Part 7
Diving into the flooded plane, Brian nearly loses his hatchet but recovers it — and hauls out the survival pack at last.
Into the fuselageBrian poles his rough raft out to the half-sunken plane and faces the hardest physical trial of the whole ordeal. To reach the survival pack he must go in underwater, through the plane's aluminum skin. Diving again and again, holding his breath in the cold, he works at the metal.
The hatchet sinksThen disaster nearly ruins everything: while cutting his way in, he loses his grip on the hatchet, and it sinks away into the dark water — the tool that made his whole survival possible. But the new Brian does not panic; he dives down, gropes along the bottom, and recovers it — quiet proof of how far he has come.
The treasure chestAt last he cuts an opening, reaches inside, and drags out the heavy survival pack. Back on shore, trembling with cold and excitement, he opens it like a treasure chest: sleeping bag, cooking gear, matches, a first-aid kit, and — wonder of wonders — packaged food, real food that nearly overwhelms him after weeks of fish and berries.
The transmitterAmong the gear he finds an emergency transmitter, a small radio meant to call for help. He flips its switch, but nothing seems to happen; unsure whether it is broken or even working, he sets it aside and turns, for now, to the miracle of a real meal.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Rescue-gear words: submerge, grope, transmitter, provisions, perseverance… |
| Literary Elements | The dive as climax, sharp irony, and the tension of suspense |
| Cross-Curricular | Emergency survival kits and rescue transmitters — how they call for help |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Chapter 17 | Into the Plane — Brian rafts out and dives to cut into the fuselage; he loses the hatchet in the water, then dives again and recovers it. |
| Chapter 18 | The Survival Pack — he hauls out the pack, finds food, matches, and gear, and switches on an emergency transmitter without knowing if it works. |
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
- He hauls the survival pack back to shore.
- Brian poles the raft out to the plane.
- He switches on the emergency transmitter.
- He loses the hatchet, then dives to recover it.
- He dives to cut into the flooded fuselage.
Watch him now, balanced on a raft he built with his own raw hands, staring down at the drowned plane that once carried him out of the sky. To get what he needs he has to go under, into the cold and the dark, into the metal shell where a dead man still waits — and he does it, again and again, breath held, fingers tearing at aluminum. Then the worst thing: the hatchet, his hatchet, slips loose and vanishes into the black water beneath him. Weeks ago that would have finished him. But the boy who dives after it is not that boy. He goes down calm, feels along the bottom, and closes his hand around the blade that made him. When at last he drags the heavy pack up onto the shore and tears it open — food, matches, warmth, a voice to the world — he is trembling not because he is weak, but because he has won.
When Brian dives to recover the survival pack from the sunken plane, he holds the modern answer to the disaster he has survived. A survival kit is a bundle of chosen tools packed ahead of time to keep a person alive after an accident far from help. Most kits contain the same core items Brian finds: a way to make fire, a way to stay warm, a first-aid kit, cooking gear, and long-lasting provisions such as packaged food. Bush planes often carry such kits by law, because a crash or breakdown can strand travelers in the wilderness.
The most important item in the kit, though, is the one Brian understands least. Small planes carry a device called an emergency locator transmitter, or ELT, designed to switch on automatically in a crash and send out a steady radio signal for help. The signal itself is silent to human ears; the device does not beep or flash in any obvious way. Instead it broadcasts on a special frequency that rescuers know to listen for. This is why Brian, flipping the switch and hearing nothing, cannot tell whether the transmitter is broken or quietly doing its job.
In Brian's time that signal could be picked up by aircraft within range, and today it can also be caught by orbiting satellites, which relay the crash location to rescue teams. The whole point of such a device is that it keeps calling for help even when the survivor cannot. His fire, his spear, and his hatchet depend on his own strength and skill; the transmitter works on its own, invisibly, across distances no woodcraft could cross. Without knowing it, by simply flipping that switch, Brian may have already set his own rescue in motion.
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 7 “Not Giving Up”
Brian keeps diving even after he loses the hatchet, refusing to give up. Write about a time you kept going after something went badly wrong and you wanted to quit. What was the setback, why did you want to stop, and what made you push on? 6–10 sentences. End with what you gained by not quitting.
No right or wrong — tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 7 Complete!
You finished Chapters 17–18 of Hatchet.
Here are your auto-graded results:
The best last step is to teach it. In your own words, explain what happened — retell a favorite scene, teach a character’s big choice, or sum up the main idea for a parent, friend, or classmate. When you can teach it clearly, you truly own it.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Gary Paulsen. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Gary Paulsen’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.