Analytical Comparison Prose extract and film scene

This is a comparison of a section of text from chapter 10 of Touching the Void by Joe Simpson and a scene from Ray Mears' Extreme Survival Desert Island Survival. Both of these excerpts are about survival as an individual in the wilderness but have plenty of differences in the way they give information. Both pieces show an individual in their environment attempting to survive and using nothing but their own skills. Simpson talks about his hopping and timing strategy in order to reach his destination in his desired amount of time. Mears showcases his knowledge of survival and spends the first night building a small place to protect himself with a hammock and fire, being sure to not use specific trees to prevent a braining. Both scenes have them using their own skills to survive, but Mears is much calmer, and preparing for a safe night, making sure things cannot go wrong, while Simpson is fighting for his life, if he didn't have the skills he is using, he would have died. Both scenes include both experts creating goals in order to survive. Mears starts the first morning taking in his surroundings after completing his first task the night before of warmth and shelter. Joe creates goals of where he needs to be at certain times in order to make it to his final destination. But these goals are both wildly different in scenario. Mears' goals are simply to start out his new living situation and to prepare in case the worst happens, while Simpson is well beyond the worst and is fighting for his life. Missing a goal may be the thing that kills him in this situation which is why he becomes so frustrated when he does miss a goal, even though he survives in the end. Clearly, a big difference in these two sections is the amount of risk. If Mears doesn't explore the whole island before it gets dark, he has tomorrow to continue. If Simpson doesn't make it to the valley before he needs to, he dies and that's it. Simpson's situation is much more dire than Mears' and so everything about his has more suspense.

timed: 15 minutes