Touching Spirit Bear
By Ben Mikaelsen
Author Information – Ben Mikaelsen was born in Bolivia in 1952. He moved to the
US in 7 th grade. He only seriously started writing after a college professor encouraged him. He now lives in Montana. He and his wife had owned a 700 lb black bear for 26 years named Buffy. Buffy passed away at the age of 26 in 2010. He was a thoughtful and caring bear owner, providing all the Buffy needed throughout the bears life. Mikaelsen has a deep respect for nature. Regarding the loss of his bear he says: “I remind myself daily that this time of grief is small measure to pay for
26 years of friendship and joy.”
Key Facts –
Point of View: third person, omniscient
A rites- of -passage tale.
The protagonist, Cole Matthews, severely beats a fellow student and is banished to a remote Alaskan Island as an alternative to going to court and getting prison time.
On the island he learns to cope with the natural world, face his own anger and begin a healing process.
General Themes –
Circle justice: alternative method originating in Native American culture intended to heal a criminal and facilitate his role as a contributing member of society. Circle justice involves the community in discussing and deciding the alternative ways of dealing with the criminal.
Current criminal system is frequently pointed out as lacking in any rehabilitative sense.
The power of nature as embodying truths that can lead to healing (animal dances, totem pole)
Taking responsibility for one’s response to their experiences of life.
Character List –
Cole Matthews: 15- year old juvenile delinquent from Minneapolis.
Edwin: Tlingit Indian elder from Drake, the town closest to the island Cole is sent to.
Garvey: worker in the juvenile justice department. He is drawn to help Cole in spite of Cole’s disrespectful and suspicious response to him. He had been in trouble as a young man and been helped by Circle Justice.
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Touching Spirit Bear
By Ben Mikaelsen
Peter Driscoll: classmate that tells on Cole and so Cole beats him savagely. Due to the beating, Peter has speech problems and anxiety issues that lead to severe depression.
Mr. Matthews: Coles abusive father
Mrs. Matthews: Coles passive and alcoholic mother.
The Keeper of the circle: The middle-aged woman who moderates during the circle meetings.
Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll: Peter’s parents. They are distraught over Peter’s condition and fearful of future harm that could be done to him.
Spirit Bear: Present in nearly every chapter the bear is a formidable force of strength and peace.
Summary of the plot –
Cole Matthews is a violent, out-of-control, angry teen. He has been in and out of trouble with the police for most of his teenage years. His latest outrage is a violent attack on an innocent bystander Peter Driscal, and it has left his victim with permanent brain damage and profound psychological injuries.
Cole is angry and resentful and clearly on his way to a prison sentence for his crime, and perhaps on to a life of crime. Through the compassionate intervention of two community workers whose motivation is atonement for their own undisclosed youthful crimes, Cole is offered an opportunity to participate in Circle Justice. Circle justice is a process of restitution based on a Native American tradition. It offers the perpetrator a chance at restitution and also for a chance at forgiveness from the victim and the community. These concepts are completely foreign to Cole, having been raised in an abusive household with no love. He is a deeply scarred young man from his experiences of physical abuse and alcoholism. His sentence is to spend a year on an isolated island in Alaskan waters. It becomes obvious his commitment to the program is superficial at best. His first act on the island is to destroy his supplies and shelter, after which he attempts to escape.
It is through the intervention of the elusive and powerful spirit bear that Cole becomes aware of the potential in life. He is attacked by the bear and at deaths door when his transformation comes. Through his near death experience Cole is able to begin a journey of healing. It is a long and painful journey. Cole eventually is able to see himself as a part of a much larger and richer whole rather than the center of his life. He is also able to reach out to Peter, the victim of his earlier attack and offer him the benefit of what he has experienced.
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Touching Spirit Bear
By Ben Mikaelsen
Important Quotes –
“Whatever you do to the animals, you do to yourself. Remember that.”
“A strange thought occurred to Cole: the world was beautiful. Yes, the world was beautiful….He wondered why he had never noticed this all before. How much beauty had he missed in his lifetime? How much beauty had he destroyed?”
“The dances, carving the totem, carrying the ancestor rock, touching the Spirit Bear, it was all the same thing—it was finding out who I really was.”
Important Symbols –
 at.oow: sacred blanket handed down from one person to another. Garvey gives his at.oow to Cole as a symbol of trust.
 the spirit bear: symbol of potential healing
 totem pole: symbolizes the truths Cole learns from the animals and the dances of those animals that teach him valuable human qualities.
 ancestor rock: letting go of the past.
Resources – http://www.benmikaelsen.com/about_ben.html
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7311181_summary-touching-spirit-bear.html
http://www.gradesaver.com/touching-spirit-bear/study-guide/section8/ http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/education/touching-spirit-bear-a-z-
5327019 http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?id=792&type=book&cn=28
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