Survival Essay

“Some people tried to hurt us to protect themselves, their family and communities...This was one of the consequences of civil war. People stopped trusting each other, and every stranger became an enemy. Even people who knew you became extremely careful about how they related or spoke to you.” In order to survive people have been known to go to great lengths and to do things that they would not ordinarily do. Today I’m going to show you a few examples of just what people will do when forced with life and death situations in order to survive. One example comes from the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding, who writes of young boys stranded on an island just trying to survive. The second example to look at is 127 Hours by Danny Boyle, a true story about a hiker who becomes pinned between a boulder after slipping and falling down a canyon and must make drastic decisions to survive. The last example is of how a young boy transformed by war in his country is pushed to extreme lengths in order to survive in the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah.

His mind was crowded with memories; memories of the knowledge that had come to them when they closed in on the struggling pig, knowledge that they had outwitted a living thing, imposed their will upon it, taken away its life like a long satisfying drink. This is how the boys have become after being forced to provide for themselves and live off the land. It has been weeks since the boys were shot down and crashed on this island. They have had to kill animals and scrounge for fire wood, all while trying to work together as one. They’ve lost boys to the jungle, some have been killed in battle while others simply couldn’t handle living like this. All sense of democracy has vanished...

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...eat death. He was forced to lie, steal, and even kill others in his only means of survival. There came a point where he even lost himself and knew nothing but fighting and violence, he didn’t want to change. Until he was saved by a group of people from UNICEF and slowly eased back into a normal life style. But the point is he survived, he was pushed way past his boundaries in every way but he was able to go to great lengths and adapt in order to survive.

In conclusion, people will go to great lengths and do things that they wouldn’t normally do in order to survive. We have seen this countless times in the wilderness and places of war and famine. The important thing to remember is to never give up hope because you can make it out of this situation. So I leave you with a question… What lengths would you go to in order to survive a life or death situation?