Hatchet

Boys alone in wilderness — but Golding believes absence of civilization reveals savagery, Paulsen believes it reveals competence. Two opposite answers to the same question.

Wilderness transformation — London romanticizes the wild; Paulsen respects it without romance. Both novels argue that civilization makes us weaker in ways we don't recognize.

Same genre DNA — child alone in wilderness, gradual competence, survival as self-discovery. George's tone is more lyrical; Paulsen's is more brutal.

Extended wilderness survival, single POV, gradual self-sufficiency — but O'Dell's protagonist is a girl surviving for years, and the novel explores gender and abandonment differently.

Survival in extreme conditions by a young protagonist — Collins inherits Paulsen's survival-as-character-development DNA but adds dystopian politics and forces survival to be performative.

The structural ancestor — shipwrecked man builds civilization from nothing. Crusoe has theological scaffolding Paulsen strips away; Brian's self-reliance is secular and contemporary.