Eli Kimmel Ms. Lehmann English 1-1A 15 November 2018
Survival Is Not Selfish Do you think survival is selfish? People have debated about this very question for years. This essay will argue that survival is not selfish, as is proven by authors Louise Erdrich, Laurence Gonzales, and Lane Wallace. The first author who shows survival is not selfish is Louise Erdrich. Erdrich’s short story “The Leap” provides many examples of situations where survival does not require selfishness. The narrator explains that her mother was a part of a blindfolded trapeze act; on a stormy day, their tent was struck by lightning in the middle of a performance. Her husband fell and died, but the narrator’s mother saved her baby and herself. Later, the narrator says, “My mother once said that I’d be amazed at how many things a person can do within the act of falling” (Erdrich 342). This proves that the mother had time to think, and she chose to save her baby instead of falling with her husband. By thinking of her child first, she also saved herself. Later in the story, Erdrich gives us another situation like this one. Erdrich talks about the same mother going into a burning building to saver her daughter. The narrator explains, “I didn’t see her leap through the air, only heard the sudden thump and looked out my window. She was hanging by the backs of her heels from the new gutter” (Erdrich 345-346). This decision saved both of them; Erdrich proves that survival is not selfish by telling us about this mother and her decision to save her daughter. Both of these scenarios prove that people don’t have to be selfish to survive. Laurence Gonzales provides even more evidence. The essay “Deep Survival,” by Laurence Gonzales, also proves that survival is not selfish. Gonales describes a group of pilots who survived by sticking together. Kearns, a survival guide leading the pilots, says “‘All at once, it hit me that I might actually lose them. Those million-dollar pilots could die’” (Gonzales 331). Kearn’s fear that the pilots might die gave him the strength to save the others and survive himself. Gonzales gives another example of a scenario in which someone survived because they were not selfish. He talks about a man who survived the World Trade Center attacks because he wanted to see his kids again. While the building was on fire, DiFrancesco tried to go back up to find fresh air, but “after ten or so floors, he encountered people who were succumbing to fatigue and smoke. The people, all of whom would die, were just giving up and falling asleep. DiFrancesco, too, was collapsing, but then he said to himself, ‘I’ve got to see my wife and kids again’” (Gonzales 332). Thinking of others rather than just focusing on himself gave DiFrancesco the strength he needed to go back down the stairs and escape with his life. In this case, he only survived because he put his wife and kids before himself. Lane Wallace gives mote examples of survivors who lived because they were not selfish. In Lane Wallace’s article “Is Survival Selfish?”, Lane Wallace argues that people aren’t selfish in survival situations; they simply follow their instinct. Wallace explains, “Some people hold it together in a crisis and some people fall apart some people might run away from danger one day, ad toward it the next” (Wallace 320). Wallace is making the point that people respond in different ways to survival situations. He makes it clear here that survival is simply a matter of instinct, rather than any kind of intentional decision to be selfish or brave. Being selfish requires intention; if survival is instinct, there is no intention and therefore it cannot be selfish. Wallace gives another example of why survival is not selfish. Wallace says, “Oddly enough, most of the people who perform such impulsive rescues say that they didn’t really think before acting. Which means they weren’t ‘choosing’ civilization” (Wallace 320). Wallace is arguing that people who are described as being brave or benevolent aren’t actually exhibiting those character traits at all; they are simply acting. If saving someone isn’t brave, how can survival be selfish? Some argue that survival is selfish because people have time to think before they act, and those who survive think of themselves. People may have time to think in survival situations, but many people do not think of themselves first. In fact, the people with the highest rates of survival are thinking of others. Gonzales writes, “Doctors and nurses often survive better than others because they have someone to help” (Gonzales 332). By thinking of the person they are trying to save, rescue workers take themselves out of the equation and can better focus on getting out of danger, saving both parties involved. Survival is not selfish. The short story “The Leap,” the essay “Deep Survival,” and the article “Is Survival Selfish” all prove that people don’t have to be selfish to survive. Erdrich gives us the example of a mother who risks her own life for her child and saves them both. Gonzales proves that those who think of others survive situations they would have died in otherwise. Wallace argues that the way people respond doesn’t come down to how their instinct tell them to respond. So, after examining all of the evidence, it’s clear that survival is not selfish. Works Cited Erdrich, Louise. “The Leap” Collections, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 339-346. Gonzales, Laurence. “Deep Survival.” Collections, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 325-334. Wallace, Lane. “Is Survival Selfish?” Collections, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 317-320.
Argumentative Reflection
List one thing you've learned from writing this paper that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like? I have learned how to write an argumentative essay to compare whether survival is selfish and I learned how to use my resources to back up my opinion.
Identify a specific revision you were asked to make and explain why (this can be at any stage of the writing process). How did you revise? What did you learn? I was asked to revise a part of my paper where someone copied off of my computer and I didn't notice, so I revised some of the paper where they person had copied off of me.
What are the conventions of an argumentative essay and how did you meet those in this assignment? The conventions of an argumentative essay are to compare one thing to another thing like an opinion may be different from another opinion, and to argue why your opinion is correct.
Given more time to work on this assignment, how would you improve it? I would probably add more paragraphs to this paper.
What is one thing you're proud of in this paper? I am proud that I learned something while writing this paper about argumentative essays.