The theme that will be explored in this essay will be survival when
times get tough, physically, mentally. The two books that will be
involved in the discussion will be Clive Cussler’s Sahara and Daniel
Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. In both cases the leading characters show
signs of breaking down and quitting because of physical, but also their
mental stress.
Robinson Crusoe, and Sahara relate in many ways, as do
the main characters, and will be two good books to compare the survival
of both Dirk Pitt and Robinson Crusoe. The three criteria that will be
talked about in this essay will be the survival physically. Did both
characters have hard times to pull out of ? . The next type of survival
is mental survival, it comes a close second to physical survival and
both characters show signs also of this type. With mental survival the
physical component must first be stable and accomplished, that is when
you can then work your mind into better thoughts and ideas. The third
criteria that will be looked at is, how the characters were changed
at the end of the book looking at it through post-traumatic stress
disorder. Both characters show signs of physical survival and it is
believed that physical is the most important type of survival because
you must first be physically healthy and strong before you can even
walk or talk or think. Mental survival is strongly needed and is
required in tough times
Each type of survival is different in it’s own way, but first physical
stability must be achieved to be able to survive the elements and their
challenges to then master the other type of survival such as mental
survival. In Robinson Crusoe the rain is pouring down and the wind is
blowing strongly. Robinson says that this is the strongest, fiercest
storm that has ever blown in on him. He is deathly ill and writes this
in his diary.
The ague again so violent that I lay abed all day and neither ate nor
drank. I was ready to perish for thirst but so weak I had not strength
to stand up or to get myself any water to drink. (Defoe 96)
Dirk Pitt also had some rough times in the book Sahara. Crawling in
the desert, he has had nothing to drink or eat days, or for days to
come. This is what he remembers from that dreary day on dusty desert
floor.
Pitt found it odd that he couldn’t remember when he last spit. Though
he sucked on small pebbles to relieve the relentless thirst, he could
Free Yellow Wallpaper Essays: An Essay
For the women in the twentieth century today, who have more freedom than before and have not experienced the depressive life that Gilman lived from 1860 to 1935, it is difficult to understand Gilman’s situation and understand the significance of “The Yellow Wallpaper”. Gilman’s original purpose of writing the story was to gain personal satisfaction if Dr. S. Weir Mitchell might change his treatment after reading the story. However, as Ann L. Jane suggests, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is “the best crafted of her fiction: a genuine literary piece…the most directly, obviously, self-consciously autobiographical of all her stories” (Introduction xvi). And more importantly, Gilman says in her article in The Forerunner, “It was not intended to drive people crazy, but to save people from being driven crazy, and it worked” (20). Therefore, “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a revelation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s own emotions. When the story first came out in 1892 the critics considered “The Yellow Wallpaper” as a portrayal of female insanity rather than a story that reveals an aspect of society. In The Transcript, a physician from Boston wrote, “Such a story ought not to be written…it was enough to drive anyone mad to read it” (Gilman 19). This statement implies that any woman that would write something to show opposition to the dominant social values must have been insane. In Gilman’s time setting “The ideal woman was not only assigned a social role that locked her into her home, but she was also expected to like it, to be cheerful and gay, smiling and good humored” (Lane, To Herland 109). Those women who rejected this role and pursued intellectual enlightenment and freedom would be scoffed, alienated, and even punished. This is exactly what Gilman experienced when she tried to express her desire for independence. Gilman expressed her emotional and psychological feelings of rejection from society for thinking freely in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, which is a reaction to the fact that it was against the grain of society for women to pursue intellectual freedom or a career in the late 1800’s. Her taking Dr. S. Weir Mitchell’s “rest cure” was the result of the pressures of these prevalent social values. Charlotte Gilman was born on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut in a family boasting a list of revolutionary thinkers, writers. And intermarriages among them were, as Carol Berkin put it, “in discrete confirmation of their pride in association” (18).