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What is “The Secret” Brian knows?
Brian knows about his mother’s affair. Before his parents got divorced, Brian saw his mother in a car with a blond man. At first, he didn’t think anything of it, but then he saw his mother kissing the blond man. Neither of Brian’s parents know that Brian knows about the affair, and Brian does not think his father knows about the affair at all. This burden weighs on him throughout the novel, even while he’s fighting for survival in the wilderness.
Why does the plane crash?
The plane Brian rides in to see his dad is a small bush plane and the only people on it are Brian and the pilot. The pilot has a heart attack, and Brian tries to fly the plane safely with extremely limited knowledge. He briefly makes radio contact with someone while attempting to fly the plane, but he loses contact before they can establish Brian’s location. Brian figures out how to steer the plane well enough to keep it from going down, but eventually it runs out of fuel and quickly plummets. Brian manages to steer it toward a lake instead of trees and it sinks in the water.
How does Brian make a fire?
Fire is one of the essential elements Brian realizes he needs, and he does not know how to start one without matches or a tinderbox. He tries rubbing sticks together and is unsuccessful. That night, he dreams his father and his friend Terry are giving him hints about how to start a fire, but in the dreams, Brian doesn’t understand them. He wakes and remembers how he threw his hatchet at a porcupine, and when he missed, the hatchet made sparks on the stone wall of his shelter. Brian realizes his father and Terry were trying to communicate that he should use the hatchet to make fire. After many attempts and several hours, Brian combines the sparks from the hatchet, bark from trees, and his own breath to create a fire and feed the flames.
How does patience benefit Brian?
The longer Brian is in the wild, the more he learns to be in tune with nature. Early on, he realizes he makes mistakes when he’s hasty. If he acts rashly and gets frustrated when he fails, he loses valuable resources like time, food, water, and the few items he had on his person when the plane crashed. Later, as he comes to understand his surroundings, Brian learns that food will come to him if he takes his time hunting. He also learns to fully assess his surroundings before making decisions so that he can avoid predators, or at least avoid aggravating them. By adopting a posture of patience, Brian is able to survive.
How is Brian rescued?
Brian remembers there is a survival pack in the crashed plane, so he plans to retrieve it. It takes him several days, but Brian gets the pack and brings it back to his shelter. In it, he finds an emergency transmitter. He toggles the switch but doesn’t see a light, so he assumes it’s broken. However, it does work and Brian’s signal inadvertently reaches a nearby fur buyer who flies to rescue Brian.
