Touching Spirit Bear Character Analysis

Learning The Lessons Of Life

In the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen the author discusses the idea of lessons. There are positive and negative lessons to be learned from the novel however the main focus is on the positive lessons. The most positive lessons are responsibility, trust and discovering yourself.

In the novel one of the positive lessons I focused on was responsibility. When Cole returns home from his first time on the island after being mauled, Cole’s mother starts to take responsibility for most of Cole’s anger problems. Cole was neglected and treated as though he was unloved by his parents for most of his life. All of Cole’s life he was beat and unloved, his mother was drunk all the time and his father was violent,
Cole starts to trust himself, trust his decisions and believe in himself. Since Cole has been sentenced to one year banishment on this island his self confidence went drastically down. He shut himself down and ignored everyone who cared about him and wanted to help him out of his stressful situation. Cole has started to gain trust in himself because of the island, Edwin and Garvey, and the Spirit Bear. Cole begins to trust his mother after she went to court and charged Coles father with abuse. Cole’s mother stopped drinking and started to regain her relationship with her son and starting showing Cole how much she actually loved him. All of Cole’s life he felt as if his parents did not love him and did not care about him. Cole’s father’s anger problems caused him to be violent and beat Cole, hard. Cole’s mother just tried to ignore what was going on by drinking. She was just as scared as Cole was if not more. Cole’s mother was mostly drunk out of her mind, she drank away her fear and depression until she realized how hurt Cole actually was. After Cole got mauled by the Spirit Bear his mother went to court and charged Cole’s father with abuse and as a result Cole let his mother back in and started to trust her again. Cole finally started to trust Edwin and Garvey because they were the only people really putting in an effort to help Cole. At the beginning they were the only ones that cared about Cole. The first time Cole was sent to the island he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Garvey or Edwin. All he wanted was to escape from the island. Cole thought that they did not actually want to help him. Cole thought they were just paid to. Once Cole got mauled by the Spirit Bear he had forty-eight hours to think about everything, most importantly Edwin and Garvey. Once Edwin came to Cole’s rescue he knew right then and there that Edwin and Garvey