How Your Past Affects You

Author’s Note: I am writing this essay to explain the theme of the story Touching Spirit Bear, by Ben Mikaelsen.

Have you ever been angry at everything?  Or with just with life in general?  Well, Cole Matthews, a character in the book Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen,  is a troubled kid who bullies people around and is always angry.  He was abused by his parents during his childhood and was always left home alone. So whenever he was away or outside of the home he would act out his anger by bullying kids or mistreating and disrespecting everyone around him. This resulted in many people not wanting to play or hang out with him.  Everywhere Cole turned, he was alone. After the end of the story Cole overcame his violent past and learned to respect others, which is a major theme in the story.

At the beginning of the book a kid in Cole's  class named Peter had enough and reported his behavior to a teacher in confidence. Somehow the word got out that Peter was the one that told.  After finding this out, Cole was very angry and beat up Peter.  As time went on, his behavior became so uncontrollable he ended up spending months in a juvenile detention center. 

 As a consequence for beating up Peter, Cole was sent alone to an island as a part Circle of Justice.  This is a circle of people who try to help people who have problems turn their lives around in a positive direction. Circle Justice  has meetings where anyone can join, ranging from a victim to a random person.  
Soon after arriving at the island, Cole ran into a bear. Instead of being afraid, Cole was expecting the bear to be afraid of him! He always expected everyone and everything to be afraid of him.  So when the bear wasn’t afraid of him, Cole attempted to hurt the bear with a sharp knife. But instead the bear hurt Cole so bad that before he knew it, he was lying on the ground fighting for his life. 

Cole’s near death experience and his time at the island caused him to want to change.  He tried to mend all the hurt that he’s caused in the past.  He even cooked a big dinner and invited all the people that had been affected by his past behavior.  The main person that had a hard time forgiving him was Peter because he still didn’t trust him. Cole earned his trust by being positive toward Peter and inviting him to the island to help him heal. Peter overcame his past fears when Cole was being positive toward him.
  As hard as it was for him to accomplish forgiveness prior to his stay at the island, he is now committed to forgiving and forgetting the painful events of his past that have resulted in feelings of bitterness towards his life and the world. He will also find a better way to deal with his feelings when he feels hurt or upset in the future. 

 This theme was in another story. Naruto is one example, because characters like Sasuke were affected by their past. His brother Itachi killed every one in his family and clan, all for power. Sasuke was so caught up in revenge that he was trying to join an evil Guy called Orochimaru just to gain power to kill his brother. And so far Naruto s trying to get Sasuke out of the darkness. 

Overall, the theme of this story is to not let your past affect the way that you treat people. No matter what you have gone through in the past, learn to forgive and forget it, and continue to respect others.  We are all affected by our pasts one way or another.  It’s how you chose to deal with it that’s key.