The Martian: An Out of This World Hero’s Journey According to Bonnie Tyler, a hero is a man that needs to be strong and fast, straight out of battle, and have a legendary persona about them. Traditionally in mythology, heroes are characterized by their strength, physical prowess, intelligence, cunningness, and success on the battlefield. In addition, most heroes go on some type of quest or adventure, often accompanied by a trusty sidekick to rein them in. The hero’s journey archetype is often divided into three parts: the beginning setup and departure, a period of adaptation and conflict, and the resolution where the hero returns home victorious (Bronzite). Upon this journey the hero will be forced into action, undergo many tribulations, and …show more content…
This is normally where the hero is humanized and certain aspects of their character are revealed so readers can empathize with them later on (Bronzite). In The Martian, this is somewhat reversed. Instead of describing Watney physically leaving Earth and traveling to Mars, Weir begins the novel with him in a dire situation stranded on Mars. Weir does a phenomenal job of making Watney a realistic character, however. Literally, Watney’s first thought is, “I’m pretty much fucked” (Weir 1), which accurately describes what anyone who has discovered they are stranded on Mars would think—if not worse. The incorporation of cussing, bawdy humor, and the analytical ingenuity of Watney’s mind make him seem like the average, engineer/botanist American man. In addition, the call to action is a little more urgent in this novel: he is stranded on Mars after having an antenna array impale him during a sandstorm (Weir 4). Thus the decision to begin with Watney on Mars was deliberate because it places him in that special world right off the bat and it creates an immediate call to adventure to survive and escape Mars. Watney’s situation also enables readers to empathize with how screwed he is, which makes later tribulations funnier because of the rapport Weir creates between Watney and his …show more content…
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
While W. D. Howell gets rid of the romantic ending, Ambrose Bierce’s story, An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge eliminates the unrealistic endings in adventure war style stories. The first few pages of the story starts out like today’s Mission Impossible movie. However, the ending of Mission Impossible always has the main character live. Bierce’s story starts out with an intense moment in the character’s, Peyton Farquhar, life. Leading up to Peyton’s amazing and miraculous escape, or so the reader is lead to
The dictionary defines hero in mythology and legend as, "a man who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his bold exploits, and born of divine or royal blood. He is a person noted for feats of courage or nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life." In addition, I believe a hero is one to be looked up to and emulated. What is interesting about epic heroes is that their great deeds and exploits all have to do with defeating themselves, so with help from the gods they can truly become heroic. They can only defeat themselves with the help of the gods.
In the book The Martian by Andy Weir, Mark Watney is thought to be dead and left on Mars after a sandstorm during Sol 6. Mark has to survive with what’s left on mars and through many obstacles and tribulations in his fight to survive. The way Mark’s character broadens from start to finish shows that Mark is witty, rational, and driven.
A hero is defined as "someone admired for his bravery, great deeds or noble qualities". There are three categories to which all heroes can be classified into, one of which is the anti-hero genre.
For those of you who have somehow come this far in your otherwise admirable education without once seeing this influencial film, a brief synopsis: a group of scientists at the North Pole discover a flying saucer buried in the ice, and with it the body of a man from Mars.Unintentionally, they blow up the saucer and melt the Martian.The thawed Martian, or Thing, proceeds to run amok, killing scientists and draining their blood in order to nourish its progeny.Importantly, a group of visiting air force men have taken over in this moment of crisis, a coup which the film seems to believe requires no justification.Thus the major conflict is defined; not, that is, between man and Martian, but between soldier and scientist.The leader of the scientists, Dr. Carrington--who is referred to earlier in the film as both a genius and, more significantly, the "man who was at Bikini," thus aligning him with the H-bomb--is portrayed as arrogant, cold, precise, unemotional, i.e., everything we've come to expect from a card-carrying 1950s egghead.In the four short scenes I'm about to show you, Dr. Carrington demonstrates just what we have to fear.
The Martian is a story that involves a visit to the mars, and after that, the astronauts come out of the Mars leaving behind Mark Watney who his real name is Matt Damon. The team assumed Mark was dead after a strong storm. He tried to survive with the remains of the supplier till he was able to launch his way back to the Earth (MacIsaac, 2015). The story is represented in the Novel, and a movie and these two platforms have some similarities and differences. The movie is the representation of what is happening in the book. Therefore, not everything that it is in the book is covered in the one and half film, therefore several scenarios are left out.
A hero is defined as a person who is admired for courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities. A hero is strong in mind and body, courageous in spirit, and selfless where others are involved. Superman and Beowulf both exhibit these characteristics. The differences between Beowulf and Superman are as obvious as their similarities.
For some reason, NASA is just perfectly fine with watching men and women die right in front of them on their own computer screens. The man has been stuck up on Mars for 687 sols. That is 708 days in earth terms. Yes, he is the first person on to not only live, but survive on Mars for 708 days. That gives his hometown some huge publicity and major fame. All of this could have been avoided though. Mark could not gotten severely hurt during the mission. Mark could not have died multiple times while living on Mars. He could have not had to travel with one rover and all the way to the MAV. He could have not lived on limited water, while almost killing himself trying to create more water, while trying to maintain
Andy Weir’s The Martian portrays the highly deadly and dangerous life on Mars. Mark Watney is on the planet Mars on a NASA mission with other astronauts, but like any good book, something unexpected happens. Mark is stranded on Mars with no crew and no communication. He’s alone. Well, he has the HAB of course.
John Carter, the protagonist, describes the Green Martians as having, “scrawny bodies, long necks and six legs” (24). He likens them to the Indian warriors who had chased him before his travel to Mars (30) as the Green Martians are trained in and pride
In The Martian Chronicles there are four expeditions to Mars. Each is unsuccessful, but Earth decides to build a civilization there anyway to avoid the atomic war back home. This book consists of many short stories dealing with hysteria, jealousy, loneliness, greed, love and betrayal both on Earth and on Mars. In all the stories of The Martian Chronicles the main idea is that people ventured to Mars to start a civilization. After they had built cities replacing those of the original Martians, the humans abandoned Mars to return to their families on earth and provide support while the atomic war was raging.
As readers we can notice the book is written as multiple journal entries of the hard-fought times of stranded botanist and engineer Mark Watney. The journal entries make the novel more personal and grips us into the adventures of astronaut Watney.
What is the definition of a hero? A hero is an ordinary person who finds strength to persevere and endure, in spite of, overwhelming obstacles. In the novel, Lord of the Flies, Ralph, a ordinary 12 year old boy, is elected chief over an island with no adults and no way home. Ralph is considered a hero because he makes difficult choices for the group and overcomes many obstacles , such as keeping the fire going. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Odysseus, a king of Ithaca, is called to battle in Troy and faces many challenging creatures on his way home such as Cyclops, Calypso, being turned into pigs, and many more. Odysseus is a hero because he perseveres and overcomes the obstacles and makes it home to his family.
Throughout human history mankind has always sought one thing – companionship. Men and women evolved as social creatures that required interpersonal interaction in order to ensure the survival of the species. People naturally do not seek to isolate themselves from the world but rather to fill their world with others – it is humanity’s disposition to be naturally social and surrounded by others similar to themselves. In The Martian, by Andy Weir, the author uses the character of Mark Watney in order to illustrate the true power and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of one of humanity’s greatest enemies – isolation.
Mark Watney said the above lines on the first page of Andy Weir’s bestselling novel The Martian. If anybody were to be stranded on Mars by themselves, they would have the exact same reaction. Many people would panic and give up hope right away, but a very small amount people would calm themselves down, take inventory of their supplies, and try to solve the problem of being stuck on Mars. Mark Watney was one of the few people that would calm themselves down after the initial panic and use their personal traits to solve the problem at hand. Mark Watney used his intelligence, resourcefulness, and even amazing sense of humor to make it off Mars with very little