IR Blog Post 2

The Endurance by Caroline Alexander

"It was all up. At 5 p.m., Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship. The dogs were evacuated down canvas chutes, and the supplies that had been readied were lowered to the ice. Shackleton, standing on the quivering deck, looked down the engine room skylight to see the engines dropping sideways as the stays and plates gave way...the men are numbed by fatigue. None of the diaries evinces much concern for personal safety; all emotion was expended on the death of the ship" (Alexander, page 89)

I chose this part of the story because it truly shows the mindset of the sailors. Their ship has been pinched between two ice slabs and the boat was thrown on its side. Although they could not sail anywhere, at least they were able to live in their ship. Now, because the ship is on its side, they must leave the ship to survive on the ice. Rather than the sailors being worried about how they are going to stay alive in the extreme cold, they are depressed about the death of their ship. Shackleton seemed to be most affected by the event. To him, the ship was more than a floating home and he had to watch it slowly die. There was a light on the ship that was left on, but as the ship was crunched by the ice, the light slowly flickered out. This symbolized the death of the ship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDQEsQa5TyQ&feature=related

In the video above, we see how the men were living in the ship. It talks about the respect that the sailors have for their captain, Shackleton. He is a kind and generous man. The reason why I think no one has died on this voyage yet is because he cares about each person individually. At approximately 5 minutes into the video, we see how the men use the dogs. The dogs were there to help with carrying the load and to keep the men company. Later in the section, I start to see that feeding the dogs is becoming a hassle. It probably saved many of them from going insane. In the 8th minute of the video, there is footage of the wrecked ship. You can see the ice blocked that took the ships life. If the sailors did not trust the captain, they all could have died.

http://blog.crowdspring.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/endurance2.jpg

After hearing the moans of the ship in the night, Shackleton knew his ship was being damaged. He felt comfortable in the ship so he did not want to leave. I think this compares to Chris McCandless's journey. When Chris was in the wild, he was not going to last long until he found refuge at the bus. The sailor's bus is the ship. The only reason why Chris was staying alive was because of the bus. Now that the sailors must leave their ship, will they end up dead?

R.A.F.T. Chile

Role: Alberto
Audience: Che
Format: Tweet
Topic: Chile

Chile has been great to us "experts". Generosity has been plentiful. I think that the people here are not treated very well by the government. Eventually, we need to head off to Easter Island to help the others.

RAFT Argentina

Role: Ernesto
Audience: Ernesto's mom
Format: Poem
Topic: Obstacles

At first when left home,
I felt alive, but alone
Who knew we would be so unprepared
Luckily, Alberto and I were never scared.
Little did we know, the travel was a hike
Constantly falling off the unsteady bike,
Muddy hills and big storms,
I wish I could change the sneakers I had worn.
But the least of my difficulties was my choice of shoe,
when I became ill with the flu.
The journey so far has been as wild as a bull,
but Ill be fine as long as I'm resourceful.

RAFT Introduction

Role: You
Audience: Classmates
Format: Letter
Topic: What do you expect to study this M.P.?

Dear Class,

I think that we will study Che's journey. At first it will probably be factual. We will learn about the places that he went and his personality. As he travels, I think will see the hardships of the lower class in Latin America. We will see what is really happening to the indigenous people of the areas, and Che will help. We will view the transformation that Che goes throughout his journey. I think he will become much more mature as the story goes on. He will also begin to get involved in the problems of the continent. We will probably look at the epiphany that Che has and where it occurred.

Sincerely,


Ben Ravetz

TMD Preview

- The book we are about to read is considered a 'travel diary.' In terms of writing style, what do you expect from this type of book?

I think that we can expect to see a lot of choppy sentences and description. Because this is a memoir type of writing, I think there will be less symbols and deeper meaning, and more just saying what happened. This book will consist mostly of stories about the travels.

- Based off the clip, 180 South, your research, the preview, and the timeline/bio you looked over, what are some of the major issues you expect to read about?

An issue that I think we will see is destruction of the environment. In our research we saw that South America is plentiful in natural resources, but most of the countries were beginning to allow big companies take over their land. Most of the governments in the time period were not very stable. Through this we know that we will see some overthrow of the government. Through the preview we know that Che travels to many places. The climate and terrain of these areas vary drastically. I think dealing with the weather will play a large role in the story.

- How will this differ from the previous 2 books we've studied?
In the two previous books, we had to read for deeper meanings and symbols. This book simply tells what happened so we will probably not see nearly as much of that. The other 2 books were fiction, meanwhile this one is based on true story.

IR blog Post 1

The Endurance by Caroline Alexander

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqpITVsy2cU

This video shows actual footage of the ship stuck on the ice. The video says that the ship is a sailors home, and when he leaves the ship he is at a loss. I think this is very important in the story. In the movie 180' South and Into the Wild, the adventure does not start until something goes wrong. In this case, the crash of the ship went wrong, and now the sailors are in a place where they should not be. The video also shows the dogs that they had aboard the ship. These dogs started off useful and energetic, but then became a pain when there was not enough food around. The struggles that the crew goes through are difficult, but they show the theme of adaptation. In order to survive, you must adapt.

IR Blog Post 1

The Endurance by Caroline Alexander

http://www.geographical.co.uk/vnoffice/data/0/0/17/246/gallery_306x_255,255,255/Archive.jpg

In the link above is a picture of the ship The Endurance in the harbor, while Worsley and Greenstreet are on the top of a mountain. While the boat was docked and re-stocking, the crew members would go on adventures. This adventure was climbing a nearby mountain. This symbolizes the climb that is ahead of them, although they do not yet realize it. Several members of the crew liked to go off on their own and climb dangerous cliffs, but the captain forbade them. Nature is an important theme. A respect for nature is necessary in survival. At this point I think all of these men respect nature because of how they take picture of the wildlife, to "preserve the images"

IR Blog Post 1

The Endurance by Caroline Alexander

"In the dwindling light, the men exercised the dog teams, or scouted for now infrequent seals, or went off on exploratory hikes across the ice. Like the hapless Endurance, a number of icebergs a number of icebergs had also become trapped in the pack, and so ship and landscape drifted in tandem, held together by the northwest current. As familiar objects in the men's erratically shifting world, many of these companion icebergs came to be regarded with affection" (Alexander, page 52)

The crew of 27 men set of on an expedition to travel by boat to Antarctica. One their travels, they got trapped in the icebergs and their boat was split like a twig. After the crew settled in and began to try to survive, they grew tired. While on the white slab of ice, the men played with the sleigh dogs, looked for food, and explored the landscape. Because the environment was constantly changing with the drifts of the ocean, things became very confusing. It shows that this story is not only a journey of Antarctica, but of their minds. This shows the theme of constantly keeping a strong mind. Things are shifting in their worlds, but having the mental endurance is key to survival. I also can also connect this to Into the Wild. The mental toughness to survive in a harsh environment is shown in both of these stories. At night, the weather can reach -100 degrees F and winds can reach 200 mph in blizzards. Scott Shackleton and Chris McCandless showed the same outlook on survival.

180' South Reflection

" The end is useless...but I find I learn something along the way....If you take a spiritual journey & you compromise the process you have failed...you are an [jerk] when you start and an [jerk] when you finish."

For Jeff Johnson, this quote explains it all. On most quests, the travel is more important than the destination because through finding your way and getting around the obstacles, you gain knowledge about the world and yourself. Jeff decided to pick up and go on a trip to go to Patagonia. He could have very simply got onto a plane and flew there, but he decided to go there by boat. Just by looking at where Jeff ended up in Patagonia, you would only know 5% of the real story. He went to several places and met many people before arriving. If he took a plane there, he would have destroyed the transformation process. He would have been the same as when he left. Because Jeff did not compromise the process, he saw Patagonia differently than he would have if he simply traveled by plane. He gained an appreciation for the world and nature, he would not have if he didn't sail there.

For me, this quote means that on my journey to college next year, I will have to be open to the experience. After traveling away, I will probably learn more about the world and myself, changing my mindset. If I am not open and compromise the transformation process, I will be the same as when I left. It isnt that important where I go, as long as I learn something along the way.

Theme #4 Reflection

1. How did you do with this Theme? How did you feel about how you thought you did compared to the grade you received? What did you do well?

I felt that my format for the essay as good. I also chose good quotes.

2. What are some opportunity areas for you with your writing? (specific to FCA's)

I think I needed to edit my work a little better.

3. What can you improve for next time? (Overall- process, amount of time, etc.)

I think that I can hand more drafts to make the paper smoother.