Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books

In Chapter 2, Paulsen aims to satiate his reader’s interest in the inspiration behind the graphic moose attack in Hatchet. “So many readers demanded to know specific incidents—when and where I was attacked by a moose…” Paulsen writes (Guts: Foreword). Chapter 2 sets the scene as spring in northern Minnesota. Paulsen is 12 and has recently acquired a .22 rifle. He is out hunting grouse when a moose charges him from behind. He can only close his eyes in response. When he opens them, the moose is attacking a small Christmas tree nearby, and he sneaks away marveling at the insanity and madness of the moose.

A year later he is sitting in a farm truck with the farmer when a moose appears and rams the truck repeatedly, eventually wandering away after destroying much of the grill and the radiator. “There seems to be a river of rage just below the surface in moose that has no basis in logic, or at least any logic that I can see,” Paulsen quips (Guts: 39).

In a third moose encounter, Paulsen is fishing from a canoe when he comes upon a moose in the lake. The animal pushes a hoof against his canoe: “One second I was sitting there and the next I—and all of my gear—was in the water beneath the canoe, rod still in my hand, eyes wide open” (Guts: 39).