Bryson Eiler Ms. Lehmann English 1-3 8th November 2018 Why Isn’t Survival Selfish? Somebody once said, “Putting yourself first is not selfish. Thinking about yourself constantly is selfish.” Survival is not selfish in the end, as is proven in the stories of the authors Laurence Gonzales, Lane Wallace, and Elie Wiesel. This brings me to the first essay that proves this idea: “Deep Survival,” by Laurence Gonzales. One of the authors who believes survival isn’t selfish is Laurence Gonzales, who shows this in his essay “Deep Survival.” Gonzales gives several examples of situations where survival wasn’t selfish in his essay. Gonzales writes that, “Many people who survive alone report that they were doing it for someone else (wife, boyfriend, mother, son) back home.” (Gonzales 332). Basically, what Gonzales meant is that many survivors weren’t surviving for themselves, they were thinking of family back home that would suffer if they (the survivors) died. Gonzales also gave some evidence as to how often people survived not thinking about themselves. He said specifically in his story that, “Doctors and nurses often survive better than others because they have someone to help.” (Gonzales 332). He says here that many people have a greater chance of survival if they aren’t thinking about themselves and instead think of somebody else who is surviving with them. The second author who suggests that survival is not selfish is Lane Wallace. Lane Wallace, author of “Is Survival Selfish,” puts forward a few scenarios where survival wasn’t selfish. Wallace argues in this article that survivors aren’t selfish in these situations, they are just following their instincts.He writes, “Some, people hold it together in a crisis and some people fall apart. Some people might run away from danger one day, and toward it the next” (Wallace 320). In this quote, Wallace suggests the idea that people respond in different ways to survival situations; survival is simply a matter of instinct. In no way is it about any kind of intentional decision to be selfish or brave; in order to be selfish, you must have intention, and if it is purely instinct, then there isn’t any intention and the person cannot be selfish. Also, Wallace explains in his story that, “Oddly enough, most of the people who perform such impulsive rescues say that they didn’t really think before acting. Which means they weren’t ‘choosing’ civilization” (Wallace 319). This means that even the most heroic people weren’t thinking about saving others they just kind of did it. In the next story, author Elie Wiesel suggests that survival isnot selfish. Wiesel also gives evidence of survival not being selfish in his memoir Night. In Wiesel’s story, two of the characters, Tibi and Yossi, came to encourage the main character by saying “‘Let’s stay together. It will make us stronger’” (Weisel 309). What this means is that in a survival situation, everybody knows that staying together will increase your chances of surviving. Later in the story, when Wiesel’s father is being considered for execution he says, “‘Here take this knife. I won’t need it anymore. You may find it useful. Also take this spoon,’” (Wiesel 312). Wiesel’s father knows that in this point in the story, he might die, so he gives his son the best chance of survival by giving him his remaining meager possessions. This means that even in death, people don’t have to be selfish for others to survive. These authors also offer evidence of survival being selfish in their stories. Some people may argue that survival is selfish, giving examples of people who put themselves before others in order to survive. In the story “Deep Survival,” a girl survives a plane crash and decides to put herself before others. She ignores the other survivors and goes on a trek to find help for everybody in the crash. After somebody returns to the location of the crash, they discover that most of the survivors ended up resorting to cannibalism in a vain attempt to survive. In this scenario, the girl in this story could have done a bit more to care for the other survivors of the catastrophe. She could have taken a few of the survivors with her speeding up the process of getting help.The truth is that most of the people in these situations would probably die trying to help others, which is what would have happened if the girl went back for the other survivors. Those who don’t go back to help others in survival situations were most likely doomed to die if they remained in the area. Their survival isn’t selfish; it’s instinct. All in all, survival is not selfish.This idea is supported by the works of the authors Laurence Gonzales, Lane Wallace, and Elie Wiesel. In these situations, the survivors are almost always following instinct and not making any rational decision, removing any form of selfishness. Staying together in these situations is a much wiser idea than attempting to wander off on your own in search of help. Most of the people who go off on their own would have died if they stayed. In conclusion, survival, under most circumstances, is not selfish in any way.
Argumentative Essay Reflection 1. List one thing you’ve learned from writing this paper that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like?
I have learned how to properly site quotes. It will look like “Information”(Authors Name Page#).
2. Identify a specific revision you were asked to make and explain why (this can be at any stage in the writing process). How did you revise? What did you learn?
One revision I was asked to make was to fix a quote that was not accurate. I revised it by going back into my English textbook and finding the quote then correctly siting it. I learned to always correctly site every quote.
3. What are the conventions of an argumentative essay and how did you meet those in this assignment?
In an argumentative essay you are to argue and convince readers of a point while convincing them the opposing point is wrong. I met these point by providing evidence from 3 different works using quotes and citations.
4. Given more time to work on this assignment, how would you improve it?
I would use more evidence in my assignment and I would put in the transitions from quote to evidence to the next paragraph.
5. What is one thing you’re proud of in this paper?
I am proud of being able to make a 6 paragraph essay that I can actually make sense of.