Gary Paulsen Biography Essay

The 1990s was a condemnation known as the digital Decade. A time when the Stock Market rocketed and the internet took withdraw. Along with technology becoming popular, Gary Paulsen was writing ace of his cardinal 100 novels, The River. It showed how the U.S. Government cherished progeny Brian to go back in the wilderness and reenact his survival skills he used a few years back, after he was tangled in a plane crash. Gary Paulsen is a great novel and short story writer for people of all ages. He is one of Americas most popular writers for young people, including adults and children (About). His manner was full of interesting things. Many of the things he did, including working on a kick upstairs 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 o ver light speed books and short stories and many go through 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 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 subroutine 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 whence on he was hooked to reading and writing (Gary). He spent many moments alone in the cellar of his apartment building, reading book after book after book. Soon after he acquired a taste for adventure when he ran away from his sept 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 (Biogr aphy). 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 erectoeing (Gary). Gary Paulsen says its his overwhelming judgement in young people that drives him to write (About). A few of his best sellers are Lawn Boy, The River, Brians Winter, Brians Hunt, The Rifle, Soldiers Heart, Tracker, The Crossing, Sentries, and Brains guide (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). peerless 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 a gain 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 his 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 doesnt 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, pity 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 ref lect his interests and past jobs that he had acquired. An example would be his book 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, Brians 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 1990s. The 1990s is a time also known as 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 enth usiasm for people and treasured to help them encounter 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 nations forty-second chief executive. Clinton attempted to fulfill a campaign promise to disable the ban on homosexuals in the military. His decision ended in the Dont Ask, Dont Tell compromise that didnt satisfy commanders of the military or the gay community (Digital 66). After a humanitarian effort was launched in Somalia, and after Clintons best decisions to handle the situation, thirty American Servicemen died. Ever since that happened, Clinton refused to come in contact with Rwanda, despite grandspread genocide that happened there, and caused over one million deaths. More than thirty million American citizens did not h ave medical insurance in the earl 90s. Candidate Bill Clinton promised to expand reportage 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 accuse 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 SUVs 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 90s was a time of almost unbounded choices and personal freedom. The 1990s was summed up by the word 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 used to be, the real yard behind the game industries huge growth came from the personal-com retcher 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 extreme sports in the 90s (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 Kuwaits 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 dictator ibn Talal Hussein 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 90s 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 90s also cut the development and growth of Genetic Engineering. Genetic Engineering is used to help make plants resistant to herbicides and insect icides. Over 60% of products on U.S. Grocery store shelves have genetic engineering in them (History). The 1990s was a decade of electronics. The computer and internet were huge inventions in the 90s. The pace of life was sped up dramatically in this decade. Overall this would have been a great decade 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 1990s and it is about true survival. The River has a few themes in its story, but the biggest one is true survival versus affair playing. After Brians 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 Brians reenactment, an investigate. Brian insists that Derek leave behind all of his equipment he is wanting to bring with them (Paulsen 23). He thinks that Derek doesnt truly understand the spirit of the experiment. Brians 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 the so called experiment turned too real way too fast. That dark a terrible storm had moved in, and it wasnt 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 stimulate 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 destroy by the lightening strike. Wh en Brian tries giving Derek water, he chokes immediately (Paulsen 65). Brian fears the worst and knows that Derek wont be able to get water until someone rescues them. He reaches for Dereks briefcase and finds only a map inside, but on the map he sees a river. He studies it and finds that a traders 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(prenominal) 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 its 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 of import inspiration for writing this book came from Paulsens 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 his 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 effected the whole story was about survival. I wasnt surprised though, as I read many other books from Gary Paulsen including Hatchet, Brians Hunt, Brians 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, surv ival, 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 super recommend his books, especially The River.Yates 8 Works Cited About Gary. www.RandomHouse.com. Random House, Inc., 2004. Web. 29 Nov 2011. . Biography of Gary Paulsen. usa-people-search.com. USA People Search, 2011. Web. 29 Nov 2011.