Brian knows that he must land because the plane will run out of gas soon. He is having a war in his mind because he has never landed a plane before but he knows that he must. He starts looking for a lake to land in to break the fall a bit and finally finds one. He crashes into it and is not hurt but shaken up quite a bit. When his mind finally starts to work properly again, he realizes that he is alone in the wilderness with nothing but the hatchet that his mother gave him as a gift. He has to survive until the rescuers come. As he grows accustomed to his situation, he is aware of the changes that are taking place in him, "I am not the same. I see, I hear differently."(p. 105).
Brian knows that he will never see things the same. He will never take advantage of the things he has at home again. Thinking about the things he has at home, he almost feels guilty for how easy he had it. Whenever he was hungry, he would just go to the refrigerator and get a snack. Here he had to search for food or hunt.
This is a wonderful, very detailed and interesting book. It shows us how lucky we are to have the privileges that we don't realize when we do have them, but are impossible not to notice when they are taken away. I highly recommend this book.