Theresa Gbekia
World history
Reimers Williams
10 January 2014 ALIVE
Although a plan of 45 people crashed in the Andes, sixteen of them made it alive. Those sixteen faced extremely harsh weathers, loneliness and hunger. On the Andes tops there was no Singh of a living thing, so how did the sixteen men stay alive? The men used the torn up plan as shelter. They accompany each other to wear of loneliness. And yes for food they eat those who did not stay alive!
I believe that the overall question of this book is; what will one do to stay Alive when driven from civilization? The sixteen men did an outrageous thing eating their friends. They came to many explanations to make the act righteous. That action of man tells a great fear for live! The men feared for their life and did what they had to do to stay alive. A technological cause that helped answered the question was science .To science; the eating of human flesh simply provides protein just like any other animal meat. The human body does not hold any kind of poison, therefor is edible. A political cause in this book was that the leader/the men that took charge reasoned that God had the bodies there for them to stay alive. The leaders, who were the strongest and healthiest felt responsible to care for the weaker friends and made sure that they were fed. At the end of recuse, none of the sixteen survivors were held in poison for the cannibal act they committed. In fact, some of the victim’s families had no angry words. They simply acknowledged that if their loved ones were the once to survive they would of done the same thing. This indicates that all agreed that the survivors had done what they had done because they wanted to live, that they feared for their lives. One economic cause that helped answer this question was the survivors had little to eat and sooner or later they were going to run out. No trees grew in the mountain so that it could produce fruit for the survivors to eat. No animals were near the mountains for the survivors to eat. They were so poor that they had to turn on their dead friends for meat, protein and live.
The technologies that were important at the time were the machine the survivors made to melt snow, for water. The cushioning from the airplane seats for bedding and the airplane for shelter. The political structure that was important was the way leadership established among the men. In the book, the leaders took charge somewhat naturally there was no battle for authority. The weak obey the brave and a communist government was build. The economics factor was extremely important to the survivors. At first the group had little supplies of food, later they gained an enormous amount after deciding to eat the dead!
The technology used for melting the snow is a very important tool. Water is important in my life, simply because every human need water. If there weren’t tools to melt ice into water all of the world would go thirsty. The political changes that occur in this book allowed to see that favored people or powerful people will be the once to rule if there were no set laws. Education wouldn’t mater only staying alive would mater. The economics of the book allowed me to understand that the Andes survivor did what they had to do to stay alive1
Based on what I read, felt and learned from the book, in the future and from now on I will embrace every new soul I meet and appreciate the once I already met. I will thank God more often for giving this gift, to live. I will not Judge others for I do not know their live. I will enjoy the smallest things in life. And I promise to be kinder to my sisters and brothers, father and mother. Life is short so I will live it with lots of love. Most of the survivors had loved ones that they had in mind to keep going. I with passion do believe that Family and friends are the most important things in live.
Overall this book was amazing with shocking facts. I would recommend this book to my older brother because he is fascinated with survival and heroic stories. As I read the book he would ask for a summary of the pages or chapters I had read.
Even though the book was a great, fascinating story, reading it at some points were sort of a difficult thing for me to do. I broke down too many times, taking a break from the book. In the book when 'Canossa' cut the first flesh from the human and eat it, give me a day of headache. The realties and facts this book draws about human behaviors is a lot to bear. I feel that if a very young person reads this book, they can actually become depressed or even traumatized. This piece of literature is very emotional and deep therefore I will not recommend this book to any of my younger siblings or to any one with a soft mind.
In conclusion I strongly believe that this book is a good primary source, it's reliable. I favored the narrative perspective of the unification a lot. But I can't help to wonder if that's all that really happened. I feel that some fact was cut from the truth to protect the reputation of the survivors. Were there any crimes committed between the living survivors? Did the Survivors tell a story the way they wanted it to be told?