Imagery

“The visits brought faint chirping sounds. This was a mother bird feeding her young. Up there on a branch, barely spitting distance away, little sparrows rested dry and warm having food brought to them in the comfort of a nest built by their mother.” (pg. 75)

“Lightning stabbing down with long probing fingers. The rumbling thunder started crashing and exploding.” (pg. 77)

Symbol

Mikaelsen shows symbolism through the animals that appear in the book. A wolf appears walking along the shores of the beach on the island Cole lives on. The wolf on the island represents Cole, and the way he acts. All on its own, a wolf can not gain support or rely on others to help it. However, wolves also can travel and hunt in packs. In a pack, the power of a wolf increases, and they can help each other out in need. Cole starts out as someone who puts up a wall between him and others. His actions prevents himself from obtaining his full potential. When he begins to listen to the advice from Edwin and Garvey, Cole learns how to get things done and heal internally. A wolf symbolizes the potential Cole possess if he ceases his efforts in isolating himself from others.

Vocabulary

Defiant- Bodily resistant or challenging (adjective) Antonym: obedient. Synonym: daring. Original sentence: He was aggressive and had a defiant attitude. From the text: “Cole Matthews knelt defiant in the bow of the aluminum skiff as he faced forward into a cold September wind” (pg 3).

Banishment- to expel from a place or country (noun) Antonym: including. Synonym: deportation. Original sentence: He was sentenced to banishment from his town. From the text: “In the rear of the skiff sat Edwin, a quiet, potbellied Tlingit elder who had helped arrange Cole’s banishment” (pg 4).

Smoldered- to show uncontrollable anger (verb) Antonym: to be happy. Synonym: fury. Original sentence: The man was smoldered. From the text: “But could he control his anger? Even now it smoldered” (pg 129).

Theme

One theme from this book is violence is never the answer. Cole was a stubborn boy and was always getting into trouble. After everything he has done, it was hard to forgive Cole. After finding out that Peter Driscal ratted him out for committing a crime, he got into a fight and smashed Peter head into a sidewalk. Cole’s only option left was going to jail, but that was the last thing Cole wanted. Instead he agreed to spend a year of banishment in Alaska, where he would be left alone to his thoughts and have time to heal. Over the course of the year Cole encountered a Spirit Bear and was severely injured trying to fight it. Cole learned that he wasn’t the strongest thing out there anymore and he had to respect that. Later, after hearing that Peter attempted suicide, Cole invited him to stay and heal on the island with him. Peter was still angry at Cole. He even pushed him into a freezing cold ocean, and Cole was not happy, but after being on the island for so long, he remembered that violence is never the answer.

Mood

The feeling of the book Touching Spirit Bear changes drastically throughout the novel. In the beginning, the mood hopeless and the readers believes there is no hope for Cole. He seems like a mean bully and this gives off bad vibes but at the same time you see how hard is life is with his parents so you feel some compassion for him. After Cole gets attacked by the Spirit Bear the mood of the book changes completely. Cole begins to become the person you wanted him to be. He actually wants and tries to survive and get through this point in his life. From here on the mood and feeling the book gives off is happy and ambitious.

Quotes

“The mauling didn’t make sense. In the past everything had always been afraid of him. Why wasn’t the bear scared” (81).

This quote is an important part of the story. Cole has just tried to attack the spirit bear. However instead of cowering away as he expected, the spirit bear turned and nearly killed him. Now as Cole is lying nearly dead on the ground, he is thinking about the attack. This is a crucial part of Cole’s growth through the Circle Justice.

“A strange thought occurred to Cole: the world was beautiful. Yes, the world was beautiful….He wondered why he had never noticed this all before. How much beauty had he missed in his lifetime? How much beauty had he destroyed” (114)?

This is another quote from when Cole is lying on the ground after being mauled by the spirit bear. He has been lying there for awhile now. In this position, he learns his vulnerability in the scheme of things. Cole is finally excited to see and embrace everything around him in his life. This is the first time he has had this experience and he is appalled by the feeling.

Cole: “Peter is never going to forgive me”

Garvey: “Think how much your arm and hip still hurt. Wounds of the spirit heal even slower” (276).

This quote is between Cole and Garvey. Cole learns a valuable less about how closely knitted the body and spirit really are. He has gone through his own pain and loneliness on the island, and now he is able to compare Peter’s experience to himself. This is vital in him learning both sides of the story.

“The dances, carving the totem, carrying the ancestor rock, touching the spirit bear, they were all the same thing- it was finding out who i really am” (283)

This quote comes near the end of the novel. It summarizes the book’s title, and every other event in the novel. Everything that has happened to cole, on and off the island, were just part of him learning who he is, and every action he or someone does, helps another person find out who they are and what their purpose is.

“[Cole] couldn’t stop wondering why he had been born and thinking about all the twisted events that had brought him to this moment. It seemed a bizarre dream to be standing alone on this rocky hillside in Alaska with a round stone at his feet, his mind filled with thoughts so totally different from anything he’d known running around on the streets back in Minneapolis. He felt like a new and a different person.” (198)

Cole is thinking this as he is standing on top of the hill with the ancestor rock. After all this time being alone on the island, and everything he has learned and been through, Cole is now beginning to change from his angry pastime. He has finally developed, grown, and matured enough to handle being with Peter and helping both of them learn to live again.

Suspense

An example of suspense found in this novel is when Garvey has returned from his first trip on the island and he is waiting for a verdict to be made by the judgement circle on whether he is going to be able to go back to the island or if he is getting sent to jail.

Another example of suspense found in this novel is when Garvey and the Spirit Bear are standing face to face with one another. Because we have no prior knowledge of this creature, the reader is waiting in suspense, seeing what the bear will do next.