Survival Essay: Is Survival Selfish?

Humans have been the dominant species for many years and over the course of history, human nature has never been fully understood due to the fact that there are major differences between how we function in the world compare to other species and we are still learning from it. Human nature is defined as the ability to think, feel, and act in this world (Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary, n.d.). Humans are selfish individuals because no matter how much they act; they want to fulfill their own interest. We blame nature for our problems because other actions, not necessarily our own, control us but in reality it is our own decisions that caused these actions. After reading “Apes in the Family” from Fran de Waal’s Our Inner Ape, humans are not meant to be selfish in nature but also possess empathy and compassion which allows us to form connections and cooperate with others.

Throughout our lives, we are faced with difficult situations, and possibly even life or death situations. As humans, our instinct is to take these difficult situations and find the best way to get over them. Sometimes these situations and predicaments get so difficulty that there is no way out of it. When this happens, people will do things that they would never dream of doing in order to survive. In history, we can see many incidents where people have gone to extremes just to survive these difficulty situations, such as; the people of the Donner Party, those associated with the Andes Flight Disaster, and the crew members of the Luxborough Galley.

The two stories chosen are “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway written in 1927 and “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” by D.H. Lawrence written in 1922. I decided to compare selfishness in both of these stories. The “Hills Like White Elephants” main characters are the American and girlfriend Jig, deals with an unwanted pregnancy and an operation. The story takes place at a train station, the two characters over a couple of beer strike up a conversation regarding Jig condition.

An example from Lord of the Flies is when Jack and the hunters kill the pig for food and in the Hunger Games, in which Katniss Everdeen must kill other tributes to survive. Another thing people will do to stay alive is steal. A real life example is when some people will steal food from grocery stores to survive. They reach a point where they are so desperate that they must steal to survive.

Life is Made of Choices Look at a tree. What does it look like? It has branches, and leaves and a trunk, right? Now, think about one’s life. It also has branches and leaves and a trunk.

It is our instinct to protect ourselves before we do anything. This notion is put to test in the article “Fight, Flight, or Freeze? The

Thesis: As this classic work shows, adversity can bring out the worst in the human spirit. The Adversity of a Survivor One character who demonstrates the worst under adversity is Elie himself. For example, when Elie was marching, in front of a fiery pit, his father points out the flames: “Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever.

In order to survive, people will do things they wouldn’t normally do or will go to great lengths to do what is necessary to. People will do anything to save themselves rather than trying to save others. Also, things that people will do is they will try to harm you or kill you to survive. People really do take these things serious and you never know how far you are willing to go until you are actually put in that situation. People will do anything to save themselves rather than trying to save everybody else.

A natural human instinct is to do anything in order to survive. Though a person may not necessarily want to survive, the physical body of a person does. The body naturally will try to do anything in order to protect itself and survive even when the person does not notice. Survival comes at a cost that not all people are willing to pay. To survive there are struggles and obstacles that not all are willing to face, but to get through these obstacles an individual is one step closer to survival.

This paper describes and analyzes a life review interview with an older adult. The purpose of this paper is to discuss, record and reflect on an older adult’s life in order to evaluate them on the last stage of Erik Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development; integrity versus despair. This paper will also focus on the elements of a life review as well as the reflections of the interview on the part of the author. JC is a seventy-seven year old white male who lives by himself in New York City. He was born in London, England, and was an only child.

Selfish America Abortion is a currently very controversial issue in America, with a recent survey of over 1,000 people identifying that 47% were pro-choice, while 46% were pro-life (“U.S. Still Split”). With such an equal split, many people find themselves disagreeing with others, and are desperate for a decision on the issue that is congruous with their own opinion. The dystopian novel Unwind, by Neal Shusterman, takes place in a future where the debate went so far as to spark a civil war, which was eventually mediated with compromise: children must be allowed to live to the age of thirteen, at which point the parent or guardian, until the child turns eighteen, may choose “unwinding”, a euphemism for a surgery in which the body is kept alive and split up so that the parts can be transplanted. This led to many runaways trying to escape the procedure, overcrowded orphanages full of children who were required to be born despite parents with no intention of keeping them, and even “storking”, where a newborn can be left on a doorstep by the mother, legally forcing the new family to take care of it. However, there were also various benefits: teens who would

For example, your walking down a dark street alone at night, when a man with a knife runs up and tells you to hand over your wallet. Your body’s fight or flight response kicks in and you have three choices. Give him your wallet, try to fight him off, or flee.

Many people may argue that selfishness is an unjust morality, due to the popular belief that “man exists in order to serve others” (Rand, 146). I, however, regard selfishness to be a quality that is crucial to every person’s being. When there is no selfishness, individuals become engaged in altruism. I believe that altruism is ultimately distracting from the individual’s sense of self. One should not worry themselves with the difficulties of others, for they shall become engulfed in those difficulties, themselves.

Timothy’s plan for survival is correct because he is inspiring Phillip to do things being blind because he needs help because he is starting to lose his strength. He is trying to to get Phillip to get used to being on the island and helping him get used to the fact that he is blind and how to work when he is blind. He wants Phillip to learn how to do things on the island when he is blind. For survival Timothy and Phillip will have to have these three things food water, shelter and a fire to keep warm. They will need to do all of these to survive on the island and so they will not die or get really sick.

In life failure is synonymous with death, you don’t know when it will happen, how it will happen, but one thing you can be sure of it will happen. I remember learning how to ride a bike I consider myself a good rider one thing I don’t remember is how many times I fell in attempt to trying to learn how to ride. When I received the news that I was being dismissed from law school I was devastated. Being admitted to law school was one of my biggest accomplishments and also one of my biggest failures.