Where It All Goes Down
An Island Off the Coast of Alaska
Touching Spirit Bear introduces readers to the setting right away—a remote island off the coast of Alaska where Cole Matthews must spend a year while trying to reform himself and repent for his crimes:
Cole strained at the cuffs even though he had agreed to wear them until he was freed on the island to begin his banishment. Agreeing to spend a whole year alone in Southeast Alaska had been his only way of avoiding a jail cell in Minneapolis. (1.1)
The remote and undeveloped setting makes it so that Cole can't be distracted by other people or things—he has to focus on surviving and thinking about his life and the things he's done wrong. When he first arrives, Edwin warns him that he must work hard in order to survive; if he doesn't, nature can be pretty unforgiving:
Edwin turned to Cole. "Nobody's going to babysit you here. If you eat you'll live. If not, you'll die. This land can provide for you or kill you." He pointed into the forest. "Winters are long. Cut plenty of wood or you'll freeze. Keep things dry, because wet kills." (2.15)
Cole doesn't take this warning seriously at first and suffers for it. He ends up mauled by a bear and freezing and starving out in the middle of a storm, pretty much completely defeated by nature. This near-death experience reinvigorates Cole's investment in himself and his life, though, and upon his return to the island, he starts to see the beauty in the wild landscape and learns how to live off the land as a part of nature instead of trying to conquer or destroy it.