Survivalist Research Paper

Example of a Survivalist
What extremes would one go to in order to survive? Being a survivalist is doing what most would not have the courage to do in the face of death. Facing death causes many people to think irrationally, but sometimes throwing logic and emotions out the door is necessary. It helps those in dangerous situations to do what is necessary. While many people may think these survivors are stupid for getting into these situations, they are more often admired for their bravery that got them out of it. A survivalist is someone who will go to the furthest extremes and make their number one priority staying alive. One of the best examples of this is a man named Aron Ralston.
Aron Ralston was going hiking through the Blue John Canyon in Utah when he suddenly lost his hold and fell with an eight-hundred pound boulder that smashed his arm. He desperately tried to extricate his arm but it was trapped and he soon lost feeling in it. Aron realized he was in the bottom of a hole in a canyon that was twenty miles from the nearest paved road, with no one around, and no one knowing where he had gone (Brokaw, T. 2001). After being stuck there for five days he finally accepted that he was quite possibly going to die so he wrote his name along with RIP into the wall and recorded his last message with his video camera. Later that day, Aron realized there was only one way out of this; he would have to cut his own arm off. He used a blunt knife to cut off his arm, repelled a sixty-five foot cliff while starving, dehydrated, and almost in shock, hiked seven miles out of the canyon, and finally made a eight-hundred foot vertical climb to get to his truck(Brokaw, T. 2001). This is what makes him a survivalist. He could have just laid there and died, but he took action and did what was absolutely necessary to make it out of his situation alive.
What makes Aron different is his motivation and mindset. He keeps the mindset of living day to day and not worrying about the future. He never gives up because he realizes the true beauty of life. He sees that it is too precious for anyone to simply give up without doing everything in their ability to continue living. Aron stands out from all the other survivalists because he had the courage to do something many others could not. Many pin survivalists as ones who are lost in an exotic place and find their way back, or ones who go into the wild and live off their surroundings but truthfully, anyone could do those things if they tried. Where is the courage, the daring? Many people could find their way back somewhere or live off different food out of luck but not many, if any, could muster up the courage to cut their own arm off. There is no luck in that situation, it is pure courage and that is what

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