This quote heavily applies to the protagonist throughout the entirety Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen. In this story, the reader follows the story of Cole Matthews, a fifteen-year-old juvenile delinquent from Minneapolis. Cole narrowly escapes going to court for assaulting a classmate named Peter Driscal after he tried to turn him in for robbing a store. Instead of going to court and most likely jail, Cole is sent to Circle Justice. It is decided that Cole should be sent away to a remote island to begin his learning and recovery. With the help of Garvey, a parole officer, Edwin, a Tlingit elder, and even a Spirit Bear who mauled him, Cole begins to learn from his past mistakes. To help him along his way Cole is taught multiple methods to try and control his anger and violent thoughts. Over everything else, the biggest and most needed part of Cole’s recovery was when he forgave himself.
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This became highly evident after Cole’s first meeting with Circle Justice. Cole said: “‘My parents don’t have the time of day for me. I’m just in their way, especially since they split up. I bet my dad can’t even tell you when my birthday is.’ Cole grabbed a deep breath to control himself” (48). Although he tries not to show it, Cole feels like all he ever manages to be is a bother to everyone around him. An inconvenience. His parents are wrapped up in their own twisted world and leave Cole to fight for himself with no one to console him. Sometimes Cole realizes this all too suddenly and he turns into a blubbering mess. If Cole ever wants to recover, he needs to let go of all those feelings of burden. He needs to forgive himself by realizing that his poor family relationship was not originally caused by
This became highly evident after Cole’s first meeting with Circle Justice. Cole said: “‘My parents don’t have the time of day for me. I’m just in their way, especially since they split up. I bet my dad can’t even tell you when my birthday is.’ Cole grabbed a deep breath to control himself” (48). Although he tries not to show it, Cole feels like all he ever manages to be is a bother to everyone around him. An inconvenience. His parents are wrapped up in their own twisted world and leave Cole to fight for himself with no one to console him. Sometimes Cole realizes this all too suddenly and he turns into a blubbering mess. If Cole ever wants to recover, he needs to let go of all those feelings of burden. He needs to forgive himself by realizing that his poor family relationship was not originally caused by