Hatchet

Some time has passed since the airplane flew by. Brian is now so good at catching fish that he has tired of their meat. Instead, he hunts “foolbirds,” which taste like chicken. As he hunts a foolbird, he notices an unfamiliar presence. He turns and sees wolves staring at him. Brian’s fear quickly dissipates as he acknowledges the wolves’ power. He smiles and nods at the wolves, and they turn and leave.

Brian thinks about how much he has changed since “he had died and been born as the new Brian” (115). He recounts the depression that overtook him after the plane left; he took his hatchet up to the ridge and tried to kill himself. The next morning he awoke and saw the blood from the hatchet wounds and “hated the blood, hated what he had done to himself when he was the old Brian and was weak” (117). He decides to never be that weak again, to not “let death in again” (117). He calls the time before the suicide attempt the old time and everything after is the new time.

After his suicide attempt, Brian doubled down his effort to make a bow and arrow.