Isaac Giles Ms.Lehmann English 1-1A 15 November 2018
Survival Is Not Selfish Do you think survival is selfish? People have debated about this very question for years. This essay will argue that survival is not selfish, as is proven by authors Louise Erdrich, Laurence Gonzales, and Lane Wallace. The first author who shows survival is not selfish is Louise Erdrich. Erdrich’s short story “The Leap” provides many examples of situations where survival does not require people to be selfish. The narrator explains that her mother was a part of a blindfolded trapeze act; on a stormy day, their tent was struck by lighting in the middle of a show. Her husband fell and died, but the narrator’s mother saved her baby and herself. Later, the narrator says, “ My mother once said that I’d be amazed at how many things a person can do within the act of falling” (Erdrich 342). This proves that the mother had time to think, and she also saved herself. Later in the story, Erdrich gives us another situation like this one. Erdrich talks about the same mother going into a burning building to save her daughter. The narrator explains, “I didn’t see her leap through the air, only heard the sudden thump and looked out of my window. She was hanging by the backs of her heels from the new gutter” (Erdrich 345-346). This decision saved both of them; Erdrich proves that survival is not selfish by telling us about this mother and her decision to save her daughter. Both of these scenarios prove that people don’t have to be selfish to survive. Laurence Gonzales provides even more evidence. The essay “Deep Survival,” by Gonzales, also proves that survival is not selfish. Gonzales describes a group of pilots who survived by sticking together. Kearns, a survival guide leading the pilots, says “, All at once, it hit me that I might actually lose them. Those million dollar pilots could die’’’ (Gonzales 331). Kearns’ fear that the pilots might die gave him the strength to save the others and survive himself. Gonzales gives another example of a scenario in which someone survived because they were not selfish. He talks about a man who survived the World Trade Center attacks because he wanted to see his kids again. While the building was on fire, DiFrancesco tried to go back up to find fresh air, but “after ten or so floors, he encountered people who were succumbing to fatigue and smoke. The people, all of whom would die, were just giving up and falling asleep. DiFrancesco, too was collapsing. But then he said to himself, ‘I’ve got to see my wife and kids again’’’ (Gonzales 332). Thinking of others rather than just focusing on himself gave DiFrancesco the strength he needed to go back down the stairs and escape with his life. In this case, he only survived because he put his wife and kids before himself. Lane Wallace gives more examples of survivors not being selfish. Lane Wallace proves that survival is not selfish. In the short story “Is Survival Selfish,” Lane Wallace talks about situations where survival is not selfish, Wallace explains that people aren’t selfish, they are just simply following their instinct. “Some people hold it together in a crisis and some people fall apart. Some people might run away from danger one day, and toward the next” (Wallace 320). Our behaviors are simply a matter of instincts, not a decision to be selfish. Walllace also describes a woman who crawled over other plane crash survivors to safety. He asks, “Could she really have saved the others? Probably not, if she’d tried, she’d probably have perished with them. So why do survivors berate themselves for not adding to the loss by attempting the impossible?” (Wallace 318). Wallace points out that those who save others don’t do so out of a sense of benevolence and those who survive shouldn’t blame themselves for not dying trying to save people who can’t be saved. Some argue that survival is selfish because people have time to think before they act, and those who survive think of themselves. People may have time to think in survival situations, but many people do not think of themselves first. In fact, the people with the highest rates of survival are thinking of others. Gonzales writes “Doctors and nurses often survive better than others because they have someone to help” (Gonzales 332). By thinking of the people they are trying to save, rescue workers take themselves out of the equation and can better focus on getting out of danger, saving both parties involved. Survival is not selfish. The short story “The Leap,” the essay “Deep Survival,” and the article “Is Survival Selfish” all prove that people don’t have to be selfish to survive. Erdrich gives us the example of a mother who risks her own life for her child and saves them both. Gonzales proves that those who think of others survive situations they would have died in otherwise. Wallace argues that the way people respond in emergency situations doesn’t come down to whether or not they are selfish; it comes down to how their instincts tell them to respond. So, after examining all of the evidence, it’s clear that survival is not selfish.
Works Cited Erdrich, Louise. “The Leap,” Collections, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp.339-346. Gonzales, Laurence. “Deep Survival.” Collections, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 325-334 Wallace, Lane. “Is Survival Selfish?” Collections, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 317-320.
Argumentative Essay Reflection Questions 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 learned how to write a summary and type a lot in this.
Answer: I learned that i could write something that i could argue about and that it should help in the future and wht i could do.
2. Identify a specific revision you were asked to make and explain why (this can be at any stage of the writing process). How did you revise? What did you learn?
Answer: I revised one of my older papers and i checked the paper and one of them i miss pronounced a couple words and did not capitalized the name of the story.
3. What are the conventions of an argumentative essay and how did you meet those in the assignment?
Answer: I had changed a couple of things but most of it was good and nothing much was needed to be changed.
4. Given more time to work on this assignment, how would you improve it?
Answer: I would not nedd to change a single thing and i like how i fixed the problems and i do not regret that.
5. What is one thing you’re proud of in this paper?
Answer: I am proud of that i could complete the assignment on time and finish it on time.