Hatchet Characters Analysis

Brian Robeson - He is the protagonist of the Hatchet. The book follows the thirteen-year-old teenager as he learns to survive in the wilderness without access to any significant tools. Over the course of the book, Brian becomes more patient, optimistic, and tenacious. Brian displays some of these qualities at the very outset of the book, as he is forced to land the plane in a lake after the pilot has a heart attack.

Pilot - The pilot of the small bush plane that Brian takes to visit his father has a heart attack during the journey. Before he has a heart attack, the pilot gives Brian a small tutorial of flying, which proves essential to Brian's landing the plane with little injury.

Brian's mother - Brian stays with his mother after his parents' divorce, and he is supposed to visit his father during the summer. She gifts him a hatchet before he takes the plane, and it becomes Brian's only tool of survival. Brian is also aware that she is having an affair with a man, and that is the reason why he believes that she forced the divorce on his father.

Terry - He is Brian's best friend, and Brian often thinks of his friend as he struggles to survive. He remembers the time Terry and he had played a game about what they would do had they been stuck in the wilderness. Brian also realizes the first step of creating a fire when his father and Terry come to him in his dreams.