The fictitious novel “The Martian” by Andy Weir explores quantum physics as it follows the character Mark Watney’s misfortune as he is left behind on a trip to Mars. “The Martian” is considered a survival story, as it details the day to day life of this botanist and mechanical engineer who must figure out how to survive on one of the most inhospitable planets. The book discusses every precise detail of how Watney creates a chemical reaction to turn rocket fuel into water, how to grow potatoes, and turns an abandoned lander rover into a communication device.
Above all this, the book manages to have a main character who can solve almost any problem he encounters. Throughout the novel there is information about chemistry, nutrition, farming, and engineering. Mark must begin by calculating how much food, water, and air he needs to survive once he realizes he has a limited supply and doesn’t know how long it would be before NASA would come back for him.
The book is about engineering and improvising your way out of trouble, for example, he used the Hab, the Mars Habitat a place for astronauts to relax when not wearing their EVA suits and safely breathe oxygen. The
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He then knew NASA knew he was alive, and realizes due to the lack of paper yes and no questions every thirty minutes was not the best way to talk. Watney decided to use the ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange); it would be the best format to use because there was a larger space between each card allowing him to know where the camera from pathfinder was aiming (pg.140). Engineers communicate many different ways and now Watney had a larger team of people to work with to help solve problems he may not be able to. Although Mark is now communicating with NASA the reality of getting him back is bleak. It will be four years before another mission goes to Mars and can rescue
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
Chapter 2 was his observation on what is wrong with the world. His thoughts were “the state of earth is not good, and our home planet is being degraded. For example population is increase which means more pollution which is
Typically, a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning, middle, climax, and the end. The beginning sets the tone for the book and introduces the reader to the characters and the setting. The majority of the novel comes from middle where the plot takes place. The plot is what usually captures the reader’s attention and allows the reader to become mentally involved. Next, is the climax of the story. This is the point in the book where everything comes together and the reader’s attention is at the fullest. Finally, there is the end. In the end of a book, the reader is typically left asking no questions, and satisfied with the outcome of the previous events. However, in the novel The Things They Carried the setup of the book is quite different. This book is written in a genre of literature called “metafiction.” “Metafiction” is a term given to fictional story in which the author makes the reader question what is fiction and what is reality. This is very important in the setup of the Tim’s writing because it forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the story. However, this is not one story at all; instead, O’Brien writes the book as if each chapter were its own short story. Although all the chapters have relation to one another, when reading the book, the reader is compelled to keep reading. It is almost as if the reader is listening to a “soldier storyteller” over a long period of time.
In the book it shows us how civilizations end and why they do. First man came to mars when Martians were there. Then he soon took over mars. The main reason man came to mars is because he was fleeing from the war back home. But soon when the war got to an extent he went back to earth. But few people stayed back, and then they became Martians. That basically shows what had happened in the past.
I really enjoyed this novel because he included so many scientific words like ‘liquefaction’ or ‘inert’ which makes the novel quite remarkable. The metaphors he used are very good thought of because as you read it you think you are in the event. The sacrificing from the artilleryman is the moral of the novel because it means that you never should give up even when everybody thinks everything is over.
Mark Watney realizes that he might be about to die. “I face the very real possibility that I’ll die today. Can’t say I like it” (Weir 340). Mark faces the fact that he could possibly die today, because he is trapped on Mars with little food and oxygen, and there is nothing he can do about it. In The Martian, the crew realizes they are going too fast and they are going to miss Mark, while they are going to Mars to go and rescue him. “He shook his head. ‘I got nothin’, Commander. We’re just going too fast.’” The whole crew gets worried because unless they do something to slow the ship down they are going to miss Mark. The Martian is suspenseful because Mark almost dies so many times that it is hard to
Unlike most people that have perambulated this earth, Whitehead decided to actualize his bizarre idea in hopes that it would become a work of art. He declared that he did not expect the novel to acquire this much fame. "It's strange, really," he says of the rate at which his novel gained popularity, "it was a first book, you know? Any notice whatsoever I thought was great" (Weich). Through a great deal of research, Whitehead created a culture of elevator inspectors. This elevator community got so intricate that it included a school, which encompassed two opposing philosophies - Empiricism and Intuitionism, on...
Brian shows many examples of this by never giving up on whatever he is trying to accomplish and trying different solutions such as starting a fire or catching bird. Another theme that can be taken away from this book is how you can use nature and the materials around you to survive. The author shows you step by step on how Brian uses the wood, water, and hatchet to help you
I think this book is more concerned with the concept of human nature. Where human nature is defined as the psychological and social qualities that characterize humankind. Throughout this book we see that human nature is being characterized by allowing the main character, Brian Robeson, to known himself through being deserted. An example of this is when he first crashed in Canada we are able to see how he was scared and complained. We are also able to see that he self pitied himself in the beginning. For example, “the pain filled his leg now, and with it came new waves of self-pity. Sitting alone in the dark, his leg aching, some mosquitos finding him again, he started crying. It was all too much, just too much, and he couldn’t take it. Not
Humans naturally feel isolated, closed off from the world at times of their life. During such times, isolation cause humans to transform, experiencing personality or attitude changes, usually for the worst. This however is a novelty, compared to the what the botanist Mark Watney, part of the Ares 3 Mars Missions, underwent when he was abandoned on Mars, 50 million kilometers away from the nest human, after experiencing a dangerous sand storm in The Martian by Andy Weir. When the Hab, an area where astronauts can roam freely without the aide of a suit and Mark Watney’s only sanctuary, exploded, Watney lost his ability to communicate with NASA, the only entity that could talk to him and he lost all hope of survival, causing him to have to adapt
The Climax in The Martian takes place when pathfinder, the communication device that Mark was using in order to talk to NASA has one of its wires fried and loses its capability to transmit messages over such extreme distances. This occurred when Mark was working on the rover to prepare it for his final trip on mars to the Ares 4 site when he set a drill he was using very close to Pathfinder without noticing and the wires from the drill touched Pathfinder. Since the drill was so much more powerful than Pathfinder the amount of electricity it transmitted when the wires touched was enough to cause the wires of Pathfinder to fry. Power traveled from the drill line's positive lead, through the work bench...and
Stephen Hawking is arguably the most brilliant and cunning mind living among us. His research in mathematics, philosophy, physics, and cosmology has revolutionized the way we look at our world. In addition, he writes down all of his ideas in several books making his discoveries accessible for generations to come. Born in Oxford England, Hawking attended Oxford University, The California Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, and Gonville & Caius College. During his lectures, Hawking is seen in a complex wheelchair and talking through a computer. This is due to the unfortunate fact that he suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. It is a terrible crippling disease that shuts down the nerves controlling the sufferer’s muscles. One’s lifespan after being diagnosed with this diseased tends to be cut quite short. Hawking was diagnosed with this disease when he was in his early twenties and was given about two years to live. He is now seventy two years old and doing fantastic. “Although I cannot move, and I have to speak through a computer, in my mind, I am free.” –Hawking. Hawking’s research and theories about the universe have been met with widespread appreciation as well as disagreement and anger. This is often due to Hawking’s dismissal of god and philosophy when it comes to the creation of the universe.
Each chapter of the book is focused on a different subject, for example: chapter seven is focused on metaphoric illness; moreover, chapter eight is about plane wrecks and the fear many humans face towards it, not to mention chapter nine is based on his final thoughts where he analyses in detail how professionals user their strategies to “transform something implausible into something believable.” (Glassner, 207) Lastly, chapter ten is about the new fears expected to happen in the upcoming century, which are the same fear he had already touched based on but most recently arising will be terrorism, and war.
A little bit later on in the book you get a feel for what happens in his home life. He tries to get one of his inventions working named nemesis (a tripod with a tv and