From a young age, Gary Paulsen was rounding up his own meals in the forest, but also providing his own clothing and shelter, too. He told TeachingBooks.net in a 2010 interview, “I was raised on farms by people who didn't have Wal-Mart. They had to make their own sleds, harnesses, clothing, etc.” The 54 days 13-year-old Hatchet protagonist Brian Robeson spends in the Canadian wilderness are based on Paulsen’s own late childhood and adolescence. During that time, he frequently “fostered” himself in the woods away from his parents, whose rocky marriage made Paulsen’s young life unhappy. Among other things, that meant he needed to find his own food, often by extending its definition. In his 2001 non-fiction work Guts: The True Stories Behind ‘Hatchet’ and the Brian Books, Paulsen talks foraging and scavenging (and goes beyond comparatively tasty mouthfuls of grubs) in the chapter “Eating Eyeballs and Guts or Starving: The Fine Art of Wilderness Nutrition," pointing out t
This article essentially details how to survive in the wilderness. It goes into depth on how you can only count on yourself and that you need to prepare for every possible scenario when spending time outdoors. The article stresses that you need to plan for the worst possible case scenario, planning on staying overnight and packing essential materials even if you are not planning on staying out all night. Two of the main items discussed in the article are the amount of water you need to intake and how to build a fire. If Brian had read this article prior to leaving on his plane trip, it would not have taken him nearly so long to start a fire. He also would have learned the value of resting instead of pushing himself to near exhaustion, as well as prioritizing: shelter or fire?
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