Melissa Villa Ms. Lehmann English 1-3 3 December 2019 Survival is Selfish Do you think survival is selfish? This is the central question of this essay. Survival does require people to be selfish because people can’t count on other people to save them, and people shouldn’t assume they are capable of saving others; it could cost them their lives. Many experiences support that people must save themselves. Gonzales proves again and again that people need to take initiative and save themselves instead of sitting and waiting for others. People who waited to be saved during 9-11 died because rescue personnel couldn’t get to them. “In the world trade center disaster, many people who were used to following the rules died because they did what they were told by authority figures” (Gonzales 327). This shows that the people who just followed the rules could’ve easily avoided death by simply breaking a couple of rules. Juliane’s survival story also gives a great example of how people need to save themselves. Juliane survived the plane crash because she left the others and saved herself; she had to look after herself instead of waiting for help. The others who waited for help died. “But expecting someone else to take responsibility for your well-being can be fatal” (Gonzales 326.) Here you can see that Gonzales thinks putting your life in the hands of others will not be helpful if you’re trying to survive. Not only should people not wait to be saved by others, but they also shouldn’t assume they are capable of saving others if they can’t even help themselves. In “Is Survival Selfish,” a story is told of a woman who survived a plane crash because she knew only to try and save herself. “After realizing that the people around her were too paralyzed to react, she took direct action, crawling over several rows of people to get to the exit” (Wallace 318). This woman knew to only try and save herself because she wouldn’t have even made it out alive if she had tried to save someone else. Another survival experience was when Yates cut the rope to his friend to save himself. “Simpson ended up hanging off a cliff, unable to climb up, and Yates, unable to lift him up and losing his own grip on the mountain, ended up cutting the rope to Simpson to save himself” (Wallace 319). Yates knew that if he hadn’t cut that rope, he’d die, so he put himself first knowing he couldn’t help his friend. Although it’s obvious that you need to be selfish to survive, others might say that it's not necessary. Some people argue that people need a reason to survive; this is often thinking of others and the loss they would suffer were they to die. The truth is that their reason to suriveis for themselves. In Night the blockaltesteonly thinks of himself and this is how he survives. He gave prisoners advice to make himself feel better because he is the one that agreed to guard them. He went against his own people despite knowing he’d be killing them off, if he got to survive. The evidence is overwhelming that survival is selfish. People do need to be selfish because people can’t rely on anyone to save them and they shouldn’t try and save anyone else before helping themselves. You can’t just sit there and expect some random person to save you. If you’re in a situation where you’re struggling to save yourself, how do you expect to save someone else? You don’t.You only think about you and survive. So, is survival selfish? Yes. Works Cited Gonzales, Laurence. “Deep Survival.” Collections, Edited by Kylee Beers, Martha Hougen, Carol Jago, William L. Mcbride, Erik Palmer & Lydia Stack, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 325-334. Wiesel, Elie. “Night.” Collections, Edited by Kylee Beers, Martha Hougen, Carol Jago, William L. Mcbride, Erik Palmer & Lydia Stack, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 307-312. Wallace, Lane. “Is Survival Selfish.” Collections, Edited by Kylee Beers, Martha Hougen, Carol Jago, William L. Mcbride, Erik Palmer & Lydia Stack, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, pp. 317-320.
Argumentative Essay Reflection
Please answer all questions in complete, grammatically correct sentences.
1. Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific. I read multiple stories regarding if survival was selfish or not. They were all filled with opinions or facts that influenced my opinion. Then, we had a class debate on whether it was or not, I had made my decision, and it was. The people that argued that it wasn't had some great points, but in the end my opinion was stuck. Next I started writing my paper on how survival was selfish, including all the information to prove my opinion. once I finished I had it revised and corrected. Last, I rewrote the final essay with everything right.
2. What qualifies this paper as an argumentative essay? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them? This paper argued that survival is selfish. It included scenarios where people had to be selfish in order to survive and how when people weren't selfish they didn't survive. Therefore proving to those who argued that survival wasn't selfish, that it was.
3.Explain how you found at least one of the quotations from the essay and tell me why you chose that particular quote. What did it do for your paper? "Is Survival Selfish" had some great examples contributing to my essay, I browsed the story fast trying to look for a short and convincing quote for my argument. “Simpson ended up hanging off a cliff, unable to climb up, and Yates, unable to lift him up and losing his own grip on the mountain, ended up cutting the rope to Simpson to save himself” (Wallace 319). There I found this quote. This quote was seemed really helpful to my essay because it proved exactly what I was arguing. Cutting down your own friend for your survival was selfish.