Brian has demonstrated his motivation to survive in three ways. The first way that has Brian demonstrated his motivation was by making a shelter. He sat under the tree and thought back 2 years to when he and terry had been fooling around in the park. They pretended that they were lost in the woods. Of course they would have all these things like a gun, a knife, fishing gear, and some matches. Brian didn’t have those things but what else could he do? He remembered that in the park they decided that the best shelter would be a lean-to, he had to build a lean-to. He walked down to the lake where he could find some supplies. He saw some willows he could cut down and use as braces. Then he realized that he would have to find a place to build his shelter. It couldn’t be far from the lake, he thought. Brian looked around and that’s when saw the stone ridge. He walked over there and that’s where he found the perfect place to build his shelter! It wasn’t easy to make a lean-to, it took him a long time and it was tiring work. Now he had a perfect shelter where it was nice and cool, with a roof that could protect him from the rain.

The second way was by looking for food. Brian woke up with an explosion in his stomach, he had eaten to much gut cherries last night and had swallowed the pits with them. He was hungry, so he set out to look for food. He walked past the gut cherry bushes and almost stopped by to eat some more, but then he thought back to what had happened in the morning and chose not to. Brian kept on walking and he found some raspberries! Soon he started picking and eating, but after a few minutes he heard a sound. Then he turned around to see what was happening and that’s when he saw the bear. He stared at the bear it was black and big. It picked a few berries then left. After it had left Brian ran as fast as he could back to his lean-to. He sat in his lean-to and couldn’t help but think about what the bear was doing. The bear didn’t want to eat you, he thought, if it had wanted you it would’ve come for you. He turned around and walked back to the berry bushes, the bear was gone and it looked like there was nothing that could hurt him. Soon he was stuffed with berries and had decided to pick some to save. Brian wouldn’t have gone out and looked for berries if he wasn’t motivated, he wouldn’t have gone back to the berry bushes after the bear incident if he wasn’t motivated!

 

So far, the best way that Brian has demonstrated his motivation was by making fire. A porcupine had come to visit at night and Brian swung his hatchet at it, missed and hit the rock. When he had hit the rock it showered down sparks. But sparks wouldn’t just turn into fire. He had to have some kind of place for the sparks to ignite. A ball of tinder or some kindling. He walked down to the lake and saw a birch tree there were some tiny tendrils peeling off of it. That was it! Brian had to collect enough of the tendrils to make a ball of tinder. Plucking and gathering, soon he had a ball of tinder the size of a grapefruit. He used the tendrils and tried but it didn’t work. The material had to be thinner and finer he thought. He used his hatchet to cut the bark into thin slivers. It was tiring, painstaking work that took him 2 hours to finish. Finally he had a big ball of fluff. He swung his hatchet at the rock, sparks showered down but disappeared after they met the tinder. Nope, that didn’t work what else did he have to do to start a fire that he didn’t do? Brian thought back to school, that’s it! He had to blow on it to start the fire. He tried again and right when the sparks met the tinder ball he blew quickly, too hard the sparks disappeared. He tried again this time too light. At last he blew it just right, and the sparks moved and grew into a fire! As you can see Brian is truly motivated!