What does "save something of himself" mean here?
This is from the book, Hatchet and a boy survived from a big plane crash. He pulled himself out of the lake and now he is on his own on an unknown island.

He pulled his legs out of the lake and crawled on his hands and knees until he was away from the wet-soft shore and near a small stand of brush of some kind. (He's thinking about what had happened to him.)
Then he went down, only this time to rest, **to save something of himself.** He lay on his side and put his head on his arm and closed his eyes because that was all he could do now, all he could thing of being able to do. He closed his eyes and slept.

Here, I don't understand what "save something of himself" means especially because "save" has lots of meanings. Is it the same "save" as in "I save half of my income"?
I'm also not sure about the role and meaning of "of" here.

Question

What does "save something of himself" mean here?
This is from the book, Hatchet and a boy survived from a big plane crash. He pulled himself out of the lake and now he is on his own on an unknown island.

He pulled his legs out of the lake and crawled on his hands and knees until he was away from the wet-soft shore and near a small stand of brush of some kind. (He's thinking about what had happened to him.)
Then he went down, only this time to rest, **to save something of himself.** He lay on his side and put his head on his arm and closed his eyes because that was all he could do now, all he could thing of being able to do. He closed his eyes and slept.

Here, I don't understand what "save something of himself" means especially because "save" has lots of meanings. Is it the same "save" as in "I save half of my income"?
I'm also not sure about the role and meaning of "of" here.

Answer

Hatchet was exhausted after having pulled himself out of the lake and crawled on the shore for a bit. He was probably in shock as well after the plane crash. So, "to save something of himself" in this context means "to conserve some energy or whatever is left inside him". "Of" there is just a possessive marker.

Answer

'Save' here means 'conserve' or 'keep'. He doesn't want to use up or exhaust all his strength. He wants to keep/conserve some of his energy rather than use it all.

'to save something of himself' could be rewritten as "to preserve/keep some of his energy".

Answers · 2

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