Internal And External Conflict In The Martian By Andy Weir

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Andy Weir's book, The Martian, is laced with conflict, both external and internal. From the beginning of the book, Weir shocks the reader with the dramatic opening of "I'm pretty screwed." This is the reader's first glimpse that there is conflict between natures bloodthirsty determination to kill the book's main character Mark Watney, an astronaut, botanist and an engineer, and Mark's desire to survive against all odds. In his daily logs Mark narrates his deathly encounters and near-death experiences with nature. Mark's logs record every event in which nature strives to get the best of him and yet he is able to keep his sense of humor throughout. In one of his logs Mark humorously states " I was just one of her crew. Actually, I was the very …show more content…

From being trapped in a violent sandstorm that threatens to destroy the Mars Ascent Vehicle which he needs for transport back to the ship to the winds that destroy the communication dish and result in Mark's unconsciousness. (Weir 2) Nature bears the blame for Mark being left behind when the rest of the crew believes him to be dead and returns to earth without him.  The conflict between nature and Mark grows even more intense when Mark realizes he will have to figure out a way to grow food on a planet that offers no suitable land for growing. Nature continues to push at Mark at every turn, figure out where to grow the food and nature will not provide water, figure out how to make water and almost die from an excess of hydrogen. The conflict between continues until the end of the book when Mark is attempting to reach the rescue point. For millions of years the wind had been blowing across the planet causing dunes and desert terrain which was extremely dangerous to cross.  All of the external conflict caused intense internal conflict; how does a person overcome such incredible forces to

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