Independence vs. Connection Theme Analysis

The opposing forces of personal independence and connection with the natural world play a key role in Brian’s journey. At the beginning of Hatchet, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is upset about his parents’ divorce but takes his immediate safety for granted, trusting the kind pilot to navigate to their destination in Northern Canada, where Brian is to spend the summer with his father. However, the pilot’s fatal heart attack creates a situation in which Brian is completely vulnerable and helpless, and from that point on, he longs to gain a sense of control over his difficult new circumstances. As his skills and experience develop, Brian also develops this stronger sense of independence, learning to rely on himself to survive in the wilderness. However, it turns out that simple self-reliance is not enough to allow Brian to truly thrive. Rather, Paulsen illustrates that in order to feel genuinely safe and at home, Brian must learn to connect deeply with his surroundings and give up the idea that he is separate from the rest of nature. Through Brian’s changing relationship with the wilderness around him, Paulsen argues that rather than being an end in itself, personal independence is instead a crucial step on the journey toward a meaningful connection with the rest of the world.

At the start of the novel, Paulsen foreshadows the conclusions that Brian will eventually reach about the limitations of personal independence. Before the crash, Brian imagines a sense of control over the situation that quickly turns out to be illusory. When the pilot offers Brian the chance to steer the plane, the experience of controlling the complicated machine distracts Brian from his troubles and prompts him to call flying “easy.” However, after the pilot’s heart attack Brian quickly realizes that his momentary perception of knowing how to fly is not enough to get the plane back on track. Similarly, Brian develops a careful plan to land the plane safely, drawing on all the facts he has about the situation. However, the plan becomes obsolete when the plane runs out of fuel much more quickly than Brian expected. This turn of events underscores the futility of trying to impose one’s own plans on the complex, unpredictable nature of the outside world.

After his initial despair after the crash, Brian revisits the idea of his own independence within nature. At first, his feeling of independence proves to be an essential means by which he gains the confidence to survive his early days in the wilderness. Taking stock of his assets, Brian at first thinks that he has nothing of value. Then, he remembers his teacher Perpich telling him: “You are your most valuable asset.” Remembering his own value and independence gives Brian the strength to begin finding food and shelter. Brian also uses the phrase “I am Brian Robeson” to stay calm, and he repeats basic facts about himself in order to focus on the tasks at hand. Throughout this early phase, individual identity is an important way for Brian to ground himself in reality and hang onto his courage. Later, when the rescue plane turns back without noticing Brian’s flare, Paulsen writes: “They would not come. He was alone and there was nothing for him.” This moment of extreme independence is painful for Brian, but it also pushes him into the next phase of his evolution, in which he develops “tough hope” and the ability to sustain himself in the wilderness. In this shift, Paulsen suggests that this sense of isolation is a necessary phase that Brian must move through in order to achieve true connection later on.

As Brian’s familiarity with the wilderness grows, his initial reliance on a sense of independence fades away. He develops a more nuanced view of himself as a component of nature rather than an entity apart from it. This shift highlights Paulsen’s argument that genuine safety and resilience, as opposed to simple survival, requires an understanding and acceptance of the interrelated nature of all things. An early hint of the coming change in Brian’s sense of self appears when he meets a bear while picking raspberries. Though terrified at first, Brian continues to contemplate the bear and realizes that it was only curious about him and did not want to harm him. Though still largely self-absorbed at the time, Brian later wonders whether the bear was surprised to see him, a thought that Paulsen notes as “the first time since the crash he was not thinking of himself, or his own life.” Gradually, Brian finds that his senses grow more acute and his mind and body are connected to the world around him in a way he has not previously experienced. Paulsen writes: “When he saw something […] he would truly see that thing, not just notice it as he used to notice things in the city.” Though he does not know exactly how or why, Brian perceives the boundaries between himself and the outside world breaking down.

Though independence gives Brian his basic survival skills, his newly sharpened senses and perception of connection give him a more sustainable way of existing in the wilderness. In particular, Brian applies this patient, open mode of being to his study of how to catch the elusive camouflaged foolbirds. When he finally learns how to recognize their unique shape in the underbrush, he is rewarded with his first taste of meat. This milestone solidifies Brian’s ability to thrive in the wilderness as a part of nature rather than simply survive there as an isolated individual. In contrast, when Brian finds a rifle in the survival kit just before being rescued, he reacts with discomfort, realizing: “It somehow removed him from everything around him. Without the rifle he had to fit in, to be part of it all, to understand it and use it—the woods, all of it.” Brian sets the rifle aside, choosing his newfound sense of connection over a shortcut to individual power. With this choice, Paulsen points to the necessity of surrendering independence in favor of interconnection, even when independence may seem to be the easier route.