Gary Paulsen Biography Essay

The 1990’s was a time known as the â€Å"Digital Decade†. A time when the Stock Market rocketed and the internet took off. Along with technology becoming popular, Gary Paulsen was writing one of his two hundred novels, The River. It showed how the U.S. Government wanted young Brian to go back in the wilderness and reenact his survival skills he used a few years back, after he was involved in a plane crash. Gary Paulsen is a great novel and short story writer for people of all ages. He is one of America’s most popular writers for young people, including adults and children (About). His life was full of interesting things. Many of the things he did, including working on a farm over the summer in his youthful years, and jobs such as being an engineer, construction worker, sailor, truck driver, and ranch hand gave him lots of material to work with from which he created his great stories (About). Throughout his life, since he started writing, he has written over 100 b ooks and short stories and many have became very popular. Gary Paulsen was born May 17, 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota (About). His parents were Oscar and Eunice Paulsen (Gary). In his youth he was never a â€Å"dedicated† student in school but he had a passion for reading ever since he was very young (About). On a cold, wintery day, he walked into a library to warm up with nothing to do. On the way out he had himself his own library card and a book to read. From then on he was hooked to reading and writing (Gary). He spent many hours alone in the basement of his apartment building, reading book after book after book. Soon after he acquired a taste for adventure when he ran away from his home to travel with the carnival at the age of 14 (About). Yates 2 In 1959, he attended Bemidji College in Minnesota, and he worked as a trapper to pay off tuition fees. He quit college two years after and joined the Army, working for the missiles department (Biography). In 1966, Paulsen began to write and has completed well over 100 books and short stories. He has written fiction, nonfiction, and drama for adults and children. He still continues to write to this day. Many of his nonfiction books relate to his jobs and interests. He has written books about farming, hiking, football, tennis, skiing, and canoeing (Gary). Gary Paulsen says its his overwhelming belief in young people that drives him to write (About). A few of his best sellers are: Lawn Boy, The River, Brian’s Winter, Brian’s Hunt, The Rifle, Soldier’s Heart, Tracker, The Crossing, Sentries, and Brain’s Return (Biography). Three of his novels- Hatchet, Dogsong, and the Winter Room were Newberry Honor Books. They often appear along with his other books on the best books list of the American Library Association (About). One thing Gary loves to do most was dog-sled racing. He took part in the famous 1,180 mile long dog-sled race known as the Iditarod twice, once in 1983 and again in 1985. His third attempt was shattered when he was diagnosed with a serious heart disease called angina (Gary). After he was forced to give up dog-sled racing, he started to focus more on writing with the same energy and effort that he used on h is dogs while training them for the race. He worked 18-20 hour days every day staying committed to writing the way he would with his dogs. He said all he does is work, he doesn’t have time to drink or fool around. He has always been that way and the end result is a lot of books being published out to the world (About). His wife, Ruth Wright Paulsen is an artist. In fact she has illustrated several books of his. They divide their time up writing and drawing between a home in La Luz, New Mexico and a boat out in the Pacific Ocean (About). Gary Paulsen has written many books during his life. A few have won special awards and honors. Others are liked by many young adults and children. His writing, especially his nonfiction Yates 3 books reflect his interests and past jobs that he had acquired. An example would be his book â€Å"Harris and Me†. About a young boy who works on farm one summer with his cousin, is full of funny and adventurous events. This book is related to Paulsen because he also worked on a farm over the summer doing chores during his youth years. He also likes to write about survival, which you can see in his books Hatchet, Brian’s Winter, and The River. Although Gary Paulsen has written many books, over two hundred of them, one of his books called The River, was written and published in the 1990’s. The 1990’s is a time also known as â€Å"The Digital Decade†. The pace of life quickly sped up in this technology-driven decade (Digital Front Flap). At the beginning of the decade, it seemed that the economy was going to be sluggish. Instead, the Stock Market sky rocketed and the internet took off. From then on it has been a fast pace through life (Digital 79). Mr. Bill Clinton was the president at the time. He had an enthusiasm for people and wanted to help them fulfill their dreams (Digital 63). When Clinton was a boy at age 16, he met with President John F. Kennedy in the Rose Garden and shook his hand. After that day his life changed and he had a strong desire to become the president of the United States of America. Bill Clinton was just 46 years old when he became the nation’s 42nd chief executive. Clinton attempted to fulfill a campaign promise to disable the ban on homosexuals in the military. His decision ended in the â€Å"Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell† compromise that didn’t satisfy commanders of the military or the gay community (Digital 66). After a humanitarian effort was launched in Somalia, and after Clinton’s best decisions to handle the situation, thirty American Servicemen died. Ever since that happened, Clinton refused to come in contact with Rwanda, despite widespread genocide that happened there, and caused over one million deaths. More than thirty million American citizens did not have medical insurance in the earl 90’s. Candidate Bill Clinton promised to expand coverage and affordable healthcare for every person in America (Digital 66). He named Hilary Clinton to lead the drive to recreate the health insurance Yates 4 industry. This is why critics accused him of nepotism (Digital 66-67). By the end of his first year in office, many Americans were wondering just how ineffective and unpopular he could become (Digital 67). Laptops and cell phones became popular in offices, airports, and in pants pockets. Huge SUV’s were found all over the road and fashion became as wild and weird as the world wide web itself. Children began spending time with the latest Pokemon cards or playing the latest video game. The 90’s was a time of almost unlimited choices and personal freedom. The 1990’s was summed up by the word â€Å"whatever† (Digital 79). Electronic-game industries had a growth rate twice that of the movie industry and brought in an annual revenue of about 6.3 billion dollars. Even though console based games such as the Playstation and Nintendo became much more faster and complicated than they u sed to be, the real reason behind the game industries huge growth came from the personal-computer games. A new kind of athlete called adrenaline junkies were on the lookout for new and exciting, but often physically dangerous challenges. This created a subculture called â€Å"extreme sports† in the 90’s (Digital 80). Some extreme sports such as sky surfing and street luge were viewed by the people as mostly lunatics, and not athletes. But snowboarding, mountain biking, and climbing became very popular to most people. In 1995, ESPN gave extreme sports some help by creating and airing the X Games. It showed athletes competing in summer and winter competitions (Digital 80). On August 2, 1990, infantry, armor, and tanks of the Iraqi Republican Guard invaded Kuwait and seized control. United States responded with operation DESERT SHIELD to stop invasion of Kuwait’s neighbor, Saudi Arabia (Operation). On August 7, deployment of U.S. Forces began. The U.S. Objectives included immediate, complete, and unconditional withdrawal of all Iraqi forces from Kuwait. If Iraqi dictat or Saddam Hussein did not remove his troops from Kuwait by January 15, 1991, U.S. led troops were to force them out. On January 17, the U.S. Coalition launched air attacks on Iraqi targets. On February 24, ground forces began their attack. On February 27, Kuwait City was declared Yates 5 liberated. This was known as the Gulf War (Operation). The field of medical science and the advances made in the late 90’s will most likely have the biggest impact on our society (History). The two advances found will leave us with political and moral questions in the future. Cloning and Stem Cell Research are the major medical science advances. The 90’s also saw the development and growth of Genetic Engineering. Genetic Engineering is used to help make plants resistant to herbicides and insecticides. Over 60% of products on U.S. Grocery store shelves have genetic engineering in them (History). The 1990’s was a decade of electronics. The computer and internet were huge inventions in the 90’s. The pace of life was sped up dramatically in this decade. Overall this would have been a great d ecade to choose to live in. With all of the technology and internet setting in, authors were still writing books on paper. One of those authors was Gary Paulsen. He wrote the novel The River in the 1990’s and it is about true survival. The River has a few themes in its story, but the biggest one is true survival versus role playing. After Brian’s survival story when a plane crashed and left him stranded in the woods for fifty-four days, he was asked to reenact it. A psychologist named Derek joins him in what he calls Brian’s reenactment, an â€Å"experiment†. Brian insists that Derek leave behind all of his equipment he is wanting to bring with them (Paulsen 23). He thinks that Derek doesn’t truly understand the spirit of the â€Å"experiment†. Brian’s ability to convince Derek leaves them with a briefcase, and emergency radio, and a few other small things. Brian tells Derek that the only way to teach survival is to physically put a person in a real life or death situation (Paulsen 34). Derek wants Brian to think out loud so he can write down his every thought and move. Then all of the sudden t he so called experiment turned too real way too fast. That night a terrible storm had moved in, and it wasn’t just any storm, it was a storm that Brian had never experienced before. Derek Yates 6 reached for his radio and briefcase and was struck by lightening (Paulsen 52). This is when the experiment turned from role playing to true survival. Brian woke up from the storm and saw Derek laying in a weird position. He was scared that Derek was dead but found out he was only unconscious. He panicked and grabbed the radio to try and get help but the radio was destroyed by the lightening strike. When Brian tries giving Derek water, he chokes immediately (Paulsen 65). Brian fears the worst and knows that Derek won’t be able to get water until someone rescues them. He reaches for Derek’s briefcase and finds only a map inside, but on the map he sees a river. He studies it and finds that a trader’s post is one hundred miles down along the river (Paulsen 73). Brian decides to take Derek with him instead of leaving him alone and coming back for him. This brings us into the symbol of nature and the river. All throughout the novel, nature is a huge part. From the beginning when Brian and Derek first leave for the Canadian wilderness, to camping out and surviving. The whole novel is about surviving the wilderness. Paulsen also shows nature at it’s best when Brian and Derek were attacked by swarms of mosquitoes multiple times while rafting down the river (Paulsen 86). Another point in the novel, they were faced with a dangerous waterfall in the river. The main inspiration for writing this book came from Paulsen’s award winning book Hatchet. So many of his fans loved reading it that they sent Paulsen letters saying they wanted him to write a sequel. After reading the letters, Paulsen came up with the idea to write The River. A perfect sequel to Hatchet, Brian, the main character of the book, is asked to reenact his survival skills by the government when a plane crashed in the Canadian woods and left him stranded for fifty-four days. I think Gary Paulsen wrote this book for the same reason he wrote many of his books, for hi s love of nature. He has always loved nature and survival. Another reason he wrote this book is because he loves to travel. After reading The River, I realized the whole story was about survival. I wasn’t surprised though, as I read many other books from Gary Paulsen including Hatchet, Brian’s Hunt, Brian’s Yates 7 Winter, and Dogsong. All of those books are similar to The River in that they all have a story based off of adventure, survival, and nature. They are all very well written books and I enjoyed them a lot. If you are into books about a realistic, intense, and interesting survival story packed full of adventures, Gary Paulsen is one other you can turn too. I would highly recommend his books, especially The River. Yates 8 Works Cited â€Å"About Gary.† www.RandomHouse.com. Random House, Inc., 2004. Web. 29 Nov 2011. . â€Å"Biography of Gary Paulsen.† usa-people-search.com. USA People Search, 2011. Web. 29 Nov 2011.