Six Word Slant: 127 Hours, Life over a Limb.
Claim: If confronted by a situation where death is inevitable, man's instinct resorts to whatever is necessary, even the untinkable, to survive.
If confronted by a situation where death is inevitable, man's instinct resorts to whatever is necessary to assure survival. Whether the outcome could be bodily harm, loss of loved ones or fatality, even man will revert from his civilized 21st century persona to the primordial neanderthal all in the name of survival.
The will to survive is a very powerful force every living being on this planet possesses and pushes that entity to perform the unthinkable to survive. Aron Ralston has been in this very situation before, where he found himself trapped between a rock and a hard place and was forced to perform an unbelievably arduous task of amputating his right arm to free himself. Aron's chances of survival was minuscule, but his determination and perseverance allowed him to accomplish this mammoth task. Aron fastened a tournequet around his arm to reduce the loss of blood and began sawing away at his arm with some of his safety equiptment. After Aron wandered into a nearby party and arrival at the closest hospital, surgeons discovered that Aron's amputation caused a bone infection that gave him a 50/50 chance of survival. According to Aron Ralston Discusses His Life Since He Amputated His Own Hand, Aron was quoted saying, " ' This is not the life I fought like hell to get out of the canyon to get back to. ' All of his outdoor experiences, all the good times with his friends seemed to be out of reach forever. Ralston remembers one night from the convalescence with a palpable intensity: lying in bed, he saw all the bottles of high-powered pain pills and knew he could end his life." Aron lugubriously struggled to fend off his depression and the fact that life may never return to normal after his incident. Aron resorted to what every other human being would when facing any perilous situation, he turned to his family and friends to find comfort. The presence of love helped Ralston cope with reality and allowed him to slowly begin returning to his daily routines. After every he has been through, Aron now has reacquired his former optimistic outlook on life and is grateful for having his life.
Immediately after his release from the unforgiving rock and the life he knew before, Aron experienced an euphoria of freedom, in which he passed out due to soon afterwards. Aron must have felt like Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) after he had escaped from Shawshank State Prison in the Shawshank Redemption. Aron never felt anything like this and spoke of the feeling as an extraordinarily powerful moment since he had already accepted his fate and acknowledged death as an inevitability. The CUindependent article, (an) Interview with Aron Ralston, addresses that Aron said, " 'It was just the idea of being free,' he said. 'It was the idea of getting back with my family; the idea of who kept me alive all those days. I had accepted my death, so to step out of my grave in that moment was ... extraordinarily powerful.' " A case similar to the story of Buck from The Call of the Wild, where Buck was practically sentenced to death performing the tasks that his inexperienced masters demanded of him. Buck refused to carry on the useless attempts to lead his pack and was in the process of being whipped to death until a benevolent being, Thorneton, intervened and rescued Buck. Buck acquired a renewed sense of love for life and a true companion in Thorneton.
The consequences of a life endangering last resort should be took into consideration and the awareness of these consequences can play a major role with one's last ditch effort for survival. The decision of amputation is no easy one. Jonathan Metz somehow managed to entangle his arm between the heating cores inside a boiler in his basement. As an ABC News article, Man Trapped in Furnace, Amputated Own Arm to Live, illustrates, "Floating in and out of consciousness, and drinking water leaked from the furnace, Metz made a decision that doctors say saved his life: He placed a makeshift tourniquet near his left shoulder and, using the tools he had available, began to cut off his arm." Though his decision was not without repercussions. Three days after his amputation and a single day after surgeons grafter muscle tissue onto his shoulder, Metz smelled the telltale sign of infection, the rotting of his flesh. Again, he removed his dying tissue, a decision that doctors said was his salvation. Metz was later properly treated for infections and later recalls the similarities between his own predicament and Aron Ralston's incident.
Some may say that saying and waiting for help to arrive would have been the proper means of dealing with this kind of situation, but I concurr. If Ralston and Metz were to sit tight and wait out the storm, they would have surely parished because safety officials were unaware of their presence and circumstances. Aron did what he had to do to survive and he succeeded. Metz made the right decision and he survived due to his decision making.
The determination of man (and beast) to survive has proven to be no more prevalent than the stories displayed above. Ralston, Metz, and Buck has shown that nothing exists out of the question when it comes to survival. Life and love stands above appendages, pride, and life's mortal possessions. So I conclude by asking you to do whatever possible to achieve your goals in life, whether those goals are fame (or infamy), fortune or just simply survival.
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