The Martian - Andy Weir

 

    In the story The Martian By Andy Weir, The main character named Mark Watney is a botanist. Mark and his crew go on a mission to Mars, but Mark is unfortunately left behind because his crew members assumed that he had died. Mark is clearly alive and is stranded on Mars alone. Despite his circumstances, Mark's sense of humor seems to be keeping him sane. The only entertainment Mark has access to are 1970's television shows, music, and books.

    Mark eventually realizes his scary situation and begins thinking of how much food he has left. His communication devices are not working which means that he has no way of contacting anybody. NASA eventually learns that Mark is stranded on the red planet and begin to monitor him. The catch to all this is that it would take a whopping four years in order for a rescue team to arrive. This means that Mark now has to grow his own food, and will be stuck alone for four years. NASA attempts to send Mark supplies, but the space vessel fails to reach him. 

    The big take away from this story is that technology has the potential of being unreliable, which means that manual labor is required. in Mark's case, he uses his brains to craft materials and grow his own food. In other words, he survives with great resilience, using humor as an escape for his unfortunate situation. This story reminds me of a comedic version of the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks, or Passengers starring Chris Pratt which is about being trapped in space on a spaceship. The message in the end is that problems can be solved with determination and putting ones mind to it. Mark tackles each hassle with brains, courage, humor, and duct tape, lots of duct tape.




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