Survival

I’m going to fight this,

I’m going to survive this,

I won’t give up!!!

Introduction: The nature of survival was shown in the texts “Touching the void” written by joe simpson,  “Rabbit Proof Fence” Directed by Phillip Noyce, “wilderness” written by Roddy Doyle and  “Hunger Games” directed by Gary Ross. These all show how hard they have worked in the order to survive. It shows that they do not give up no matter the circumstances and survive things most people would not.

The nature of survival was shown in the text “Touching The Void” written by Joe Simpson. Touching the void is about 2 men Joe and Simon try conquer the near impossible climb of Siula Grande. The first aspect of survival that was shown is you need to take risks that can provide more opportunities to survive. This is shown when Joe falls down a crevasse and takes a risk by going further down to see if there was a way out. At this point he decides that he has nothing else to lose so he gave it a go. If there is no way out at the bottom he is stuck in a crevasse and left to die.The text states, “The desire to stop abseiling became almost unbearable.” “The torment of anticipating something unknown…I hung shaking on the rope with my helmet pressed to the ice.” This shows that Joe is very determined to survive and he is willing to do anything in order to conquer the crevasse but he is also petrified to go further because he doesn’t know what lies at the bottom for him.

A second aspect of survival that was shown in the text “Touching the void” was that sometimes you have to sacrifice others lives in order to sustain your own. This was shown when Simon remembers he has a knife in his pocket. He quickly grabs the knife, without hesitation Simon snaps the rope it only takes a light touch of the blade. He feels the weight of Joe leave him and is relieved there is no weight pulling him down. The text states “The knife. The thought came out of nowhere. Of course, the knife. Be quick, come on get it.” “It needed no pressure. The taut rope exploded at the touch of the blade.” Simon felt free from the weight of Joe.

This shows that at this point in time the only thing Simon could think about was how Joe’s weight was gone from him and he didn’t have to worry about fighting the weight of someone else to save his own life. The main thing this is shows in the text is how you need to do anything to survive. Just ask yourself if you were in this situation would you let you and your friend both lose the battle of survival or would you save your own life?

The nature of survival was shown in the film “Rabbit Proof Fence” Directed by Phillip Noyce. This film is about 3 girls Molly Craig, Daisy Kadibill and Gracie Fields that find themselves in a tricky situation by being half cast children in the Australian outback and get caught. In result of this the girls try sneak out of moore river and find themselves in a survival situation to make it home.  The first aspect of survival was shown when Molly and the girls had to sneak out of Moore river before it started raining because they knew the rain would cover their tracks. This is shown when Molly is told to “take the bucket out.” She looks outside and she hears thunder, she realizes that it is going to rain which would assist to cover their tracks. This shows that Molly really wants to leave Moore river but to do this she has to find strategies and ways to leave without getting caught which is a method of survival.

A second aspect of survival that was shown in the film “Rabbit Proof Fence” was a negative aspect of survival. Gracie throughout the whole film had a negative mindset and didn’t think they were going to get back home and she was very hesitant. This is shown when Gracie questions Molly and points out potential failings. The viewer sees that Gracie doesn’t follow initially and  the viewer also hears Gracie say “too far, Molly” but then runs after the girls outside. This shows in the film that Gracie is very hesitant about the decisions that Molly makes and it leaves a negative image on the character. In the end the negativity Gracie has impacts her later on in the film when she gets caught at the train station because she wanted a shortcut to make things easier for her, even with the risk of getting caught. In the end Gracie’s negativity impacted her on the walk ending in the consequence of her not making it home. A quote for Gracie is that “a negative thinker sees a difficulty in every opportunity A positive thinker sees an opportunity in every Difficulty.” This shows if Gracie believed and was positive about the little things she might not of got caught and survived with Molly and Daisy.

This situation can be compared to “Touching The Void” because in the Film and text there are many similarities. The girls were in survival mode to get home and stay alive to make the journey back. Joe and Simon in “Touching The Void” relates to the situation that Molly, Gracie and Daisy were in because they were also in survival mode to conquer the mountain. When they found themselves in a tricky situation they believed they could get out of it and did everything in their power to do this. This is shown when Simon is eager to get to the next rock one at a time and make it home. This is related to Molly because she has the same mindset and wants to get to places one at a time. Gracie does not have this mindset and does not set goals or believe resulting in losing the battle to survive and make it home.

The nature of survival was shown in the text “wilderness” written by Roddy Doyle. Wilderness is about two boys Johnny and Tom and their mother Sandra who go on a husky expedition in finland but then everything goes horrible.

The first aspect of survival that was shown is when Sandra was on a husky expedition with her two kids Johnny who as 11 and his brother tom who is 10. Things all go wrong when Sandra goes on the wrong track and crashes. Everyone leaves Sandra there while they go to the hut. When everyone is gathered round at the hut they figure that she is missing they have to organise a team to go help find her. Johnny and Tom are worried sick and go out to find their mum without permission. When the boys find Sandra she is lying down with the dogs and her leg broken in two places. The text states that “Are you ok?” said Johnny. “My leg,” she said. “But i think i’m after breaking something.” “What?” said Johnny. “My leg,” she said. “I  think. The boys would have to wait in the dark so they could get help bringing their mum home and would have to find a way to keep warm. The text states that He knew what to do. He just did He knew what had to be done. “Fire,” he said “yeah,” said Johnny.

This shows That Sandra is in a tricky situation by being stranded by herself during the night in the cold. Sandra was unable to move and the boys were young and didn’t really have the skills at this age to get a weakened human being back across Finland in the dark, so the boys did what they could and made a fire until the others got there. This shows survival techniques while traveling over finland when things go wrong and the boys have to persevere and believe they can help there mum survive but also do whatever it takes to keep them alive in the freezing cold.

The nature of survival was shown in the film “Hunger Games” directed by Gary Ross. The hunger games is a film about a girl Katniss everdeen in a situation she cannot get out of when she is in a battle with 23 other people in order to survive. There can only be 1 survivor at the end or you could even say winner. The first aspect of survival was shown when Prim gets chosen for the annual hunger games but Katniss (Prims sister) Saves her life by volunteering for the hunger games because she could not go through the guilt of letting her sister going through a situation of having a 1 in 24 chance of surviving to be the last person. This is the start of Katniss’s road to survival. The viewer hears Katniss shout i volunteer as tribute as prim is going up the front. This shows that Katniss is willing to risk her life to save her sisters. Just think if that was your sibling that got chosen would you risk your life to save theirs, would you?

A second aspect of survival was shown in the film The Hunger Games” was when Katniss and Peeta were the last two survivors they had to fight the odds and kill one another. They turned on the rules and both threatened to eat poisonous berries so they would both die. The viewer sees both of them holding the berries then all of a sudden we hear the manager of the hunger games stop them and say they can both live. This is a relief for Peeta and Katniss. This shows that to survive sometimes you have to risk your own life.

This situation can be compared to “Wilderness” because in the film and text there are lots of similarities. Both show that in order to survive you have to risk your own life to save others. In “Wilderness” this is shown when Tom and Johnny go out in the cold to save their mum and this is shown in “The Hunger Games” when Katniss both risk their lives so to end up surviving. I have learnt from these that you must do anything in your power to save another life or even your own.  

In conclusion i have wrote about the struggles these people have gone through in order to survive. They all relate to each other because they have to all overcome different obstacles in order to sustain life.The things I have learnt from these are to always have hope and always believe and be determined to finish what you have started. It has taught me valuable things throughout writing and now i can think if i’m in a tricky situation to not give up there will always be a way.