Survival

In the Survival Unit, we accomplished learning about three main different studies of works. First, we read The Old Man and the Sea written by Ernest Hemingway. This novel taught about the strength and determination of an old man to catch his fish. The old man did not give up no matter what obstacle came in his way, not even sharks. In the end he realized his downfalls and learned how he could improve in the future. Thereafter, we read separately our own works, either Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, or The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. I chose to read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand for my piece. This novel told the story of Louie Zamperini, a troubled kid who found a passion in running. He was determined and he used his strong will to push himself farther and even make it to the Olympics. Soon though, war broke out and Louie was shipped off to be in the air force. Him and his crew faced many great feats. After crash landing and floating endlessly on in the wide open enemy waters Louie still never gave up. Lastly, we watched three episodes of the Survivorman series by Les Stroud. In this series, Stroud has to survive the harsh climates of several different scenarios. In one episode he had to survive in the cold Alaskan Wilderness. Stroud showed his ability to adapt to his surroundings and his great knowledge of the environment surrounding him as well. He found his own food to eat such as kelp and various other edible roots, as well as caught his drinking water in a bucket he scavenged. Stroud was also able to construct his own leak-proof shelter that kept him warm from the outside weather.

            The most important survival trait in my opinion is adaptability. If you cannot adapt to meet your environment’s climate or to the food source around it, you die. Simple as that. Without a clean source of drinking water, you die. If you can’t find edible food to eat, you die. If you become ill with sun-stroke, you die. One must use the resources around them to live off of and to fend for their lives.