Endurance: rescue

• Literary Term: dialogue- conversation between two or more people
• example: "'Who the hell are you?' he asked at last.  'My name is Shackleton,' he replied in a quiet voice.'"
• Quote: "A spontaneous cheer went up.  In fact the excitement ashore was so intense that many men actually were giggling."
• The men of the Endurance had spent about two years in the middle of the Antarctic.  The sight of the rescue boats making their way to shore was a scene that many of the men had lost all hope that they would ever see.  When my mom was pregnant with my brother, I was in seventh grade.  It was a terrible pregnancy for my mom and it greatly affected my whole family.  Those nine months felt like years.  When my little brother was finally born, it felt as if we could finally breath again.  I can't even begin to imagine the thrill that must have washed over the twenty-two men when the boats were first seen.  The fact that not one of the original twenty-eight men died throughout the course of the voyage was a small miracle in itself.  The strength, dedication, and faith of these men enabled them to overcome unthinkable odds and survive in one of the world's most brutal environments.

Endurance: battling all odds

• Literary Term: jargon- the specialized language or vocabulary of a particular group or profession
• example: "The jib was removed from the mainmast, and the reefed lugsail and mizzen were run up."
• Quote: "But sufficiently provoked, there is hardly a creature on God's earth that ultimately won't turn and attempt to fight, regardless of the odds."
• Shackleton and a mere five other men were attempting to make their way through waters that were feared world-wide.  Huge ships still stood the chance of being sunk, let alone a tiny lifeboat manned by six men.  Often we underestimate a human's will to survive.  The odds that the Caird would make it to South Georgia was nearly one in a million.  The sea threw everything it had at the men: storms, blizzards, monstrous waves, raging winds.  Nothing, however, could stop them.  Ironically, each man went into the journey to South Georgia expecting to die.  This acceptance, however, did not and would not stop them from fighting for their lives even to their deaths.  They were battling the savage sea, and were somehow surviving each attack.  Miraculously, Shackleton and his men made it to the shores of South Georgia.

Endurance: the Caird presses on

• Literary Term: mood- the emotional atmosphere of a work
• example: "Their helplessness was almost total, and they knew it."
• Quote: "On this score, their general feeling, at least outwardly, was confident.  But how else might they have felt?  Any other attitude would have been the equivalent of admitting that they were doomed.  No matter what the odds, a man does not pin his last hope for survival on something and then expect that it will fail."
• Hope is a dangerous thing.  It can keep us holding on when we feel we're about to break.  It also has to power to destroy us even more inside when we finally realize that there really isn't any hope for our situation at all.  Throughout this section of the novel, the men were constantly fighting against hope.  Once they began to hope it was possible to be rescued, they opened themselves up to the possibility of being crushed if their plan failed.  When Shackleton left with five other men in the Caird, every man attempted to act as normally as possible.  They wanted to believe that Shackleton and his men would bring back help for the twenty-two remaining on the island.  All of the men put on strong faces in front of each other, while on the inside each was trying to ignore the gnawing possibility that no help would ever return for them.

Endurance: land at last

• Literary Term: antithesis- a statement in which two opposing ideas are balanced
• example: "The adventurous side of the expedition, which was its chief appeal for most of the other men, interested James very little.  In personality, he was roughly the antithesis of Shackleton."
• Quote: "They made a pitiable sight--three little boats, packed with the odd remnants of what had once been a proud expedition, bearing twenty-eight suffering men in one final, almost ludicrous bid for survival.  But this time there was to be no turning back, and they all knew it.
• Often times we can go into competitions with the mindset that there is no way possible we could lose.  It is therefore a slap to our pride and dignity when, in some cases, we are easily beaten.  Shackleton and his crew went into their expedition not cocky, but rather confident that they would have success.  However, the proud weather of the Antarctic swiftly humbled their level of confidence.  The men were completely at the mercy of their environment, and that prospect was slightly terrifying.  In a desperate attempt to reach the distant island, Shackleton and his men set out in their three pathetically small boats.  I can only imagine the conditions of those boats.  In my own family's road trips, the vehicle is filled to the point where we sometimes wonder if we can fit our family in with the luggage.  It was much the same for the crew, but in much worse conditions.  They were all crammed into tiny boats with every imaginable odd and end at their feet.  The temperatures were often sub-zero, and freezing ocean water constantly sprayed into their faces.  With an unbelievable amount of strength and perseverance, Shackleton and his men were able to reach land at last.

Endurance: land sighted

• Literary Term: foreshadowing- the presentation of material in such a way that the reader is prepared for what is to come later in the work
• example: "Depressing news was waiting,  Ice conditions in the Weddell Sea, while never good, were the worst they had ever been in the memory of the Norwegian whaling skippers operating the are...some even tried to dissuade Shackleton from trying until the following season."
• Quote: "And James noted: 'A great air of expectancy everywhere.  We are on the verge of something, there is no doubt.  If all goes well we may be on land very soon.  Our chief need is an opening in the ice.  Our chief danger being carried beyond these islands and into the open sea.'"
• We have all experienced the feelings of these men.  It is as if all of nature is holding its breath, waiting.  It is as if the earth itself has stopped spinning to witness what is sure to unfold.  For the stranded men, however, they had no way of knowing what would be unfolding.  Land had been sighted after months on their ice island.  Shackleton was faced with a difficult decision that could go one of two ways.  He could choose to chance sailing in the life boats to the sighted island, at risk of colliding into huge masses of floating ice.  He could also choose to remain on their bit of ice which was, for the time being, still safe to inhabit.  It is maddening to wait in anticipation for something that we cannot control in any way.  The crew of the Endurance were forced to do just this.  They had to wait, pray, and wonder whether or not the ice would open up for them to pass through safely.

Endurance: comforting companions

• Literary Term: simple sentence- a sentence consisting of one independent clause and no dependent clause
• example: "Shackleton sat down."
• Quote: "There was a deep emotional attachment to the dogs.  It was the basic human need to love something, the desire to express tenderness in this barren place."
• Loneliness is not an emotion that is easily dealt with by humans.  We crave not only the chance to be loved, but to give love to others.  When my great-aunt's husband passed away, she finally was persuaded to purchase a dog.  Her personality completely changed.  At last, she had someone to keep her company in the lonely confines of her home.  Likewise, the men from the Endurance needed someone or something to show affection to.  The dogs offered unquestionable loyalty and companionship to the men on their lonely ice island.  In a land where almost nothing was certain, it was a comfort for the men to know that they would always have their beloved canine companions.  Due to the fact that the dogs were unaware of the danger they were all in, their indifference to their predicament allowed the men to be more optimistic about their uncertain future.

Endurance: hope

• Literary Term: symbol- an object that is used to represent something else
• example: "The ship had been a symbol, a tangible, physical symbol that linked them with the outside world...Now she was gone."
• Quote: "Greenstreet paused in the midst of his task to write in his diary: 'One of finest days we ever had...a pleasure to be alive.'"
• It is shocking that, while being stuck in the middle of nowhere and with little hope of rescue, the men were able to keep such a positive attitude about their situation.  They tried their best to get along, entertain each other, and help out around the camp.  They had almost nothing, yet they were happy.  They were happy just to be alive.  Everyday we worry about materialistic things, whether we know it or not.  It doesn't make sense to me sometimes that we obsess over material possessions and rank, when it's so obvious that we could be just as happy without them.  It gets to the point where we no longer own our possessions, but they own us.  These men had to leave almost every personal belonging at the ship in order to survive, and they did so without complaining.  They became content with simply living.  In my opinion, until we can learn to be happy living simply, we can never be content living extravagantly.