Hatchet Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. Which feature makes Brian’s chosen shelter site useful in his circumstances?
A sandy island keeps him beyond the reach of every land animal.
A dense cluster of trees completely hides him from animals and aircraft.
A nearby cave gives him several enclosed rooms for storing food safely.
A rock overhang provides partial natural protection that he can improve with available materials.
2. Who wrote Hatchet?
Gary Paulsen
Jean Craighead George
Will Hobbs
Wilson Rawls
3. A search plane passes near Brian without noticing him. Why is this event a major turning point?
It convinces him that the lake is outside the search area and must be abandoned.
His despair forces him to confront whether he will give up or build a more self-reliant life.
It proves the emergency transmitter aboard his plane has already stopped working.
His attempt to follow the plane leads him directly to the survival pack.
4. Why is Hatchet an especially fitting title for the novel?
The hatchet is the only object Brian manages to recover from the plane.
Brian must return the hatchet to his father, making it the purpose of his journey.
A message carved into its handle tells rescuers where Brian has gone.
The hatchet connects his mother and family conflict to the practical ingenuity that helps him survive.
5. What directly causes Brian to become the plane’s only active pilot?
The plane strikes a flock of birds.
The pilot suffers a heart attack.
The pilot becomes disoriented in a storm.
The controls fail after the radio stops working.
6. When Brian examines the rifle in the survival pack, why does it feel different from the tools and skills he developed himself?
It reminds him that his father had expected him to hunt during the visit.
It is too badly damaged by water to have any practical value.
It offers immediate power but makes him feel more separated from the natural world he has learned to read.
It confirms that rescuers deliberately left the pack for him.
7. After sparks fly when the hatchet strikes stone, what does Brian’s response reveal?
He concludes that fire can only be maintained with fuel from the plane.
He already knows a complete fire-making technique from formal training.
He decides manufactured tools are more dependable than experimentation.
He can observe an accidental event and turn it into a survival method.
8. Brian repeatedly thinks about “the Secret,” meaning his mother’s relationship with another man. What does this conflict add to the novel?
It provides the technical knowledge Brian needs to understand the plane’s controls.
It explains why Brian initially intends to remain in the wilderness.
It gives him an emotional burden to process alongside the physical demands of survival.
It establishes that his father already knows why the family separated.
9. Brian becomes ill after overeating unfamiliar berries. What broader lesson does he apply afterward?
Food gathering requires observation, restraint, and learning from consequences.
Hunger is best managed by eating as much as possible whenever food appears.
Plant foods should be avoided because only meat can sustain him.
Wild foods are dependable only when another animal has eaten them first.
10. Which result of the tornado most directly sets up Brian’s attempt to recover the survival pack?
It changes the wreckage so the plane’s tail becomes visible above the water.
It uncovers a stored canoe on the opposite side of the lake.
It deposits manufactured supplies beside Brian’s shelter.
It leaves a trail that Brian believes leads toward a settlement.
11. Why does Brian decide that reaching the submerged plane is worth the danger?
He needs the aircraft’s metal panels to rebuild his shelter after the tornado.
He believes the pilot may still be alive inside an air pocket.
He reasons that its survival pack may contain tools and supplies that could transform his situation.
He expects to find written directions to the nearest town in the cockpit.
12. Why is Brian traveling on the small plane at the beginning of the novel?
He is going to visit his father in northern Canada.
He is joining his mother for a wilderness vacation.
He is moving permanently to live with a relative in Alaska.
He is attending a summer survival program near the oil fields.
13. Which statement best summarizes Brian’s central character arc?
He changes from fearing isolation to rejecting all contact with other people.
He grows from a frightened, reactive passenger into a patient observer who takes deliberate action.
He survives mainly by recovering equipment that replaces his need to learn new skills.
He proves that determination can remove uncertainty from the natural world.
14. Which explanation best captures why the hatchet becomes essential rather than merely symbolic?
It contains a compass that guides Brian toward a settlement.
It allows Brian to repair the plane’s damaged radio.
It identifies Brian to the search crews flying overhead.
It helps him cut materials, obtain food, and create the sparks that lead to fire.
15. What do Brian’s encounters with animals such as the porcupine, skunk, and moose collectively teach him?
Wild animals generally become harmless once a person establishes a fire.
Survival depends on alertness and adaptation because nature does not organize itself around his needs.
Large animals are dangerous, while smaller animals can be safely ignored.
Animals attack mainly when they recognize that a person lacks a weapon.
16. How does the emergency transmitter ultimately contribute to Brian’s rescue?
Brian uses it to hold a spoken conversation with an air-traffic controller.
Its flashing light guides a search aircraft to the lake after dark.
He activates it without realizing that its signal has been received by a passing pilot.
It begins broadcasting automatically when the tornado shifts the wreckage.