Survival

In order to survive on the raft, many problem solving skills were necessary.

While the men were on the raft, they faced many different obstacles. The first was right after the plane crashed. Louie had to make the decision whether he should rush to Phil’s aid, or get the raft that would keep them all alive. He decided to rush to the raft, then go back to help Phil. The next problem that the men had was a lack of water. With only salt water, the men were becoming more and more dehydrated as time passed. When it finally rained, they cought as much water in there mouths as they could, but Louie knew that they needed away to save it. He found the air pumps and collected water using them and then poured it into the cans to save it for later. Food was a big issue that they had to overcome in many different ways. When a bird landed on Louies head, naturally he tried to catch it and he succeeded. They then found that the brid wasn’t edible, but realized that it would make good bait. They used the bird and after several attempts, they cought and ate a pilot fish. That worked at first, but then the men ran out of bait and hooks small enough for the pilot fish. Louie, determined to catch fish, decided to tie hooks to his fingers and use them as claws to catch the fish.

The biggest problem that the men had wasn’t food or water, but rather finding ways to keep themselves sane. In order to maintain there sanity, Louie would quiz the others about anything and everything. That lead to them all telling stories and singing songs. They shared the recipies of their favorite dishes and talked about their future once they got off the raft and into safety. All these things helped pass time and keep their minds working. Each new problem caused Louis to come up with a solution in order to keep the men alive. His key characteristic of resilience was strong problem solving skills. He never panicked, never made the others worry, just did what he had to do to solve the problem.

The two main characters were definitely Paul and Louie. They were the two who would do what they could to stay alive and pass time. From the beginning, Mac was hopeless. He didn’t seem to care about what happened to any of them. He pretty much gave up from the start. While Paul and Louie would talk about anything and everything to keep there mind sharp, Mac would stay quiet. “To him, it seemed the world was far too gone”. He had given up on all hope of survival. Paul is the most like Louie. He was the pilot of the plane, but knew he wasn’t well enough to take lead during everything that they had to overcome so he asked Louie to take charge. Although he wasn’t the leader that Louie was, Paul went along with everything he did and helped him. He also did whatever he could to ensure survival. He wasn’t giving up, partially because “Phil was a deeply religious man, carrying a faith instilled in him by his parents”. Phil gives Louie someone to talk to and help keep his head straight, without him, survival would have been a lot harder.

By seeing what characteristic of resilience is exhibited by Louie you can tell that he has much to live for. There is no point in the story that he gives up and calls it quits. He is constantly determined to succeed and overcome each obstacle. Problem solving is a crucial skill to have in life. As you can see, it can be the difference between life and death. Overtime I’ve learned to use these skills in important situations such as school and sports. School can be very stressful and many problems can occur at any second, I have learned to try to stay calm no matter the situation and figure out the best way to overcome it. Sports is a completely different story. Often as goalie I’m faced with having to make quick decisions that could decide the game. There was one time in a preseason scrimmage that I almost took too long to make a decision and they could have easily scored off of it. The ball got booted down into our half and past all of our defense, the only two people remotely close to the ball were me and an offender from the other team. I started to panic couldn’t decide if I should go out and get the ball even though it was outside of the 18, or if I should take the chance and let her come down and take the open shot. I decided to try to get the ball first. I got there many a half second before her and slide tackled the ball toward the sideline. If I had taken 1 more second to make that decision, they would’ve scored an easy goal on us. My heart was beating so fast after but I knew that I had made the right decision. A lesson to learn from that is that once you make a decision, you should stick to it and trust yourself. If you put your mind to something and do whatever you can to accomplish it, you will succeed.

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