Survival in Jack London's To Build a Fire and Stephen King's Survivor Type
You become stranded in the Sahara desert with one other person, a stranger you do not know. Over the next week the stranger passes away and for you to survive you must resource the lifeless body. Would you do it? In Jack London 's To Build a Fire, A man goes on a tough journey through the Yukon alone ignoring the apparent signs of danger only wanting to push through the journey as fast as possible. Like Jack London 's story in Stephen King 's Survivor Type Richard Pine an ex-medical doctor becomes stranded on an island with no food or water with after a terrible ship malfunction. The only way for him to survive is for him to cut of limbs and eat himself. Lastly to help understand these two short stories there is Laurence Gonzales ' The 12 Rules of Survival depicting the necessary steps and characteristics it take to survive in these small circumstances and be able to survive just like the survey Personal Characteristics of Resilient People by Jamie Zartler and Mary Rodeback. Only certain people in the world have these traits to survive. To be able to strive for survival people must have an easy temperament or disposition, be a rescuer, not a victim and do whatever is necessary. People must be calm and easy to attempt survive as it is described in Personal Characteristics of Resilient People by Jamie Zartler and Mary Rodeback. They cannot be reckless or panic. In Stephen King 's Survivor Type the main character, Richard is very clam he decides to write in a journal to entertain himself which in the end keeps him sane. Though he writes about being hungry he never irrationally breaks into fits due to him keeping everything in his journal, "Can 't write anymore now. My wrist 's are tired and the pencil 's dull. I don 't know why I 'm bothering anyway. Somebody 'll probably pick me up soon," (King 2). His calmness helps him survive. It keeps Pine from dying write away and keeps hope in him that he will be rescued. without his easy disposition he could gone crazy, or
Cited: Gonzales, Laurence. "The 12 Rules of Survival." Running 'Cause I Can 't Fly” N.p., 18 Aug. 2008. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
King, Stephen. “Survivor Type”. N.p.: 1982, N.d. Web 2 Apr. 2000. Web. Nov. 2013.
London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." The World of Jack London. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Rodeback, Mary, Zartler. “Personal Characteristics of Resilient People”. Worksheet Web. Nov. 2013