A Character Profile Of Cole Matthews In Touching Spirit Bear

I’ve never committed a crime, but author Ben Mikaelsen made me feel as if I was right there in the library waiting for my final judgement for beating a poor little kid.  The book “Touching Spirit Bear” and its sequel “The Ghost of Spirit Bear” are both books written by novelist Ben Mikaelsen about two boys and their intertwined life.   The first book takes place when teen delinquent Cole Matthews beats up a boy at school named Peter for telling on him.  Peter’s injury leads to a permanent speech impediment and because of this Cole goes to jail.  When Cole’s probation officer, Garvey, tells about a tribal version of punishment called Circle Justice, which is where the two people involved in the crime must heal together, and move forward from their quarrel, Cole jumps at the idea to get out of jail.  When this doesn’t work they decide to send Cole to an Alaskan island, which Peter is eventually sent to.  Eventually they become friends and they get past their problems.  It is the next book where they face challenges of going back to school and fitting in.

One character trait that greatly represents Trent is anger issues. Throughout the book, Trent exemplifies the characteristic of troubled or angered. One example of this is shown in Trent’s first gym class.” I threw the ball as hard as I could, across the gym. It smashed into the rack of soccer balls on the far end. Broke it. Balls everywhere¨(54,55). This shows that Trent has a hard time controlling his anger and releases it through anger. One of

In Ben Mikealsen’s novel – Touching Spirit Bear, Cole is a 14 year old juvenile delinquent from Minneapolis. He is a very angry, furious, fierce and violent boy who does not seem to have any control over his anger. Although he might be a very angry and impatient, he is also honest, strong, reflective and hardworking person by the end of the book. What is the cause of Cole’s anger? What helped Cole changed into a better person? What role does the Spirit Bear play?

One of his strengths is that he is strong and he just loves to get in trouble. He hates to be called champ. Cole has a very strong will. He has had some experience with fighting, he fought a lot of kids in school, he recently just beat up a kid named Petter. Cole hates his parents and is afraid of his father. Apparently his father beats him when he does something wrong, or gets in trouble. So far we don't know all Coles weaknesses but he hates being touched, called names, and hates getting told on. On page 15 of Spirit Bear it says why cole doesn't want to be called champ, it says, “”quit calling me champ,” cole mumbled “that's not my

I’ve never committed a crime, but author Ben Mikaelsen made me feel as if I was right there in the library waiting for my final judgement for beating a poor little kid. The book “Touching Spirit Bear” and its sequel “The Ghost of Spirit Bear” are both books written by novelist Ben Mikaelsen about two boys and their intertwined life. The first book takes place when teen delinquent Cole Matthews beats up a boy at school named Peter for telling on him. Peter’s injury leads to a permanent speech impediment and because of this Cole goes to jail. When Cole’s probation officer, Garvey, tells about a tribal version of punishment called Circle Justice, which is where the two people involved in the crime must heal together, and move forward from their quarrel, Cole jumps at the idea to get out of jail. When this doesn’t work they decide to send Cole to an Alaskan island, which Peter is eventually condemned to. Eventually they become friends and they get past their problems. It is the next book where they face challenges of going back to school and fitting in.

In Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen, Cole Matthews, the protagonist, is a troublemaker. He always has been. But, when he smashes Peter Driscal’s head into the concrete sidewalk, he ends up having to make a decision; prison time, or a year on a remote Alaskan island. But, that’s not the only crime he has done. This leads to me seeing him as a sociopath. Sociopaths tend to lie, break laws, act impulsively, and lack regard to the safety of themselves and others, all of which, he does.

Touching Spirit Bear is a very interesting book about forgiveness and redemption. The book covers the story of Cole Matthews, a juvenile delinquent who got exiled to an island for a crime he committed and how he learned to overcome his anger. While covering Cole’s path to redemption the book also teaches the reader many lessons about life. Some of the most important life lessons in “Touching Spirit Bear” are: “animals can teach people more about ourselves”(Mikaelsen,17), “forgiving isn’t forgiving”(Mikaelsen,38) and “life catches people off guard”(Mikaelsen,152)

In the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen he writes, “I’m sorry for you getting you into this...He shook his head. My fault! He whispered.” The quote shows that Cole is finally taking responsibility for his actions. Despite the fact that Cole scarred Peter Driscal for life and could go to jail for it, he shouldn’t because he never really got a chance after being mauled by the bear.

Cole Matthews asks readers, “’Do you know what it's like waking up every morning knowing you're not good enough?’” and many young adults do. Young adults will relate to the characters in Touching Spirit Bear. “Touching Spirit Bear” is a young adult novel written by Ben Mikaelsen. It is about a teenager named Cole who, instead of going to prison for beating someone up, does a program called ‘Circle Justice’ where he is sent to a remote Alaskan island to heal. When he gets to the island he tries to escape, and attacks a bear, which almost kills him. After recovering in the hospital, he goes back to the island and tries again, this time with a willingness to change. While he’s there, he learns about himself, nature, and gains a new appreciation for life and for himself. He learns to be a better person, and forgive himself, and he realizes to fully heal he needs to help Peter, the person he beat up, heal too. Peter and Cole heal together, and eventually become friends. Touching Spirit Bear is a compelling piece of young adult fiction that will do well on the shelves, and should be published. It will do well because it is relatable, it is well written, and it fulfils a need in the genre for realistic fiction in young adult literature.

Conflict shapes people's lives in many different ways, somethings that conflict can shape are our emotions, and personal beliefs. Cole emotions were scattered and mixed up throughout the book. Cole has lots of regrets in life, one big one is beating Peters head into the ground. Now does Coles anger get out of hand? Cole expresses anger through dancing anger away. One thing about Cole that is misleading is Cole does not trust anyone who is not afraid of Cole. So this makes Cole very uneasy and sensitive when things go wrong. The name of this book is Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. In the book by Ben Mikaelsen, inside Cole lies rage and anger Coles gets away with anything except for when he beats up Peter Driscal, and this is the last

Conflict appears to be a pervading theme in the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, for a young delinquent by the name of Cole Mathews. After a troubling life at home that lead him to a path of destruction and hatred, Cole gets shipped off to an isolated island. He gets attacked by a bear and quickly needs to learn his place in the scheme of life to survive. Not only does Cole have to face death after being brutally mauled by a spirit bear, he also has to chose who he wants to become, face his abusive parents, and make things right with an innocent boy he wrongly attacked. Overtime the reader realizes there is much more to Cole than what meets the eye and that he is intertwined with multiple conflicts.

In Ghost Of Spirit Bear, the conflict is Cole vs. Society. “‘ A two thirds majority vote is needed for the passage of this proposal,’ the chairman announced. ‘Tonight’s vote is seven in favor and two opposed’” (Mikaelson 146). Cole is needing to change the mind of the society which is the school, the circle, and the school district to allow the mascot to change to the spirit bear. Second, in Touching Spirit Bear, the conflict is Cole vs. Himself. “Rage controlled his tight grip on the match. It controlled the defiant flare of his nostrils and the striking of the match against the box. . . . The gas ignited, and flames spread quickly into a steady blaze that crept over the boxes” (Mikaelson 25). In the beginning of Touching Spirit Bear, Cole lets his rage get to him, he didn’t know how to control himself. “In death there was no control, no anger, no one to blame, no choices, no nothing. To be alive was to have choice, the power to choose was real power, not the fake power of making others afraid. Cole knew he had used that fake power many times. All of his life he had squandered his choices, wallowing in revenge and self-pity, keeping himself down. Now, as he lay near death, those he had hated were safe and warm. Those he had blamed were still alive and well. He had hurt himself most. Life was empty and meaningless unless he found some meaning” (Mikaelson 83-84). Cole is realizing that when he thought he was hurting someone

In Ben Mikaelsen novel,”Touching Spirit Bear”,Cole Matthews is a violent 15 year old juvenile offender.In the majority of the beginning part of the book,Cole is lost in pit by not controlling his actions and not learning from his mistakes.”Anger keeps you lost”,Cole hasn’t really realized that,but he is starting to realize that he is making terrible choices that are hurting him.Cole was angry when he thought about how he had no one to care for him.Another example of his frustration is when he didn’t get anywhere by trying to escape by swimming.He said that someone was going to pay for what happened,that is the problem he always is trying to get angry at someone for something he did.The last example that I am going to explain is when he said

The novel Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen. This story follows the life of a juvenile delinquent named Cole Matthews. He gets into trouble when he bashes Peter Driscals head into a sidewalk, which makes him receive a harsh punishment. It is either prison or an island supported by the Circle Justice. While he is on the island, he experiences a mauling from The Spirit bear, a mythical creature that lives on the island. Now, Cole is having to not only has to heal physiologically, but physically on the island he was mauled on. Cole can never truly heal unless he helps someone else. In this case, he needs to help Peter.

The conflict the protagonist faces is man vs. higher power, I know this because when cole tries to kill the bear on page 41 the bear is a higher power than Cole and the bear is also nature because man vs. nature he had been sent to the wild in Alaska where there are a lot of animals like bears he might attack cole that he would have to face. Cole has been accumulated wounds of fighting nature and tries to retaliate against almost everything barely bothering him, now nature is the one cole is fighting, he doesn’t like nature or anyone else and even a little man vs society because he doesn’t think anyone cares for him “that’s how Cole felt- he didn’t owe anyone anything. Nobody had ever cared for him” and if nobody cared for him, therefore