American entrance into World War II officially began December 7, 1941 after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The war lasted until 1945, and thousands of Americans had been captured and detained as prisoners of war. In Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini is a former Olympic athlete who enlists in the air force and becomes a bombardier. He is taken as a POW after his plane crashes in the middle of the Pacific and he is left to survive on a raft for over a month. In various Japanese POW camps, Louie faces starvation and brutal beatings.
In the short story “The Cold Equations” by Tom Godwin, he portrays a theme that when life goes against what seems to be imminent death, death will come through and persevere. In the beginning of the story an EDS pilot takes off to send a flu serum to a group of people on the planet called Woden, with just enough fuel to get there by himself. But as he is making his way there he finds out there is a girl that has hidden on his ship, named Marilyn, to get to her brother that is on Woden, but he can’t just kick her out of the ship because it’s a girl. So he calls a cruiser with a commander on it, but he only says that he must kick her out of the ship, and there is nothing they can do to help save her, which makes Marilyn feel very alone. Marilyn
Andy: Imagine you are stranded on an island, starving and thirsty. You have managed to build a fire and have pushed through countless rainy nights. You are using the skills of a survivor. These skills have been used by other survivors such as Hyeonseo Lee, a North Korean who escaped her country. Aron Ralston uses survival traits to survive being trapped in between a boulder and a wall of rock.
In the book A Long Walk to Water, the main character Salva must overcome a lot of challenges in order for his survival. He is persistent, a hard worker, and just overall a very lucky young boy. These factors are very big reasons for his survival. After reading the book, readers can see that one of the main factors for Salvas survival is hard work.
Due to the more detailed physiognomy in the story, the theme in “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”
The three-time United States Track and Field Olympic champion, Gail Devers once said, “Sometimes we fall, sometimes we stumble, but we can’t stay down. We can’t allow life to beat us down. Everything happens for a reason, and it builds character in us, and it tells us what we are about and how strong we really are when we didn’t think we could be that strong.” In the non-fiction book Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, protagonist Louis Zamperini demonstrates his everlasting perseverance through his everyday actions. Like Devers believed, the resilient Zamperini refused to be defeated or demoralized and did everything in his power to keep his feet on the ground and his chin up.
Survival of the fittest The theme of survival of the fittest is shown throughout the memoir Night. Night was written by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. In this memoir Elie explains as well as shows survival of the fittest, by sharing his story of his struggles along with countless other Jews during the holocaust. He illustrated the theme of survival of the fittest in the memoir night through the situations of Elie lying about his age during selection, the Rabbi's son leaving his father, during the death march, and the son killing his father over a crust of bread.
Charles Darwin once stated that “It's not the strongest nor the smartest species that survive, it is the species that can adapt most quickly that can survive”. Survival requires many skills, but it is key to adapt to live , many people have demonstrated this such as Elie Wiesel in his novel Night, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston in her Memoir Farewell to Manzanar and Paul Rusesabagina in An Ordinary Man. Their preference of adapting themselves rather than facing consequences was retained in some of the most well-known survivors in the world. These people overcame their situation by adapting and slowly taking control of it. Flexibility and the ability to modify helped people such as Elie, Paul Rusesabagina and Jeanne survive through
“To persevere, I think, is important for everybody. Don’t give up, don’t give in. There’s always an answer to everything”-Louie Zamperini. This man, Louie Zamperini was a bombardier for the US in World War II. He and his crew were shot down and forced to survive at sea for forty six days.
Robert Neville, the last human in a dystopian future, must fight everyday to survive against the vampire related creatures that want his blood. The story follows him as he deals with his past and the desperate desire to survive and find other life. Clasen’s quote describes how Robert Neville in the novel I am Legend by Richard Matheson, fights through a hostile world, himself and the values of morality. Robert Neville deals with the frustration and pain that the creatures made him feel as they tore his life apart piece by piece, and now wait to take his entire life. Robert Neville, to get beyond the horrors of his past life and the ever present threats of his current life, deals with his anger and problems through ambivalent thoughts and drinking.
The Book I chose to explore was I Survived: The Eruption of Mount St. Helens, 1980. I chose this book because I have read a couple of I Survived books and found them to be very interesting since they are based on true stories. This is a non-fiction book because the events that occur actually happened. In addition, the main characters Jessie, Sam and Eddie were real people who experienced this destructive volcanic event.
“Is Survival Selfish” is an argumentative text written by Lane Wallace. The text focuses on the question of whether survival is an act of selfishness or intelligence. Author Wallace also draws your attention to whether saving someone in dire situations is altruism or idiocy. Throughout the story, the author provides evidence in means to support her claim and reasons. Wallace believes that “self-preservation” isn’t always instinctual and there are many factors involved, including the fact that every survival testing situation is different.
The way that such intricate, specific, and divergent books and life events relate is quite showing that the choices we make do affect others and ourselves, our passions define us in positive and negative ways, and being alone in an indifferent world makes us more aware in the end. Hardship and toil prove themselves to be worth it because for Marjane, Meursault, and myself, the results of our hard work with teach us more strength and independence than before. Existentialism exists more than we can see, and its philosophy promotes learning from
His father was taken away and forced to work on the roads. Izods family had to scavenge for anything, but it didn’t last long. His whole family died of starvation. Izod sought revenge, he had remembered the name “Buckridge” who had caused this. Izod became miserable, but dedicated to kill Buckridge.
The determination to live comes from human nature. But the urge of giving up when we come across a difficult problem is also a part of human nature. There a few people in this world that have the characteristics of resilience. As author Kendra Cherry describes them, "People that are able to keep their cool have what psychologists call resilience, or an ability to cope with problems and setbacks" (Source A; Cherry, 1). An example of someone who has the characteristics of resilience is a bombardier name Louis (Louie) Zamperini.
