Journal Entry 57: What Makes Fire

In Hatchet, Brian has to rely on what he has learned in school, while playing, watching television, and observing what is around him. One of the things he has learned about is the conditions necessary to make a fire. List the tree things Brian knew he needed and explain what each thing means. Describe the two ways Brian tried to make fire and how he needed all of the conditions listed above. What might have been lacking when he attempted to start the fire. Why couldn’t he start a fire by rubbing the sticks together?

The three things Brian knew he needed for building a fire are oxygen, heat and also something flammable that fire can burn on. Fire obviously must need oxygen, because without oxygen, it can not burn at all, and that's why it's better to live in space because there is no possibilities of causing a fire! Fire also needs heat, because if it's not hot, then there wouldn't be fire at all. Fire also creates warmth, but it needs heat to create it first. Having a spark because you have oxygen and heat is easy, but to be able to make a spark turn into fire that burns is much harder, like Brian found out. In order to keep a fire burning, you need something the fire can burn on, like paper, and it has to be dry and, well, just like paper. The first time, Brian tried to make fire by creating heat using friction. He failed because there was not enough heat, and it'd take him days to make the heat just right and also, he wouldn't be able to keep the fire for long because there's nothing the fire can burn on. Then, Brian tried making a fire using grass and twigs as the things for the fire to burn on. That, too, did not work well, because the material wasn't right, and he needed something finer, like paper. He then ripped his money into pieces, but the fire only lasted a little while because there wasn't enough things for the fire to burn on. Finally, he goes out to collect suitable wood and he finally makes a decent fire and is able to keep it burning for a long period of time.