Hatchet | Themes

Hatchet Themes

Survival

Survival is the main theme in Hatchet and is addressed in two ways: physical survival in the wilderness and mental/emotional survival in the aftermath of divorce.

How someone survives is as individual as a fingerprint yet it is one of the most universal emotions for humans. Nature survives through physical death and rebirth. Trees fall, animals die, brush burns. Humans, though, shed emotional layers in the way they survive. Hatchet forces the reader to really think about what he or she would do if abandoned in the wild.

During his ordeal, Brian finds out what he's made of inside and out. Where he was once flabby, he is now lean and muscled. Even his pale skin has changed to the color of burnished wood. His emotional being follows suit. At the time of the crash, Brian Robeson is a timid boy holding a secret inside. The two months that follow...
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