Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Section 3

In Section 3, it is apparent that the crew is going through hardships. There aren’t enough food and supplies, and the team is starting to fluctuate in their attitudes. At times, the crew is happy, and at times, the crew is miserable. Shackleton tries his best to try and motivate the team, keep them alive, as well as continuing on with the journey. Shackleton knows that a happy team is a team that works best, that is why Shackleton tries to please his crew by allowing them to be gluttons on Christmas. Even though they do not have enough food to last, Shackleton allows everyone to eat extra portions. There are times when Shackleton has to make sure that the crew survives. At first, seals are sacrificed in order to keep the crew from starving, but as time moves on, they no longer have seal blubber. As a result, the team must kill and consume the dogs. Most people will see this as sickly, but sometimes you have to do what you don’t want to do in order to survive. Overall, the team is really starting to face their hardships, and the fact that they may not survive the journey to make it to Paulet Island. I think the ice acts as a metaphor for the groups moral. At time s, the ice opens up, allowing the team to continue, and at times it closes, preventing the team from moving forward. This is similar to the teams morals of highs and lows.

1 comment:

  1. Shackleton is a great leader when it comes to trying to keep the good spirits of the men up. Even in a situation where the smart thing would've been to save the food, Shackleton knew that allowing them to eat in excess would please them and that was very important. Their moral needed to be high to press on. I also agree with your statement that sometimes we have to do things we don't really like or want to do, like the eat the dogs. Ultimately, whatever they must do to survive must be done.

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