Jacob Vorhis
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-1A
18 December 2019
“Survival is Selfish”
Do you believe people must be selfish in order to survive? This is the central question of this essay. Survival does require people to behave selfishly because people shouldn’t assume they are capable of saving others; it could cost them their lives. Apathy will kill people faster than anything, so people must be selfish and care about what happens to them. If people try to save people without the right training, they will often die.
When people assume they are capable of saving others, it can cost them their lives. The woman who survived the plane crash would have died had she attempted to save the others. The woman had to crawl over several rows of people to get to the exit. If she would have waited for everyone to get out, she might not of never gotten out. Yates had to make the decision to cut his friend loose or they would have both died on the mountain. Wallace writes that, “Yates was criticized by some for his survival decision, even though the alternative would have almost certainly led to both of their deaths” (Wallace 319). If Yates would not have made the decision to save himself, both individuals would have died for sure.
Apathy will kill people faster than anything, so people have to be selfish and care about what happens to them. When Ronald DiFrancesco was attempting to escape the twin towers on 9-11, he only survived because he didn’t give in to apathy. “After ten or more 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). DiFrancesco wanted to see his wife and kids again, so he fought hard when others gave up and died. Another example of this is given by search and rescue professionals. People who are prepared have died waiting for others to come and save them because they gave into apathy. Gonzales writes, “searchers are always amazed to find people who have died while in possession of everything they needed to survive” (Gonzales 327). Apathy killed these people because they didn’t care enough about themselves. Even though it’s clear that survival is selfish, there are people who disagree.
Not everyone agrees with my claim. Some argue that people need a reason to survive; this is often thinking of others and the loss they would suffer were they to die. Even though people need a reason to survive when faced with crisis, the reason doesn't need to be saving others instead of themselves. Their reason can be caring for themselves. Juliane cares about herself rather than others and was able to save her own life. This proves that survival is selfish.
Survival does require people to behave selfishly because people shouldn’t assume they are capable of saving others; it could cost them their lives. Apathy will kill people faster than anything, so people must be selfish and care about what happens to them. If people try to save other people, they could die. The woman on the plane would have died if she had tried to save others because they weren’t moving. Ronald DiFrancesco tried to escape the Twin Towers on 9-11; he survived because he cared about himself. So, I do believe that people need to be selfish in order to survive. Page Break
Work Cited
Gonzales, Laurence. Deep Survival. Collections, edited by Kyleen Beers, Martha Hougen, Carol Jago, William L. McBride, Erik Palmer, & Lydia Stack. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2017, pp. 325-334.
Wallace, Lane. Is Servival Selfish?, edited by Kyleen Beers, Martha Hougen, Carol Jago,
William L. McBride, Erik Palmer, & Lydia Stack. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2017, pp. 317-324.
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 first had to decide wether I believed in the topic or disagreed the process was long but suttle we had debates wrote down notes and then were left to write what we thought about the topic.
2. What qualifies this paper as an argumentative essay? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them?
You are argueing wether survival is selfish or not selfish, the requirements are to prove your factor of if survival is selfish or not selfish.
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?
I found out that survival is selfish an example being that the women who was a trapeez with her husband sat there watching her husband die she couldve saved her husband and climed down together, it helped my paper because it proved that she cared only for herself.
Ms. Lehmann
English 1-1A
18 December 2019
“Survival is Selfish”
Do you believe people must be selfish in order to survive? This is the central question of this essay. Survival does require people to behave selfishly because people shouldn’t assume they are capable of saving others; it could cost them their lives. Apathy will kill people faster than anything, so people must be selfish and care about what happens to them. If people try to save people without the right training, they will often die.
When people assume they are capable of saving others, it can cost them their lives. The woman who survived the plane crash would have died had she attempted to save the others. The woman had to crawl over several rows of people to get to the exit. If she would have waited for everyone to get out, she might not of never gotten out. Yates had to make the decision to cut his friend loose or they would have both died on the mountain. Wallace writes that, “Yates was criticized by some for his survival decision, even though the alternative would have almost certainly led to both of their deaths” (Wallace 319). If Yates would not have made the decision to save himself, both individuals would have died for sure.
Apathy will kill people faster than anything, so people have to be selfish and care about what happens to them. When Ronald DiFrancesco was attempting to escape the twin towers on 9-11, he only survived because he didn’t give in to apathy. “After ten or more 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). DiFrancesco wanted to see his wife and kids again, so he fought hard when others gave up and died. Another example of this is given by search and rescue professionals. People who are prepared have died waiting for others to come and save them because they gave into apathy. Gonzales writes, “searchers are always amazed to find people who have died while in possession of everything they needed to survive” (Gonzales 327). Apathy killed these people because they didn’t care enough about themselves. Even though it’s clear that survival is selfish, there are people who disagree.
Not everyone agrees with my claim. Some argue that people need a reason to survive; this is often thinking of others and the loss they would suffer were they to die. Even though people need a reason to survive when faced with crisis, the reason doesn't need to be saving others instead of themselves. Their reason can be caring for themselves. Juliane cares about herself rather than others and was able to save her own life. This proves that survival is selfish.
Survival does require people to behave selfishly because people shouldn’t assume they are capable of saving others; it could cost them their lives. Apathy will kill people faster than anything, so people must be selfish and care about what happens to them. If people try to save other people, they could die. The woman on the plane would have died if she had tried to save others because they weren’t moving. Ronald DiFrancesco tried to escape the Twin Towers on 9-11; he survived because he cared about himself. So, I do believe that people need to be selfish in order to survive. Page Break
Work Cited
Gonzales, Laurence. Deep Survival. Collections, edited by Kyleen Beers, Martha Hougen, Carol Jago, William L. McBride, Erik Palmer, & Lydia Stack. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2017, pp. 325-334.
Wallace, Lane. Is Servival Selfish?, edited by Kyleen Beers, Martha Hougen, Carol Jago,
William L. McBride, Erik Palmer, & Lydia Stack. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2017, pp. 317-324.
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 first had to decide wether I believed in the topic or disagreed the process was long but suttle we had debates wrote down notes and then were left to write what we thought about the topic.
2. What qualifies this paper as an argumentative essay? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them?
You are argueing wether survival is selfish or not selfish, the requirements are to prove your factor of if survival is selfish or not selfish.
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?
I found out that survival is selfish an example being that the women who was a trapeez with her husband sat there watching her husband die she couldve saved her husband and climed down together, it helped my paper because it proved that she cared only for herself.