Brian's Return

Paulsen highlights the concept of medicine to symbolize nature as a guide. Brian has a connection with nature, and upon meeting Billy, learns the term “medicine” as a way of articulating the connection he feels to the woods. The concept of medicine suggests that particular animals act as guides: for Brian, a deer, and for Billy, a crow. When Brian talks about hunting with a bow rather than a gun, Billy gives his approval, saying that hunting with a gun is “bad medicine” since it doesn’t give the animal time to ready itself for death (99). This usage of the term suggests that mistreatment of animals can sever the connection between humans and nature. Later, when Brian faces off with the bear, he tells himself, “my medicine is strong” (106). Paulsen shows that when a person respects nature, nature will respect them in return. Medicine symbolizes a kind of beneficial supernatural connection between humans and nature, something that Brian has felt in the past, but hasn’t had words for until now. At the novel’s conclusion, Brian chooses to let nature guide his way, to “follow his medicine” (110). This feeds into the theme that self-discovery can be made through nature; Brian will let nature guide his course in life.

Paulsen records Brian’s ease of sleep throughout the novel to symbolize the fulfillment and peace he feels in nature. When Brian spends the first night of his trip outside the pilot’s shack, he falls asleep instantly “for the first time in months” (45). Paulsen shows that Brian is at peace with himself and his surroundings now that he is back in the woods. While living at home and going to school, Brian could not experience this same calm, and he had trouble sleeping. In contrast, the night of the heavy rainstorm, Brian cannot sleep; the rain is so heavy that his tent is soaked and eventually collapses, and Brian must wait out the remainder of the night under his canoe. This instance shows that Brian’s peace is disrupted, not only by the storm, but also by his own lack of preparation. He chides himself for failing to dig a drainage gutter around his tent and must learn from his mistakes. Brian’s lack of sleep in this situation shows that Brian’s peace comes from his connection with nature; when he is not in tune to nature or fails to prepare for what it might bring, that connection and the sense of fulfillment it brings falters.

Paulsen also indicates that Brian wakes during the night sometimes, either because of a sound or because of a particular feeling. Brian is so in tune with nature that he can sense sounds and environmental shifts even in his sleep. For instance, he wakes one night not because of a sound, but because of the absolute beauty and stillness of the night. Paulsen suggests that nature prompted Brian awake so he would not miss such a beautiful night. He sings with the wolf while out on the lake, and later that night he dreams of the wolf, seeing images of himself and the wolf overlapping. His dream points to the identity he is developing, as he becomes part of the rhythms of the woods. Paulsen uses sleep here again to symbolize the peace Brian feels now that he is in the woods where he is meant to be.