Hatchet1 essays

Hatchet1 essays The theme of the story Hatchet is determination, perseverance and survival. Brian Robeson, whose parents are divorced, flies to visit his father in Canadian wilderness. His pilot has a heart attack and dies. Brian managed to land the plane in a lake, and escape unharmed. Now comes the hard part, surviving in the wilderness until rescued. He does have one tool to help him, a hatchet that his mother had given him as a gift. He will have to use it, his own determination, imagination, perseverance and common sense to survive. This flight to see his father in the Canadian wilderness is Brains first time in an airplane. He explains this to the pilot and tells him that he is scared. The pilot feels sorry for Brian and decides to show him that flying is not very difficult. He lets Brian take the steering control and direct the line of flight for awhile. Just when Brian thinks that everything is going well, the pilot has a heart attack and dies. Brian knows he must land the plane himself or die. He tries to use the radio without success. He knows that if he hits the trees, he can die, so he decides to land in the water of a lake. When the plane is in the water, he gets out through a window. He lay on the bank of the lake for a while to rest. Brian knew he needed food and shelter to survive so he set out to find both. He was very careful not to get lost or go too far from the lake where his water was. He found a cherry tree and because he was very hungry, he ate his fill. He filled his windbreaker with cherries to eat later and then managed to find a cave for shelter. He slept very well, but in the morning when he awoke, he saw a bear in the cave. He was terrified, because the bear was only about 20 feet away eating his cherries out of his windbreaker. The bear only looked at Brian and then left. The cherries must have been enough to curb his appetite! The discovery of how to make a fire was very ...

Prester John - Important Figure for Geography

Prester John - Important Figure for Geography In the twelfth century, a mysterious letter began to circulate around Europe. It told of a magical kingdom in the East that was in danger of being overrun by infidels and barbarians. This letter was supposedly written by a king known as Prester John. The Legend of Prester John Throughout the Middle Ages, the legend of Prester John sparked geographic exploration across Asia and Africa. The letter first surfaced in Europe as early as the 1160s, claiming to be from Prester (a corrupted form of the word Presbyter or Priest) John. There were over one-hundred different versions of the letter published over the following few centuries. Most often, the letter was addressed to Emanuel I, the Byzantine Emperor of Rome, though other editions were also often addressed to the Pope or the King of France. The letters said that Prester John ruled a huge Christian kingdom in the East, comprising the three Indias. His letters told of his crime-free and vice-free peaceful kingdom, where honey flows in our land and milk everywhere abounds. (Kimble, 130) Prester John also wrote that he was besieged by infidels and barbarians and he needed the help of Christian European armies. In 1177, Pope Alexander III sent his friend Master Philip to find Prester John; he never did. Despite that failed reconnaissance, countless explorations had the goal of reaching and rescuing Prester Johns kingdom that had rivers filled with gold and was the home of the Fountain of Youth (his letters are the first recorded mention of such a fountain). By the fourteenth century, exploration had proved that Prester Johns kingdom did not lie in Asia, so subsequent letters (published as a ten-page manuscript in several languages), wrote that the besieged kingdom was located in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia). When the kingdom moved to Abyssinia after a 1340 edition of the letter, expeditions and voyages began to head to Africa to rescue the kingdom. Portugal sent expeditions to find Prester John throughout the fifteenth century. The legend lived on as cartographers continued to include the kingdom of Prester John on maps through the seventeenth century. Throughout the centuries, the editions of the letter kept getting better and more interesting. They told of strange cultures that surrounded the kingdom and a salamander that lived in fire, which actually turned out to be the mineral substance asbestos. The letter could have been proven a forgery from the first edition of the letter, which copied exactly the description of the palace of Saint Thomas, the Apostle. Though some scholars think that the basis for Prester John came from the great empire of Genghis Khan, others conclude it was merely a fantasy. Either way, Prester John profoundly affected the geographical knowledge of Europe by stimulating interest in foreign lands and sparking expeditions outside of Europe.