Touching Spirit Bear Character Traits

Coles Journey with Healing and Forgiveness Stephen Richards said, “When you forgive, you heal”?Cole is the protagonist in the book “Touching Spirit Bear” Garvey was Cole’s parole officer who helps Cole. Cole's Dad beat him so Cole beats up Peter at the beginning of the book, but he ended up helping him at the end. Cole's Dad, Garvey, and Peter affect Cole’s healing in negative or positive ways. Garvey helped with Cole's healing and forgiveness by sending him to the island.

Interestingly, in Cole’s lifetime, he has shown great physical prowess, I know this information because, on page seven of Touching Spirit Bear, it states in page seven: “Peter was no match and soon Cole had pounded him bloody” this proves that he is someone that you should not mess with especially for a fifteen-year-old. Right now you might think Cole had no childhood, was abused, and is mad and

In the book Touching Spirit Bear, Cole does many things with major consequences. His anger mainly controls these things, but when Cole finds himself lying on the ground as good as dead, he realizes that he's not a good person, and he realizes what he has done. Here are some consequences and mistakes that Cole has made in the past to get to this point. In the first few chapters, Cole was ruthless.

Additionally, it is evident that Cole does not own up to his actions and refuses to take responsibility. However as the story progresses, he faces a near death experience when he is mauled by the Spirit Bear. Due to this particular event he becomes significantly more empathetic than depicted previously. When it is brought to Cole’s attention that Peter has attempted to commit suicide he is rather discomposed and even proves to have had astounding growth within his ability to feel empathetic. Moreover, Cole even offers to do what it takes in order to help his wounded peer, Mikaelsen writes, “‘Would you be willing to stay here longer if it meant helping Peter?’

But maybe we can change things.’ ... Cole clung to his mother even after she let go, then turned away to hide his misty eyes,” (Mikaelsen 122). When Cole tells his mother that it’s okay and hugs her voluntarily, it truly illustrates the contrast between Cole at the beginning of the book versus his character towards the end. Before, he had always blamed his actions on the trauma brought from his mother and father instead of forgiving anyone and moving on.

When Cole was mauled by the bear he spotted a nest full of baby sparrows and he saw their mom. You might be thinking about how baby sparrows affect his anger. Well, let's see when he found the birds. I believed it was the day before the big thunderstorm. In the big thunderstorm, the tree with the babies got struck down and Cole realized how jealous he was of the sparrows because they had a mom to feed and clean them and he never had that type of mother.

Cole has a troubled history with the outdoors that likely stems from his need to control everything around him. Upon his arrival to the island, Cole burns down his shelter and his only supplies as a way of feeling powerful. Soon after, Cole attempts to stab the Spirit Bear. The Spirit Bear is a large, white bear that periodically appears on the Alaskan island. Cole feels intimidated by this bear, so he attempts to frighten it.

Later, when he returns to the island, he starts using dances and methods to heal with Garvey and Edwin's help. One by one, Edwin and Garvey taught Cole their ways. First, Edwin brought Cole to an ice-cold pond to clear his mind. The idea was that Cole would be affected not only mentally but also his injuries from the bear attack would be numbed. Cole starts hesitant, not wanting to wake up early in the morning just to freeze, but soon Cole becomes ¨afraid he might oversleep¨ (Mikaelsen 194).

At the beginning of the novel, Cole Matthews is a vicious teenager who thinks he is superior to everyone, but is, in fact, hiding behind a shield of anger, the result of being brutally abused by his drunken father. Cole’s father, Mr. Matthews, drinks non stop until he becomes a monster, and then ruthlessly beats Cole up. When talking to Garvey, a proud, Tlingit indian, who is also his parole officer, Cole opens up about his father’s abuse saying, “‘You don’t know what it’s like being hit over and over until you’re so numb you don’t feel anything!” (Mikaelsen 28).

He is going to Alaska because he robbed a hardware store and beat a boy named Peter Driscal so badly he could have died. The Rising Action is when Cole beats up Peter because Peter told the police that Cole had broken into a hardware store; and that he robbed the store and then trashed it. After nearly killing Peter some boys from their school pulled Cole off of Peter.

Everything will turn out right in the end, and Cole exhibits this. The whole reason that Cole ended up o the island in the first place is because he made bad choices. These choices led to more bad choices and then Cole had a traumatic experience. This changes Cole’s life forever.

Cole was beaten by him throughout his childhood. This pain and anger gave him the personality and characteristic to inflict pain on other people. The two final themes have a very strong connection. In order to heal, mentally and physically, you have to learn to forgive and receive forgiveness. This was a lesson the reader and the main character, Cole, experience throughout the book.

The relationships in Cole’s life all had a different impact on him but specifically his relationship with Peter affected him a lot. Especially the part of the book when Cole found out that Peter told on him. “‘You’re a dead man,’ he warned... He laughed when he saw fear in Peter’s eyes”(7-8). This shows the relationship at the beginning of the book and clearly it wasn’t good.

Cole emphasizes in his lyrics that “life can’t be no fairytale, no once upon a time; but [he’ll] be God damned if a n***a don’t be tryin’”. Despite all the shortcomings of his city, that won’t stop Cole from trying to make something out of himself. In comparison, I always had to learn things the hard way, and I always failed at what I tried to achieve. However my mistakes never stopped from moving forward and I continue to overcome any obstacles that stand in my way. Living through the hard times motivates me to continuously work hard, and never settle for

For example, when Cole purposy bothered the Spirt Bear and later on ended up getting mauld by the animal. It is obvious that Cole’s decisions and actions against banishment lead him to fail the act. Cole’s consistent negative attitude made him dislike the idea of meaning humane. Since the beginning of the book, Cole has satisfied himself with anger. Cole believes that he can concor anything with his anger.