An In-depth Look

Gary Paulsen

“It was as though I had been dying of thirst and the librarian had handed me a five-gallon bucket of water. I drank and drank,” said Paulsen on his experience of receiving his first library card and book to read.

Biographical Profile

Born May 17, 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Raised by grandmother the first few years of his life
Lived in the Philippines between 1946-1949
Ran away from home at the age of 14 and traveled with a carnival
Since the age of 15 worked numerous jobs (migrant worker, soldier, field engineer, truck driver, magazine editor) to support himself
Published first book, Special War, in 1966
Attended Bemidji College (now Bemidji State University) in North Central Minnesota
Attended the University of Colorado in 1972
Author of more than 175 books and some 200 articles and short stories for children and adults
Recipient of numerous literary awards (American Library Association Notable Best Book, Children’s Book of the Year, School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Parenting Magazine Best Book, Booklist Editor’s Choice, etc.) including the American Library Association Newbery honor medal which he received a total of three times
Suffered a heart attack in 1990 which limited his physical activity
Married to Ruth Wright Paulsen
Father of three children that are now adults (two boys and one girl)
Grandfather of two (a girl and boy)
Lives in La Luz, New Mexico

References

Authors and Books Gary Paulsen’s Biography

http://www2.scholastic.com/teachers/authorsandbooks/authorstudies/authorhome.jhtml?authorID=71&collateralID=5258&displayName=Biography Accessed on 25 September 04.

Learning About Gary Paulsen

http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/paulsen.html Accessed on 25 September 04.

Gary Paulsen

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/ Accessed on 25 September 04

Gary Paulsen

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/paulsen.htm Accessed on 25 September 04.

Gary Paulsen

http://www.carr.lib.md.us/mae/paulsen/paulsen.htm Accessed on 25 September 04.

A Selected List of Gary Paulsen Books

*When asked why he writes, Gary Paulsen replied, “I want my…years on this ball of earth to mean something. Writing furnishes me a way for that to happen.”

The Cookcamp. Orchard: New York. 1991.

A boy goes to live with his grandmother, a cook working for a crew of men working on a railroad in northern Minnesota.

Awards: ALA Best Book 1991; School Library Journal Best Book 1991.

Dogsong. Puffin Books: New York. 1987; Bradbury Press: New York. 1985; Simon & Schuster: New York 1995.

A fourteen-year-old Eskimo boy who feels beset by the modernity of his life and takes a 1400-mile journey by dog sled across ice, tundra, and mountains seeking his own "song" of himself.

Awards: Parent's Choice Award, 1985; ALA Notable Book, 1985; Newbery Honor Book, 1986.

Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered. Delacorte: New York. 1993; Bantam: New York. 1995.

An eleven-year-old boy sent to the country to get away from city life and his alcoholic parents teams up with his cousin Harris to produce one escapade after another. Awards: Booklist Books for Youth Top of the List Citation 1993; ALA Notable and Best Books 1993.

Hatchet. Bradbury Press: New York. 1987; Bantam Doubleday: New York. 1994. Illustrated by Ruth Wright Patterson.

Brian survives a plane crash all alone in the wilderness of northern Canada.

Awards: Newbery Honor Book, 1988; ALA Notable book, 1987; Booklist; Editor's Choice Citation, 1988; Georgia Children's Books; Awards, 1991; Virginia Young Readers Award, 1990.

The Haymeadow. Delacorte: New York. 1992.

Fourteen-year-old John Barron is asked, like his father and grandfather before him, to spend the summer taking care of their sheep in the haymeadow.

Awards: Spur Award, 1993; ALA Notable and Best Book, 1992.

The Monument. Delacorte: New York. 1991.

Thirteen-year-old Rocky, self-conscious about the braces on her leg, has her life changed by the remarkable artist who comes to her small Kansas town to design a war memorial.

Awards: ALA Best Book 1991; An American Bookseller Pick of the Lists 1991.

NightJohn. Delacorte: New York. 1993.

Twelve-year-old Sarny's brutal life as a slave becomes even more dangerous when a newly arrived slave offers to teach her how to read.

Awards: Parenting Magazine Reading Magic Award, 1994; International Teachers Association Teacher’s Choice Award 1994; Learning Magazine Best Books of the Year, 1993; ALA Best Book, 1993; SLJ Best Book, 1994.

The Voyage of the Frog. Thorndike Press: New York. 1993; Orchard: New York. 1989; Bantam Doubleday: New York. 1990.

David survives a nine-day ordeal alone at sea. Awards: ALA Best Book 1989; School Library Journal Best Book of 1989; Teacher’s Choice Award from International Reading the Year Association 1990.

The Winter Room. Orchard Books: New York. 1989.

A young boy growing up on a northern Minnesota farm describes the scenes around him and recounts his old Norwegian uncle's tales of an almost mythological logging past.

Awards: Newbery Honor Book 1990; Judy Lopez Memorial Award 1990; Parenting Magazine Best Book of the Year 1990; ALA Notable and Best Book 1989.

Woodsong. Illustrated by Ruth Wright Paulsen. Bradbury: New York. 1990; Penguin: New York. 1991.

Autobiographical work about Gary Paulsen running the Iditarod.

Awards: Booklist Editor’s Choice Citation 1991; Society of Midland Authors Book Award 1991; Spur Award, Westerns Writers of America 1991; Minnesota Book Awards 1991.

*The selection criterion for the above titles was based on two or more literary awards.

Analysis of Gary Paulsen’s Writing Style

Gary Paulsen’s unique writing style involves his personal experiences of which many of them feature outdoor settings and contain plots that focus on person verses nature. He also writes about explores the topic of alcoholism and death within his writing. Paulsen depicts with descriptive words his protagonist’s personality, values and physical attributes. According to an article, called Gary Paulsen: A Writer of His Time, written by James A. Schmitz for the 1994 fall addition of The ALAN Review, Gary Paulsen writing evokes powerful imagery and visualizes life in both its comic and tragic forms. Generally, Paulsen’s main characters come from dysfunctional homes and they seek the support from extended family members. Usually his novels do not end happily ever after, but rather open-ended. To develop my critical analysis of Paulsen’s craft, I read the following books by him.

Hatchet, a Newbery honor book, is an intense survival story about a thirteen-year-old boy named Brian Robeson who survives a plane crash and lives in the wilderness for fifty-four days. In this story, Brian learns to survive in the wilderness by using his instincts and a hatchet that his mother gave him before leaving Hampton, New York for the oil fields in Canada where his dad works. In this adventure story, Paulsen creates a graphic picture for readers as he describes various events that occur during Brian's struggle to survive. In chapter four on page 36, Paulsen gives readers a heart-stopping moment when he describes how mosquitos invade Brian's body. "It took an hour, perhaps two-he could not measure time yet and didn't care-for the sun to get halfway up. With it came warmth, small bits of it at first, and with the heat came clouds of insects-thick, swarming hordes of mosquitos that flocked to his body, made a living coat on his exposed skin, clogged his nostrils when he inhaled, poured into his mouth when he opened it to take a breath."

A fast pace novel, Hatchet is told in a first person narrative format. Paulsen uses short descriptive sentences to show Brian’s thoughts and emotions throughout his adventure. “Ugly, he thought. Very, very ugly. And he was, at that moment, almost overcome with self-pity. He was dirty and starving and bitten and hurt and lonely and ugly and afraid and so completely miserable that it was like being in a pit, a dark, deep out pit with no way out.” (page 70) There is very little dialogue in this story. All the elements, (a likeable protagonist, adventure that readers can imagine happening to themselves, efficient characterization, an interesting setting that enhances the story without getting in the way of the plot, and action that draws a reader into the plot within the first page or so of the story), of a good adventure story are found in Paulsen’s Hatchet. According to a review by Barbara Chatton for School Library Journal on amazon.com, Paulsen emphasizes character growth through a careful balance of specific details that focus on Brian’s thoughts and emotions of survival. He has written a wonderful story of survival, bravery, and self-determination.

Dogsong by Gary Paulsen is the story of fourteen-year-old modern day Eskimo Russell Suskitt. He hates waking up to the sound of his father's coughing, the smell of diesel oil, and the noise of snow machines. Russell is dissatisfied with his life and he longs for the days of a simpler life. Oogruk, the old shaman, who owns the last team of sled dogs in the village, understands Russell longing for a simpler way of life and the songs that their people once sung. He takes Russell under his wing and teaches him the old ways of life and how to lead a team of sled dogs. “Men and dogs are not alike, although some men try to make them so. Whitemen.” Oorgruk had laughed. Because they try to make people out of dogs and in this way they make the dogs dumb. But to say that a do is not smart because it is not as smart as a man is to say that snow is not smart. Dogs are not men. And as dogs, if they are allowed to be dogs, they are often smarter than men” (page 60).

Oogruk cannot give Russell the answers about his inner self that he seeks. The old shaman can only prepare him for what he must do alone. Motivated by a bizarre and powerful dream of a long-ago self and by a desire to find his own song, Russell takes Oogruk's dogs on an impressive journey where he comes of age and makes self-discoveries that changes his life forever.

In Dogsong, Paulsen has developed a story that has the theme of man versus nature and man versus himself. According to the April 1985 Booklist review of Dogsong, “Paulsen’s mystical tone and blunt prose style are well suited to spare landscape of his story, and his depictions of Russell’s icebound existence add both authenticity and color to a slick rendition of the vision-quest plot which incorporates human tragedy as well as promise.” Dogsong is a classic example of a coming age novel.

Paulsen utilization of descriptive writing, realistic settings, and themes of survival and man versus nature can be found in both Dogsong and Hatchet. Each story is an action adventure with a plot that involves the protagonist overcoming insurmountable odds.

References

Authors and Books Gary Paulsen’s Biography

http://www2.scholastic.com/teachers/authorsandbooks/authorstudies/authorhome.jhtml?authorID=71&collateralID=5258&displayName=Biography Accessed on 25 September 04.

Learning About Gary Paulsen

http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/paulsen.html Accessed on 25 September 04.

Gary Paulsen

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/ Accessed on 25 September 04

Gary Paulsen

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/paulsen.htm Accessed on 25 September 04.

Gary Paulsen

http://www.carr.lib.md.us/mae/paulsen/paulsen.htm Accessed on 25 September 04.

Gary Paulsen