edwin or Garvey if he chose to burn it down.
Another way this is evident in the book is during the time Peter is on the island with Cole he attacks Cole closer to the end of the book. Peter attacks Cole as a form of payback for what Cole had done to him. This shows how much pent up anger Peter has towards Cole. This also shows the what goes around come around because Peter had beat up Cole just like Cole had done to him, with the exception of how brutal the beating was. This helped Peter get over what Cole had previously done to