Me and Survival

After reading many articles about people in life or death situations, I found that many people would go to extreme measures in order to ensure their own survival.  This realization made me wonder how far I might go to make sure my own life lasts a little longer.  One woman I read about actually refused food for weeks to get out of a facility by getting medical attention because the facility treated her so awful.  If I were in such a predicament I am pretty sure I might have done the same.  I have also heard stories of people who ran out of food and actually ate the people who had already passed on.  I can easily say that I would never go that far just to survive!  If I were ever in a situation like that, I would hope not to do anything that may bring harm to another human, unless I knew that they were bound to harm others, then I would know that I might have saved some lives.  To be completely honest though, I do not know how I would react in such a situation because I have never been in one, but I hope that whatever I might do, I would not regret.

Survival on the Battle Field

6 word slant:

War survival comes with a price

140 Character Claim: 

After taking a chance to protect freedoms, war survivors find themselves coming back from a predicament impossible to overcome completely.

    Essay:                                                     

Survival on the Battle Field

              In Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, Buck, the main dog character of the story, goes through many hardships and finds several different ways to survive, doing any possible physical action in order to do so.  Buck, ferine and ferocious, is very stubborn and hates to fail, but when his newest owners take him to the extreme to where he could lose his life, he chooses to go no further and to fail for the first time.  For him, the decision was huge, yet this decision saved his life.  When in a near death situation surroundings can lead to extreme survival techniques, which could scar them, but also help them in their future. 

One characteristic of war is the persons surroundings; the messier the surroundings, the more chaotic and traumatic the events may seem to be.  When reading CStraight’s article “Stories from Women,” he describes a mother during the Rwandan civil war, and her story.  While the war was going on, she had to find a way to protect her children without the help of her husband who was killed later in the war.  “There was shooting going on, and people were falling on others and dying everywhere,” she tells the interviewer.  Like a dear beset by wolves, she found herself in a travail situation, yet miraculously she found a way to overcome the situation.  When people are dying all around, would not that type of surrounding be traumatizing? Although everything around might be what makes everything worse, sometimes what worsens the situation is what is not around.  In “A Personal Story” told by Dr. Hal Kushner, he tells of himself being in captivity.  Before being captured though, he and his fellow soldiers were shot down in a helicopter.  After surveying their surroundings to see what supplies they had, they realized they had ‘no food or water, no flares, no first aid kit or survival gear.’  The situation is bad enough to have been shot down and wounded with buddies either hurt or dead, but they also had nothing to help them get out of the predicament they were in.  One’s surroundings play a huge part in survival because surroundings can worsen one’s chances of survival in just a simple second.

When stuck in a life or death situation, a person might go to very extreme survival techniques in order to survive.  In CStraight’s article he explains that when the violence started picking up, ‘she fled to a nearby church where she thought she and her family would be safe.’  Sadly, they ‘walked into a nightmare.’  They were under attack.  In order ‘to survive, Violette was forced to lie down in the aisle and smear blood on herself and her children.  Pretending to be dead, they hid among the corpses.  ‘Afraid to move, to cry, to even breathe, they lay there for an entire week until the Rwandan army came to liberate the area.’  She had two children with her, one being 4 years of age and the other 5.  People’s reactions are amazing just in how far one will go in order to ensure survival, or even to just get out of an awful situation.  Sometimes war is smaller than a country, but is actually within a building.  In his article “Harriet’s Story: Ugandan survival, British Prisoner”, Jason N. Parkinson describes Harriet’s stands to be freed.  Harriet ‘was persecuted, accused of supporting the LRA.’  So she ‘caught a flight to Heathrow airport’ and ran away from what she presumed was her death.  She was then captured and put in an asylum.  To try and get out, ‘she started refusing food.’  She became so sick and weak that they let her go after 5 weeks of no food.  She was so determined to get out after being treated so badly that she just stopped eating!  That just fascinates me that she would go to such extremes to get out of a situation that could lead to her death.  She kept on fighting, proving that one will go to extremes in order to survive.

               

After surviving some kind of life or death situation, there is always an after effect.  CStraight’s article explains that Violette ‘tried to rebuild her life.’  After working for others by farming, she eventually decided to try something else so that she might be able to pay for her children’s education along with food for her family.  Someone decided to sponsor her and now she has ‘learned marketable job skills and honed her innate leadership abilities.’  She is now the ‘local businesswoman and a leader in her community.’  She has truly found a way to overcome her past and has continued to show her strength.  While Violette found a way to overcome her past, Kushner, as explained in his article, found a way to learn from his captivity.  He ‘learned about the human spirit…. Confidence in yourself… loyalty to your country and its ideals and to your friends and comrades.’  He believes that he was very fortunate to have survived and knows that he very easily could have been one of the men that died to protect our freedoms.  Even though both Violette and Kushner went through very tragic events, they have overcome them in the best way that they could and have found a way to progress in life.

Life or death situations can show a person’s character through their reaction.  Dictionary.com defines a survivor as ‘a person or thing that survives.’  Although I agree that that defines a survivor, a true survivor must overcome the incident, otherwise reliving the tragedies may occur.  That is true for all situations.   Imagine just how hard this would be, how much would have to be accomplished, to do so.  In my own opinion, survival is one of the hardest things to overcome. 

Works Cited:

Kushner, Dr. Hal. "Vietnam War-Stories: Personal Story." (2000): 6. war-stories.com. Web. 17 May 2012. <://www.war-storieshttp.com/aspprotect/pow-kushner-personal-story-1967-2.asp>.

Parkinson, Jason N. "Harriet's Story: Ugandan Survivor, British Prisoner." (2005): 5. opendemocracy.net. Web. 17 May 2012. <http://www.opendemocracy.net/people-migrationeurope/uganda_3114.jsp>.

Straight, C. "Stories From Women." Women for Women International (2008): 9. womenforwomen.org. Web. 17 May 2012. <http://www.womenforwomen.org/global-initiatives-helping-women/stories-women-rwanda.php>.

“Survivor.” Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. 17 May. 2012. <Dictionary.com

            http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Survivor>.

Survivor Synthesis: War Survivors

After taking a chance to protect freedoms, war survivors find themselves coming back from a predicament impossible to overcome completely.

What Does it Mean to be Human?

What does being human mean?  The ability to walk on two feet and communicate with each other through words?  Or maybe, as put as in the YouTube video "What Does it Mean to be Human?," being human is the fact that we have thumbs?  To me, being human is being able to make decisions and learn from past mistakes, to be able, in some way, communicate thoughts and to feel a need for fellowship.

My English class recently finished the novel Frankenstein.  Throughout this novel a monster,created by scientist Victor Frankenstein, learns many ideas as to what being human takes.  First off, he learned the necessities of living:  food, water, sunlight, and exercise.  Soon he learns from watching an everyday family, that relationships and fellowship are also important characteristics to being human.  We need to communicate, in some way, our thoughts and ideas so that we can prosper and better ourselves.  In the novel, the monster worked hard to learn the language and soon tried to communicate with people because of his felt need to take part in these human necessities.

To me, one of our greatest attributes to being human is how we can make decisions on our own and our ability to learn from past experiences.  Everyday a normal human makes a ton of decisions.  They make the decision to wake up or go back to sleep, what they should eat, what they should do that day, and so much more.  Some decisions are more important than others, of course, because they have the power to completely change our future.  Our future is constantly changed by the choices we make, and although we can not change our past, we can change our future.  For this reason, it is very important for us, humans, to learn from our past and to overcome it so that we might have a brighter future!  A huge part in what makes us human is our ability to take action or to sit back depending on the situation.  Sometimes mistakes are made, but as humans, those mistakes are what further us in our knowledge of life.

What makes us human, I believe has nothing to do with our outward appearance.  Although I do agree with those that say our thumbs differ us from other living creatures, I also know that not all humans have been blessed with them.  Nick Vujicic is a man who was born without any limbs.  In his book, Life Without Limits, he tells of obstacles that he has faced and how he has overcome them.  He does not spend his time feeling sorry for himself, but actually goes and helps others, which is amazing in his circumstances.  He is a living example of what I believe being human means because of how he has overcome some huge trials and they have shaped him to a bright future.  For me, being human is being able to make decisions and learning from past experiences, to be able, in some way, communicate thoughts and to feel a need for fellowship.

My Dream to Fly

As I looked up at the sky,

I saw the other birds flying so high.

Then here I am stuck on the ground,

Hoping for my chance to come around.

I know that I am bigger than most,

And extremely fast, not to boast,

But all I want is my chance to try.

If I don't, I think I'll cry.

I'll just stick my head back into the ground,

As all ostriches do year round,

For I know that my dream may not come true.

I guess I'll just have to be happy with what I do.

So here I am as they fly by,

And with them goes my dream to fly.

The Way of Life; The Zeal to Survive

Life is a precious gift that we get the privilege to have.  Each second of our lives we should make count because it is what forms us into what we are remembered for.  In this life we have many things to learn, but one thing that comes naturally is our will to live.

Recently we were reminded of what happened about 100 years ago, the day that the Titanic sank.  Many lives were lost in that tragic accident, and many lives were effected.  Many morose stories have been heard of the chaos, everyone so focused on living that they did not care what price might be paid.  The celerity of the moment may have led some to become what they never dreamed of becoming.Some may have become murderers in that moment because their will was so strong that they did what ever it took.  They may have felt beset because of what they had to do to survive.  I'm sure though, that when they looked back, that day of survival was not something they were proud of.

My class has recently been reading The Call of the Wild.  In this book, there are moments where the zeal to survive shows very strongly in the lives of the ferine dogs.  Buck, the main dog, shows it most when he goes on a journey with some newcomers and is forced to have a voracious appetite because of the lack of food, but some how he keeps on trucking.  Even when he sees his fellow dogs dropping out one by one, he kept fighting for his survival, and he finally finds himself alive and well.

The zeal to survive is strong and hard to control. How you reaction may surprise you in that moment, but I think that true strength comes when you allow someone else to take your spot in living.  So if you were in a near death experience, would you do what ever it takes to live? Or, would you accept death and put other lives before your own?

The Creator vs. the Created

In the book, Frankenstein, a man recreated life, creating a monster that in his perspective ruined his life.  Through out the book, there are many times where the monster and Frankenstein go through trials.  In the end, it almost seems like the monster is more human than it's own creator.

When Frankenstein, the creator, first found that he had recreated life, he ran from his creation.  This new life, like a child, did not know anything about life, it was helpless.  Frankenstein should have instinctively felt compassion for his creation, like a new parent, and should have helped the monster through its infant stage, rather than running away and leaving it to fend for itself.  In a way, because the monster did what it could in the circumstance it was in, the monster's reaction was more human than Frankenstein's reaction.

After learning on its own many things about life and the world, the monster went to search for it's creator to seek a little companionship because he was a little lonely.  When Frankenstein once again rejected it, the monster asked for a new creation to be formed for it.  Frankenstein could have thought about how hard life had been for his creation and formed the other creature, but instead only thought of the monster as evil.  Feeling no compassion towards the creature, Frankenstein decided against it, leaving the monster to feel hatred towards his creator.  In this way, the reaction from the monster seems much more human than the way Frankenstein treated his creation.

There are many more instances where Frankenstein rejects or ignores the monster, as if it did not exist, and then the monster's reaction seemed to be more human than Frankenstein's reaction. Because of the monster's and Frankenstein's reactions to both of these instances above, the monster appears to react in a way that is more human than that of Frankenstein's.