Cole's Banishment

“The dances, carving the totem, carrying the ancestor rock, touching the Spirit Bear, it was all the same thing, it was finding out who I really was.” - Cole(page 283) Throughout the book we see Cole go through a huge change.

In the beginning of the story, Cole was defiant and reckless. This showed when he severely hurt Peter because he had ratted him out. Cole was not thinking of the outcome when he did this. It also was showed when Cole tried to escape the island as well as when attacking the spirit bear. Cole never thought that he wouldn’t make it off the island from high tide or that the spirit bear would fight back so fiercely. Cole had said to the spirit bear “Keep staring, I’ll kill you.” Doing this he angry and wouldn’t stand down, but rather protected his reputation even with no one around to see what he was doing. Cole showed that he was inhumane, never thought about the consequences, and reused to obey others.

The book “Brian’s Return” was written by Gary Paulsen. It was published by the Delacorte Press in New York, New York. It was manufactured in the United States of America in 1999. This book is a fiction book. He dedicated this book to Alana for taking care of Linda.

It is due to Charlie’s frequent arguments with his Mother and advice from his Father that he learns to be diplomatic and control his emotions. For example, when Charlie’s mother is angry at him for sneaking out of the house at night Charlie could’ve just kept quiet and taken his punishment, but he kept arguing back out of anger, further winding up his mother until she forced him to dig up a hole, fill it back up again, and then go to bed without dinner. After this his father gives him the valuable advice to sometimes let the other person win the argument and make it better for both parties, which Charlie takes to heart. Learning to control your emotions and be diplomatic even when you disagree is a key part of growing up and maturing.

The author writes “Mind if I wound up head of the class, would you?... Fat chance you’ve got, anyway, with Chet Douglass around (Knowles 24).” When Finny said that Gene had a chance at beating Chet Douglass, it started his obsession of being head of the class. Gene says “I became quite a student after that. I had always been a good one, although I wasn’t really interested and excited by learning itself, the way Chet Douglass was (Knowles 24).” Gene did well in school and always has been a strong, exceptional student. The difference between Chet Douglass and Gene was the dedication and love to do extraordinary in school. The key to being the best student in school was hard work and passion. After realizing that, Gene decided to be someone he was not: Chet Douglass. Gene says “Now I became not just good but exceptional, with Chet Douglass my only rival in sight (Knowles 25).” Gene was fixated on being an outstanding student, beating Chet Douglass. Naturally, Gene was satisfactory in school until he was set on beating Chet at his own game. Difficulty finding his identity, Gene changed himself to be exactly like Chet, just like he did with Finny. In the article “An overview of A Separate Peace” Anne Hiebert Alton writes “Gene's never acknowledges that the real enemy is within himself.” Pushing his identity problems further away, Gene tries to be other

“Your greatest self has been waiting your whole life; don’t make it wait any longer.”(Maraboli) When you make that decision in your life that you aren’t content with where you are, it finally clicks that you need to get up and make that change in your life. Giving yourself the power to go in any direction and being able to make the decision on how your attitude will affect your day. Knowing your self worth even at the lowest points in life that when you want to be great, you will be. It may not be easy to climb out of your lowest points because you start to make excuses for yourself on why you could never be happy again. Thinking that it just isn’t meant for you to be successful after the depressing times you have been through. Similar to, “Fight Song,” Rachel Platten wrote this song at her worst times in her life, but used it to remind her not to give up, that she believed in herself and still had fight left. The rhetorical devices used in Rachel Patton’s “Fight Song” are intended to reveal to the listener that to empower yourself, the listener needs to make those changes their life for their own happiness.

After Cole learns the value of life, he wants to make up for every mistake he had done in the past and looked to improve. After recovering from his injuries, he is again sent to the island and the first improvement he made, was that he did not try to escape from the island when he was not monitored. He chose to face the consequences, rather than running away. The next improvement he made was, he tried his hardest to get his anger into control. He followed Edwin’s and Garvey’s advice and techniques such as, soaking into the pond, rolling down the ancestor rock and his anger down the hill and dancing by the fire each night. Eventually he stopped blaming others for his mistakes. The next improvement he made in his life, was that he made Peter to come to the island and made sure he saw the wonders and value of life. “There is one way to help him,” Cole blurted, but his voice was drowned out as Edwin revved the engine to steer the boat out away from the rocks. “You are not listening!” Cole screamed across the water. “I can help him!” (Page 202) He apologized to Peter and shows that he feels sorry for all the problems he had caused to his life. He changes into an honest, hardworking, reflective and trustworthy person. Cole has learned from his

I am assuming that these two men, Garvey and Edwin, had been much like Cole and they too learned how to control their anger and make their choices in life better.

This quotation meaning is everyone individual values are all different because we all have different standards, a real life example is in this story. The parents of Jeannette Walls are homeless, living on the benches in the park, when she is up living in a New York City highrise.

Charles also believe that “No matter how close two people eventually become they always begin as strangers”. I can relate his theory to my personal relationship with my boyfriend. On my first date with my boyfriend, we both felt like a stranger because we did not know anything about each other each. And I also had high uncertainty because I was nervous talk,

Brian’s Return is about a man named Brian, he volunteered to go on a camping

Charlie was a man that did not know how to stand up for himself. He allowed his peers to bully him, and treat him like he is worthless. Charlie thinks that if he allows people to laugh at him, and tease him, they will become his friend. He thinks “Its easy to make frends if you let

In the meeting, each person in the circle gets a chance to openly express their feelings about Cole and his violent crime. When it’s Cole’s turn to speak, he falsely announces that he is sorry for everything that he had done. He says, “‘Uh, I’m Cole Matthews, and I’m here because I really screwed up”’ then, “‘I know what I did was wrong, and I want Peter to know I’m sorry for everything.”’ Later, the text says “it wasn’t like he had meant to hurt anyone. Besides, this wouldn't have happened if Peter had kept his mouth shut.” This reveals that Cole does not take accountability for his actions, and instead blames Peter for getting in trouble after Cole robbed a hardware store. This is harming Cole because it is slowing down his healing process. By blaming his fate on others, he grows deeper and deeper into the dark, when he really needs to get back into the light. It will take Cole a lot of grit to realize he is to blame for all that happens to

I believe that at the end of chapter 1 in the book we are meant to feel that Cole is a very mean person. Also that he thinks he is better than everyone and he is superior, the evidence to show this is on page 4 when it states “Still standing on the dock in front of everyone, Cole smirked as he undressed.” This piece of evidence shows that cole thinks he is better than the people because he is smirking as he undresses in front of them. Another piece of evidence to show that cole thinks he is better than everyone is on page 5 and it says “Nothing could be farther from the truth. To cole this was another big game.” This clearly is showing that cole thinks he is better than everyone he takes everything as a game he doesn’t really realize what is

The quote listed to the left is significant because it shows how Charlie, the main character fails to recall the unclear and perplexing events that transpired in his younger years.