My Friend Named Fire

Fire has been used by man to stay alive and aid in other aspects of living since the beginning of time.  It is a tool nature has generously given to us that we are to not take for granted.  In the novel, Hatchet, a thirteen year old boy named Brian is suffering a divorce between his parents.  While being a solo passenger in a single engine air plane the pilot has a heart attack leaving young Brian alone in the aircraft.  He somehow manages to land the plane in the middle of a lake in the woods.  Beaten up but not dead Brian makes a small shelter in the woods hoping that help will come soon to rescue him.  The only tool he has on him is a small hatchet.  After a relatively short time period in the wilderness Brian realizes that he desperately needs a fire to stay alive.  He uses his hatchet to strike a rock to create sparks on some dry brush he gathered to create a flame.  After hours and hours of work Brian had finally done it, he made fire.  Brian now became extremely attached to this fire, he never wanted to leave it for fear of it going out.  He felt as if this fire was the only thing keeping him alive.  But this fire turned into more than just a physical flame.  It became a friend to Brian.  Brian at this time was going through a very lonely segment in his life.  His parents were in the middle of a divorce which was very depressing for him and just to top it off the poor kid was stranded in the middle of nowhere thinking he probably was going to die.  This fire represented life to him.  It was the closest thing he could get to a person being there with him.  It almost acted like a person to.  This fire did favors for him just like a person would do favors for another person.  It kept him warm, he was able to cook food over it, and it kept the mosquitoes away at night as well as other animals.  Brian felt a human like bond with this fire.  It was a friend to him at a crucial part of his life.