Book Analysis: Touching Spirit Bear

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“People change and often, they become the person they said they would never be.” This happened to Cole turning into his dad because relationships can change people in drastic ways. In Touching Spirit Bear ,by Ben Mikaelsen, Cole is very angry because of abusive dad and ends up hurting people. One, in particular, is Peter. Cole gets sent to an island alone where he has to learn to control his anger from Garvey and Edwin and eventually even helps Peter. Throughout this book, Cole is transformed from his uplifting, viloent, and silent relationships. To start off, Cole’s uplifting relationships with Garvey, Edwin and later his mom drastically changed him. Cole is finally out of the hospital after getting attacked by a bear. At this point ,he is…show more content…
At this time, Cole has to go to justice circle and ends up confessing the problems he has with his dad. “‘A devoted parent doesn’t whip his kid until a shirt can’t hide all the bruises’”(46). Cole’s dad beat him because he was angry and that rubbed off on Cole making him violent. This got Cole in lots of trouble is also what got him on the island. In another instance, Cole was on the island and trying to kill Spirit Bear but Spirit Bear end up violently attacking Cole. “ Each time he stabbed the bear, it’s powerful jaws clamped harder”(66). This shows that Cole is still trying to stab the bear while it is biting him. It makes a two way violent clash and shows that Cole still only knows what he has learned from his father.To continue, Cole had this battle with Spirit Bear but he still had a connection with it as…show more content…
As Cole is lying on the ground dying he notices his surrounding much more than before. “Cole envied the dead sparrows. He had never really known any home”(82). Cole knows that the sparrows had a home and a good family. Even Though Cole doesn’t say anything to the sparrows and all is silent Cole still envied them and wants a home he can rely on. Another time Cole shows a silent relationship is with Spirit Bear. Cole comes back to the island towards the end of the book and wants to find Spirit Bear again. The book says “ Cole also continued to look for the Spirit Bear but the Bear did not show itself ”(187). Cole had a silent connection with the bear and wanted to find it again because he was drawn to Spirit Bear. Another time Cole realized something from Spirit Bear was when he knew he needed to learn to become invisible. “ Today he had discovered how to be invisible…” (191). Cole worked very had to be invisible to find Spirit Bear and he had finally accomplished it. This changed Cole because he was finally able to clear his mind and it even lead to him doing the anger dance. At this point, Cole has become a better person than before and is figuring things out about
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