A teenage boy is angry with the
world. He blames all of his mishaps on other people, never himself. This the
case with Cole Mathews, the main character of the book Touching Spirit Bear. He is a self-centered individual with no care
for others, including his own parents. On one hand, his mom is a puppet who
never stands up for him, and for that, he hates her. On the other, his dad is a
drunk who is probably the one who Cole get all of his traits from. This man
doesn’t know his only son’s birthday, and beats him frequently, just as
frequently as he denies it. Cole gets into some trouble and is banished to an
island whose only other inhabitants are animals. During the book Cole’s anger
gets the best of him and he attacks the bear, possibly mortally wounding him.
Cole’s view of the world changes.
While Cole is subdued but conscious with his injuries, he starts to reflect on
life. He starts to realize that life is precious for him and he doesn’t want it
to end. Cole doesn’t particularly like his own, but he wants to hang on. Lying
in his own filth, Cole watches some baby birds and loathes, he notices they
have a mother that cares about them, brings them food when they can’t, and
provide them shelter. During a storm the storm a tree is knocked down and the
babies are killed. Sadness wallows up inside Cole as he realizes that life is
precious and he doesn’t want to die.
Garvey’s view of Cole changes as
well. Before the banishment Garvey likes
Cole, but doesn’t totally hop onboard with the fact that he wants change. After
Cole is injured by the bear Garvey starts to believe that his angry is starting
to wither away. The way that Garvey believes that Cole wants a second chance to
prove himself is enough proof that Garvey is starting to become friends with
Cole, Cole’s only friend. He tries to help Cole in every possible way but in
the beginning he didn’t try to hide the fact that he knew Cole was lying about
change.
Touching Spirit Bear is similar to
another story called Thank You Ma’am written in the 20’s. They both feature a
teenager that isn’t cared for by anybody and come home everyday to a non-loving
home. Cole is similar to Roger in the fact that they are both helped by almost
complete strangers in the beginning, tried to deny their help, but in the end
both coming out as different individuals. Roger was a poor boy who tried to
steal stuff for his own benefit, Cole hurt people. Stealing from people is like
hurting them in the sense that you are taking something that may help them get
through times, while hurting them is like stealing in the sense that you are
stealing some livelihood and happiness from someone. They both ended up kinder
and gentler folk.
Cole changed in many ways on the
island with the Spirit Bear. The most being the way others, specifically Garvey,
viewed him, and they way that he saw the world and life. Cole finally
recognized beauty on the island, and that showed same on the inside for him.
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