Cole Matthews's Touching Spirit Bear

Improved Essays
In Touching Spirit Bear, I think Cole Matthews has character traits similar to those of a bear. One similar trait I noticed is how dangerous a bear and Cole can be. At first sight you would think that a bear is the most dangerous and violent creature to inhabit it a forest. It’s the same concept with Cole. People see him and are frightened because of his mean, gruff looking appearance. In Touching Spirit Bear, page 7, chapter 1, the narrator states, “Still, no one ratted on Cole Matthews without paying the price.” This relates to a bear because when someone first sees a bear, they challenge its skills and try to ward it off. That someone would then, most likely, end up mauled and severely injured by the bear. Another trait of a bear that

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Cole did not respect the bear however, he tried to kill him. The bear did not sit well with this and instead mauled Cole. Cole was left in severe pain and bleeding vigorously. The bear broke Cole’s ribs, a leg, ripped open his flesh, and permanently destroyed one of his arms.…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the beginning of the novel, Cole behaves cruelly when he becomes emotional. He starts this book out angry, his thoughts toward Garvey and Edwin are terribly rude and mean. You can tell that he is a mean boy with a huge attitude. Touching Spirit Bear starts out with Cole in cuffs on his way to the island, this same time he acts out when the older men talk to him and he spits on Edwin trying to make him mad at Cole.…

    • 547 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why are you doing that! Peter asked. He tried to run you over!” That shows that Cole is learning to forgive and he is forgiving Keith for his actions. The theme of Touching Spirit Bear was to always take responsibility for your actions.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the article "Did you bring the bear spray dear?” published on Nov 17th of 2008 the author, Chris Selley interviews experts on bears and bear attacks and in order to know how common are black bear attacks and how to prevent them and how to act if someone finds himself or herself face to face with a black bear. Most bear attacks occur in natural environments rather than urban spaces and in North American only a small number of those attacks are lethal. Expert on bear attacks, Stephen Herrero, says that most attacks of black bears often occur in backwoods and per year only 2 of those attacks are lethal in North America. However if people find themselves face to face with a black bear then they should analyze the situation and react depending…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He was also only had underwear on! He could’ve been dead after that terrible decision. Even if he wasn’t in the water for that long, he could’ve still been freezing on land. One of many other foolish decisions that Cole makes is that he attacks the Spirit Bear because it defied him. Why would anyone attack a 700 pound bear?…

    • 981 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the craziest things hes done was threaten and kill the spirit bear(page 44) but at the end the bear literally crushes his body and nearly kills him. Thats insane he even thought about killing the spirit bear because the spirit bear was stronger, faster, and fitter. The reason he threatens to kill the spirit bear was because he was angry the bear showed no fear and didn't back down(page 44). Cole even says “The mauling didn't make sense everything had been always been afraid of him. Why wasn't the bear scared?…

    • 1318 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He truly believed that nothing was going to get better, until tragedy struck. As he nears what he thinks is death, he undergoes many sudden changes. These changes that occur prove Cole Matthews to be a dynamic character in Part 1 of Touching Spirit Bear. Throughout the book, Cole thinks a lot about his family, his idea of trust, the differences between life and death, and the choices he has the power to make. At the beginning Cole shows to be stubborn and bitter but, as the book progresses, he changes a lot.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Author of Touching Spirit Bear, Petey, and Ghost of Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen has written many novels and won many awards, “such as the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America, Inc., and the Children’s Book Award from the International Reading Association, both in 1991 and both for the book Rescue Josh McGuire” (Benson, Sonia).” Mikaelsen bases his stories from mostly his own experiences. He says, ‘I can go to libraries and get a lot of my research, but I’ve never found the soul of my story in a library. Not until I was laying awake at 4:00 in the morning trying to bottle-feed a cub that was almost starved to death. In that struggle--...…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chris Mccandless

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages

    He believed he was a courageous and thought he was destined to do this even as a little kid, but it was pure determination. In The Call of the Wild by Jack London the text states, “The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, and under the fierce conditions of trail life grew and grew. Yet it was a secret growth. His newborn cunning gave him poise and control”(28). McCandless,as a kid, showed he was impulsive to the ideas that came to his mind.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Coming from a broken family where his father drunkenly abused him and his mother ignoring the situation, Cole grew in a negative environment. “He (Cole) laughed as he saw fear in Peter’s eyes” (Page 7). Cole Matthews enjoy picking on and being feared by others so he can cover his own fears; such as when he gets physically abused by his father. His actions and behavior was not his fault.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Circle Justice vs. US Criminal Justice System By: Kayla Have you ever read the book Touching Spirit Bear? Touching Spirit Bear is a novel about a troubled, teenage boy named Cole Mathews, who almost gets sent to jail, but many people help him in Circle Justice where he is banished to an Alaskan island for a year. After the year is over, Cole has changed and regrets his past decisions. He helps heal his school from suicide and bullies to help those around him.…

    • 527 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    All I know is I don’t ever want to have a kid and beat him up” (132). Most of Cole’s life consisted of always blaming his father for everything, but in this passage, Cole doesn’t blame him. He tries to understand his father’s story. He recognizes that he is worse than his father because at least his father hasn’t been in jail. Despite all the beating his father put him through, he decides to break that chain of violence by deciding not to be violent towards a kid of his own.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses, a 16-year-old boy named John Grady dreams of becoming a cowboy even though stuck in the mid 1900s, long after the frontier period has ended. The book follows John Grady’s quest for his ideal life as a cowboy and can be divided into four distinct parts following the four chapters. During each of these quarters, John Grady gains qualities which form him into a mythic western hero. In the first chapter, John Grady runs away from home and acts in the way he’d believe a cowboy would.…

    • 1227 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bently Bear Short Story

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This is Bently, Bently Bear. Bently was no ordinary bear, he was a friendly bear. Bently played tag, hide and go seek, and soccer with his friends everyday at school. Bently was kind to everyone and he would include everyone in his games. Everyone loved Bently.…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Bobcat-Personal Narrative

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Three weeks ago my family was laying down dirt, and we had to take down a tree so we hooked a chain up to it, and there was a power line hooked up to the tree, but we did not notice it. When we pulled the tree down and the power line came down with it, so we called the electric company, and they came, and turned off the electricity. When the electric company came and turned off the electricity, they told us to be careful next time so we did, and we were extra careful so we did not, knock down any more power poles. After we got done laying down the dirt, we all got to drive the bobcat. It was fun, but we had a big responsibility of listening to what the parents were saying, and them telling us how to run the bobcat.…

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays