Mary Meyer
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-3
8 November 2018
Survival Is Selfish
Bear Grylls once said, “The rules of survival never change, whether you're in a desert or in an arena.” In Roman times in an arena, the people fighting fought to the death until there was only one man standing. To survive in the arena, you had to be selfish to live. Survival is selfish; authors Laurence Gonzales, Lane Wallace, and Elie Wiesel prove this in their stories. Our first author shares stories of life or death situations in which the survivor had to be selfish to stay alive.
Gonzales provides many examples of scenarios in which survivors had to be selfish. Gonzales shows that many survivors only survive by being selfish. He tells the story of a sixteen-year-old girl who survived a plane crash, writing, “Tough and clearheaded, this teenage girl, who had lost her shoes (not to mention her mother) on the first day, saved herself; the other survivors took the same eleven days to sit down and die” (Gonzales 326). The only reason the girl survived is she went on by herself, leaving the others to die. This story is one of the stories Gonzales shares with us. Another story takes place at the World Trade Center disaster. Gonzales also points out that those who refuse to follow the rules survive. Gonzales writes, “In the World Trade Center disaster, many people who were used to following the rules died because they did what they were told by authority figures” (Gonzales 327). Gonzales explains that those who broke the rules put in place for public safety survived. Their selfishness saved them. The next author agrees that survival is selfish.
Our second author that gives us examples that survival is selfish is Wallace in “Is Survival Selfish?” Wallace argues that survival requires people to be selfish. Wallace writes, “there is a fine line between brave and foolish. There can also be a fine line between smart and selfish” (Wallace 320). Wallace explains that being brave and saving others before yourself is a foolish thing to do in a survival situation. As a result, being selfish is the smart thing to do. Survival requires that people be selfish. Wallace seems to be saying that to survive, people have to take care of themselves, nobody else. Wallace argues that survival requires people to be selfish. Wallace uses the story of a woman who saved herself from a plane crash. The other passengers were frozen, unmoving, and she crawled over them to safety. Wallace asks, “Could she really have saved the others? Probably not, and certainly not from the back of the plane. If she’d tried, she probably would have perished with them. So why do survivors berate themselves for not adding to the loss by attempting the impossible?” (Wallace 318). Wallace points out that the woman in the story had to be selfish to survive, and it was only by looking after herself that she was able to make it out alive. Wallace gives us examples that survival is selfish, like our third author does.
In Night, Wiesel, our third author, gives many examples that show readers that survival is selfish. Wiesel shows that there is no sympathy for the newcomers from the survivors. Wiesel writes, “The veterans told us: ‘You’re lucky to have been brought here so late’” (Wiesel 308). The veterans don’t try to give the newcomers any means of comfort, being used to only caring for themselves when the camp was at its worst. The way the veterans survived was by being willing to forget how weak they were at the time, so they would not have a reason to be killed. Wiesel reveals that he was willing to forget things to stay alive. Wiesel writes, “Now, it no longer mattered that the work was hard. All that mattered was to be far from the block, far from the crucible of death, from the center of hell” (Wiesel 311). Each individual was not caring how hard the work was, as long as they were alive. Even with these good examples that show that survival is selfish, some people believe that survival is not selfish.
Some may argue that survival is not selfish, giving examples of people who risked their lives to save others. This seems like a compelling argument on the surface, but it falls apart on closer examination. People can only save others if they put themselves first. You must be alive to help others.
Survival is selfish. In their stories, authors Laurence Gonzales, Lane Wallace, and Elie Wiesel prove that survival is selfish. In “Deep survival,” Gonzales shares a couple of stories where the survivors were selfish to survive, one about the World Trade Center disaster and another about a teenage girl. Wallace gives a couple of examples that survival is selfish in “Is Survival Selfish,” including a story about a survivor of a plane crush who survives by crawling over other victims. In Night, Wiesel tells about a time when he was on the line between life and death and gives some examples that survival is selfish. In all of these, no matter where they were, all of the survivors survived by being selfish.
Works Cited
Gonzales, Laurence. “Deep Survival.” Collections, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2017, pp. 325-334.
Wallace, Lane. “Is Survival Selfish?” Collections, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2017, pp. 317-320.
Wiesel, Elie. “Night.” Collections, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2017, pp. 307-312.
Argumentative Reflection
*List one thing you’ve learned from writing this paper that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like?
-From this assignment, I learned that when you use stories for support, it is better to have more than one source. When looking through a paper with more than one source, you should see more than one author’s name.
*Identify a specific revision you were asked to make and explain why (this can be at any stage of the writing process). How did you revise? What did you learn?
-I was given the suggestion of revising a couple words every now and then to cause the wording to sound better. I fixed the ones that were pointed out to me. I learned that you should reread what you’ve written and see if it makes sense.
*What are the conventions of an argumentative essay and how did you meet those in this assignment?
- In an argumentative essay, you need to use evidence from your sources to support your claim. In this argumentative essay, I used the three stories we were given to use for evidence which are: “Deep Survival”, “Is Survival Selfish?”, and Night.
*Given more time to work on this assignment, how would you improve it?
-If I had more time on this assignment, I would change one of the quotes I used from Night.
*What is one thing you’re proud of in this paper?
-I am proud that I was able to use my sources efficiently.