Mark Watney Challenges

1469 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Environmental problems and solutions

Struggling to gain access to clean water, food, shelter, and modern communication are all problems the world faces today -- and yet no one has found solutions to them. While these issues are challenging for millions of people on earth who have ample help to solve the problems, it is hard to fathom confronting these challenges on a planet other than earth, completely alone. However, in Andy Weir’s novel, The Martian, Mark Watney is left stranded on Mars fighting for survival and having to discover solutions to these challenges. Watney exhibits times of great frustration when problem solving, working to supply himself with basic necessities for survival, and communicating with earth. Interestingly enough, Mark Watney’s frustration of being stranded …show more content…

The exorbitant amount of heat loss in the rover leads Mark to yet another creative solution. The frustration and failure of being unable to heat the rover the way he originally intended is no trouble for his creative mind. Watney is able to come “up with a solution, but … remember when I [Watney] burned rocket fuel in the Hab? This’ll be more dangerous. I’m going to use the RTG… (radioisotope thermonuclear generator)” (73). The direct address to the reader not only captures his attention, but makes the situation more relatable; since not many readers know the scientific processes for burning rocket fuel or the full risk and danger involved in using an RTG. Once again, under the pressure, stress, and frustration of being alone on a planet, fighting for survival, Mark Watney utilizes creativity and scientific knowledge to overcome another challenge. Beneath the sarcasm about danger is Mark’s creative character and his display of willingness as well as bravery to try different methods, so he can hopefully survive long enough to leave the planet Mars. On the same subject, Watney wonders “what Nasa would think about [him] fucking with the RTG” (77) and proceeds to say “they’d probably hide under their desks and cuddle with their slide rules for comfort” (77). Watney undercuts Nasa in this instance only as a way to take out his frustration with his situation. Even while he is blatantly upset, he still exhibits sarcastic humor -- specifically by stating hide under their desks and cuddle with their slide rules. By depicting Nasa as weak and helpless, Watney has shown that in the present situation Nasa is not much help to Watney, therefore promoting Watney’s creative ability yet again. Accordingly, by lashing out at Nasa with sarcastic humor, and being able to find a way to heat his rover, Watney depicts how creativity is elicited by

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of Tracy K. Smith´s Life on Mars

    2420 Words  | 5 Pages

    Tracy K. Smith’s “Life on Mars” is a collection of poetry dealing mainly in the search for a sense of purpose and the nature of people. The books is something of an elegy as a whole with many poems pertaining to death and the author’s struggle with the loss of her father. The poems are at once poignant and gentle in tone and leave questions than can only be answered in multiple readings. The book is segmented in four parts that travel through different topics and types of poetry. The mood ranges from passionate accounts of Orwellian politics to soft recollections of a lovers embrace; throughout the book Smith brings in references to pop culture, science, and technology that incorporate seamlessly with her words.

    Read More

  • Internal And External Conflict In The Martian By Andy Weir

    452 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • How Does Merrill Markoe Use Situational Irony In A Conversation With My Dog

    569 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, Merrill Markoe portrayed high comedy using witty humor along with situational irony in the short story “A Conversation With My Dogs”. She does this while also reaching the moral of the story, which is that with some people or animals you have to be super specific or else they won’t understand what you are trying to say. I have experienced this with some people, including my mom who is often focused on her work. The combination of witty humor and situational irony makes the audience

    Read More

  • How Mark Finds His Own Way Back To God in Triage

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    Joaquin’s expert use of the land and Mark’s spatial awareness encourages the latter to accept reality. Realizing that Mark was making no progress towards recovery, Joaquin decided to undertake a different tactic; he insisted Mark to visualize the event in Kurdistan and to recall the moment when Colin had gone missing by drawing a map on the wall. Joaquin asks Mark “and where was Colin?

    Read More

  • Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles

    1288 Words  | 3 Pages

    If the Martian Chronicles had been written in the 1999’s instead of fifty years ago, many issues and problems would change. Ray Bradbury wrote his book in 1946. In it he wrote about problems such as censorship, man’s cruelty to man, and loneliness. Each issue shows up in one or two of his chronicles. All of his issues affect every one of his characters in many different ways.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Horses Of The Night

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    When individuals face obstacles in life, there is often two ways to respond to those hardships: some people choose to escape from the reality and live in an illusive world. Others choose to fight against the adversities and find a solution to solve the problems. These two ways may lead the individuals to a whole new perception. Those people who decide to escape may find themselves trapped into a worse or even disastrous situation and eventually lose all of their perceptions and hops to the world, and those who choose to fight against the obstacles may find themselves a good solution to the tragic world and turn their hopelessness into hopes. Margaret Laurence in her short story Horses of the Night discusses the idea of how individual’s responses

    Read More

  • Hope In The Martian Chronicles

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Ylla,” a Martian man, Mr. K, has a dream of happiness. Mr. K wants his life to be as happy as it possibly can. When his wife, Mrs. K, starts having vivid dreams about the men on the first expedition coming to Mars, he gets very jealous: “… he almost screamed. ’You should have heard yourself, fawning on him, talking to him, singing with him, oh gods, all night; you should have heard yourself’” (Bradbury 9). The more she dreams about the earth man, the more

    Read More

  • The Journey Of The Martian Hero's Journey

    1966 Words  | 4 Pages

    By surmounting the obstacles placed in front of him, how the hero responds shows his true nature and makes his reward that much more worthwhile. Mars is the ultimate enemy in this novel, and it does not care about Mark’s health or survival. It is therefore up to him to use his own ingenuity and training to figure out how to survive. Things for him start out rough: he wakes up, after being impaled by an antenna ray, to find out his crew has abandoned him on Mars. From here on out, Watney must decide how to grow a food source and make use of the resources leftover from the Ares 3 mission to last until the Ares 4 mission. Furthermore, he survives several explosions to the Hab, multiple grueling trips in the landrover, a giant duststorm, having the rover and attached trailer flipped over while going down an incline, and being launched into space. In a way, Watney essentially achieves immortality status. Being stuck on Mars should have meant automatic death, yet he manages to pull himself together, form a plan, and adapt whenever the plan fails and nearly kills him. This also reveals a lot about his character. With the occasional much-deserved griping, Watney meets every setback with sarcasm and the grim reality that he could die at any point before his rescue. He does not complain or excessively lament about his situation like Väinämӧinen did, but instead

    Read More

  • Humor In Alexander Weinstein's Saying Goodbye To Yang

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    Humor is more than just amusing entertainment to pass the time. Though jokes and witty banter can be shallow, humor can go deeper than surface level to convey messages to audiences who would otherwise be close-minded about certain ideas. Humor is a great tool to get audiences to change the way they think, feel, and act. In “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” Alexander Weinstein uses humor to criticize some of society’s faults, such as the way it has become heavily reliant on technology, racially insensitive, and judgmental. As technology advances, people are adapting and becoming more reliant upon it.

    Read More

  • Home In The Odyssey

    1228 Words  | 3 Pages

    Man cannot find home-a place of safety and peace-for he is stricken with the desire to be the best which mars his land in the process. Of Mice and Men and the Odyssey argue that the idyllic world that man strives to achieve cannot be attain for humanity struggles

    Read More

  • Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles

    544 Words  | 2 Pages

    It's an object lesson in civilization. " We'll learn from Mars" (pp. 55. The aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid aforesaid a Throughout the story, Earth man,especially American think that they are superior to the Martian. Earth man can do anything and knows everything. However, Bradbury's message is to tell them it is not true.

    Read More

  • In Order to Survive; One Must Give Up their Morals

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, the key to survival in dire and drastic situations comes from deep within every human. Every individual will go through changes in order to adapt and survive the harsh conditions and challenges they are put through. In order to survive, one must be ready to give up their morals, one must find a way to keep their mind fresh and sane, and one must be ready to compromise and sacrifice. Most humans are generally very civilized under normal conditions, but when the need to survive becomes the top priority the wild animal inside everyone takes over. The author, William Golding, of Lord of the Flies once wrote, “Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us” (80).

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Two Commencement Speeches

    1048 Words  | 3 Pages

    During Whitford’s speech, his opening remarks are humorous when he shouts to the audience “What’s up Mad City” (1). He uses this funny tactic to lighten the mood a bit, and he hopes it will make the words a little more memorable. Humor is particularly helpful in taking the mood down a notch, and to make the situation less formal. Whitford compares a commencement address to a funeral by saying “somebody once said it’s like being the body at a wake” (1). Adding a humorous touch is a way for him to get the graduates to at least retain some of the words coming out of his mouth. The Dalai Lama also incorporates humor when he says “even the sun is participating in this occasion and trying to show its glory and brilliance” (1). Obviously the sun has no choice but to be a willing participant of the ceremony, and students must also be a willing participant, or pretend to be listening to the speech. He also gets the students to take a look ...

    Read More

  • Ignorance is Fatal

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mars-2005, the planet has been occupied for several years now and Mr. Stendhal has commissioned a complete and stunningly accurate replica of the House of Usher to be built for him. Upon the completion he talks with his architect and we learn in 1975 all of Edgar Allen Poe's books along with many other masterpieces were burnt in the great fire. Any story about horror, fantasy, or the future was burned and by now all of those stories and authors are forgotten by most people. The architect didn't even know the story "The Fall of the House of Usher" and had no idea who Poe was. Stendhal continued to explain: Oh, it started very small. In 1950 and '60 it was a grain of sand. They began by controlling books of cartoons and then detective books and, of course, films, one way or another one group or another, political bias, religious pr...

    Read More

  • Television Comedies

    1195 Words  | 3 Pages

    Detweiller, Eric. ““I was Just Doing a Little Joke There”: Irony and the Paradoxes of the Sitcom The Office” Journal of Popular Culture 45.4 (2012): 727-748. Web. 15 January. 2014.

    Read More

More about Mark Watney Challenges

Open Document