Stories of Survival- Josh Williams

Over the past week or two, we have been holding student led discussions in class.  These discussions hold a central question that relates to the novel we have been reading independently, Lord of the Flies.  This book tells the story of a group of British schoolboys who are stranded on a desolate island.  The author, William Golding, portrays the boys fight for survival and their downfall into barbarism.  Subsequently, the six topics that we have conversed about reflect on human nature in regards to survival.  These topics include whether or not it is human nature to be moral and what duty bystanders have to those in peril.  Specifically, the group I was in led a discussion on whether or not there are any actions that can truly be deemed “out of bounds” in life-or-death survival scenarios.  During this discussion, we talked about many different survival stories, including the Donner Party and the Essex, in which drastic measures such as cannibalism were taken.  I would like to share some other survival stories that I found interesting while doing research for our discussion.  In these specific stories, people were able to survive without the use of measures such as cannibalism.

Aron Ralston:

Aron Ralston was mountain climbing at Blue John Canyon in Utah on April 26, 2003.  During his descent, Ralston disturbed an 800 pound boulder that fell and pinned his right arm against the side of the mountain.  He spent days trying to free his arm, but was unsuccessful in doing so.  During this time, Ralston used up his meager supply of food and water, and resorted to drinking his own urine.  He ultimately decided that he would have to amputate his arm.  He spent nearly a day doing so as all he could use to cut through the flesh and bone was a dull multi tool.  When finished, Ralston still had to finish his descent using only one arm.  He was rescued a few hour latter.         

Slavomir Rawicz:

Slavomir Rawicz was a member of the Polish Army when he was captured by Russian forces in 1939.  He was brought to Moscow where he was given a biased trial.  Rawicz was found guilty of war crimes against the Soviet Union and was sentenced to 25 years of labor.  He was taken to a Gulag camp in northern Siberia where he endured a year of harsh and laborious activities.  During a blizzard, Rawicz and six others escaped the Gulag camp and began an over 6,500 mile trek from northern Siberia to British occupied India.  Along the way, the group of seven had to avoid civilization and faced treacherous conditions.  Two members of group died during their journey through the Gobi Desert, and two others died while crossing the Himalayas.  The rest of the group, including Rawicz, were rescued by the British military when they reached India

Ernest Shackleton's Expedition Team:

          Late in 1914, Ernest Shackleton and his expedition team left Great Britain on the Endurance.  The team was attempting to cross the entire continent of Antarctica, traveling through the south pole.  The Endurance became stuck in ice in the Weddell Sea.  The men had no forms of communications and were stuck on the ship.  They remained there for nearly a year before the Endurance was destroyed by the ice.  Subsequently, they were forced to travel across the frozen ocean.  After months of travel, they reached the uninhabited Elephant island.  The expedition was presumed to be dead since they had gone missing more than a year prior.  Shackleton knew that they would not be rescued because of this.  He therefore made the decision to travel 800 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to the Southern Georgia Islands; where there was a small whaling outpost.  Six members of the team, including Shackleton, made the 800 mile journey in a lifeboat that they had taken with them from the Endurance.  Shackleton and his team were able to make it to the island and sent a rescue party to save the remaining men on Elephant Island.  Amazingly, only three men died throughout the failed expedition.    

We would all like to believe that when faced with adversity, we would be able to overcome the feats that lay before us.  However, when it comes to survival, it is not always practical to do so in a socially acceptable way.  Often, it becomes necessary for those near death to break from the norms of society to stay alive.  This means committing atrocities such as cannibalism.  The stories of Ralston, Rawicz, and Shackleton, although heroic, are uncommon.  Much too often, disastrous circumstance lead to tragic stories rather than heroic ones.