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.