Brian's Hunt

Brian’s Hunt is the fifth and final novel in the Brian’s Saga series. The first novel in the series, Hatchet, was published and 1986 and won the John Newbery Medal in 1988. Knowledge of Brian’s past survival experiences is helpful for understanding his character and the expertise he exhibits in Brian’s Hunt.

In Hatchet, Brian is the sole passenger on a bush plane that crashes in a lake in the northern Canadian woods when the pilot suffers a heart attack. The pilot dies, but Brian survives and must stay alive and hope that rescuers locate him. Brian’s mother gave him a hatchet right before he left on his trip that serves as his only tool of survival. Brian undergoes many challenges as he learns the dos and don’ts of life in the woods. He relies on his previous knowledge, trial and error, luck, and grit to survive. Brian encounters mosquitos and a skunk, and he battles starvation, but he also learns how to build a fire, catch fish, and make a bow and arrows for hunting. Although each small step and skill is hard-won, Brian finds beauty and satisfaction in his survival lifestyle. Brian is eventually rescued after he recovers supplies, including a radio, from the remnants of the plane.

The three novels published between Hatchet and Brian’s Hunt are accounts of various times in which Brian returned to the woods. In The River, published in 1991, Brian returns to the woods with a man named Derek who wants to learn the methods Brian used to survive after the plane crash. Derek is hit by a lightning strike, and Brian must transport the unconscious adult to medical attention by building a raft and navigating rivers and lakes. The River, similarly to Hatchet, revolves around an intense survival situation that Brian must face on his own.

Brian’s Winter, published in 1996, is an alternate ending to Hatchet. It considers the possibility of what Brian would have faced if he had not been rescued at the end of Hatchet and had to survive the winter in the woods. At the end of this novel, he finds his way to the Smallhorns, a Cree trapper family that lives in the woods for part of the year. He stays with them for a few weeks before a plane comes to take him back home. Brian keeps in touch with the Smallhorn family, who are central characters in Brian’s Hunt.

Brian’s Return, published in 1999, tells the story of one of Brian’s voluntary returns to the woods. Brian struggles to fit in at school and in society because of his survival experiences, and a psychologist named Caleb suggests that Brian must return to the woods to determine where he belongs and his path in life.

Brian’s Hunt is set two years after Brian’s experiences in Hatchet. He returns to the same general area in which the plane crashed, although not the exact same lake or campsite where he stayed in Hatchet. In the two years that passed since the crash, Brian has advanced considerably in his outdoor know-how. He has spent a great deal of time alone in the woods, so tasks that used to be difficult or foreign to him are now second nature. Brian’s Hunt does not focus on the challenge of survival in the woods; it focuses on Brian’s unique connection with nature, his character development, and the wildness and unpredictability of nature. Although Brian struggles with the loss of his friends and the Smallhorns, and faces the challenge of hunting a bear, he navigates  these difficulties with skill and maturity. Paulsen shows that despite Brian’s many experiences in the woods, he is still learning, growing, and changing. The woods are his home, and perhaps always will be, and he must be willing to adapt as he pursues an outdoor lifestyle.