The island by Gary Paulsen

Essay by mojoey67Junior High, 8th gradeA+, February 2005

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The Island by Gary Paulsen. Published by Dell Publishing, c. 1988, 202 pp.

The Island is a young adult's novel about a unique fifteen year old boy, named Wil Neuton, who has to move to a new home in a new city, because of his father's new job. When their family has finished the move, Wil goes out for a bike ride and as he is traveling across a bridge and gazing out over the water, he discovers a small island in the middle of a big lake. Wil becomes interested in this island and once he rows out to it, in a canoe he finds on the shore, he discovers that there is something pulling him to it. This story vividly describes how a teenager's pretty weak relationship with his parents can be changed by them realizing how hard it is to deal with their only child being away on an island, trying to learn something about himself, completely isolated from man, and from them.

Wil is an average teenager; so he and everyone else think. When Wil discovers a little personal island, and a very nice girl, named Susan, he starts to not regret moving after all. He is being drawn by something to the island, but he doesn't know what it is. Wil starts sleeping overnight on the island, after briefly talking to his parents about it. Wil learns that he can relax on this island, and eventually finds himself meditating, writing, painting, and thinking more clearly. Susan begins to bring Wil food and supplies, almost every day, because Will feels that if he leaves the island even briefly, the inner peace that he has worked so hard to achieve will just be gone and over like that. While Susan and Wil start to get closer,