Throughout the novel The Martian author Andy Weir demonstrates determination and the value of attitude, both qualities that the protagonist Mark Watney has and develops in the book. In the beginning of the book Weir introduces Mark Watney, a witty and intelligent astronaut who is a part of the Ares 3 mission, a series of missions to Mars. On day six of the mission or Sols, the name for days on Mars tragedy strikes when his crew has to evacuate Mars due to a dust storm and Watney is left behind. After the initial shock of being utterly alone on a planet with no form of communication Watney gets to work on figuring out how he is going to survive. The next day he discovers that he has roughly three hundred days of food. Both the oxygenator and …show more content…
It is also reveled that Watney is both a botanist and a mechanical engineer, which turn out to be extremely useful skills. After weeks of everyone thinking he was dead, NASA employee Mindy Park discovers that Mark Watney is in fact alive but Watney has no way to know that information. Now back on Mars the potatoes are growing but now he is starting to think long term and figures out that his best bet is to find a way to where the Ares 4 mission is going to land over 3200 kilometers away. After showing incredible survival skills and dealing with problems like explosions and just overall failure Watney now has to figure out how to survive in a rover which bring a new set of challenges. After months of trying to figure out how to make his plan to get to Schiaparelli possible Watney has to deal with even more setbacks including failed attempts to send him supplies and having to deal with the Hab deflating which causes him to lose all his plants. He also gains communicate with NASA temporarily with the Mars rover Pathfinder before he is once again he loses contact and is only able to contact NASA but not get a