5 Character Traits of Survival

2011 Words9 Pages
5 Survival Character Traits To my mind there are five character traits that succeed and five character traits that fail in the survival situations. These traits are ever present in all people. It seems to be the amount toward one way or the other that decides whether a person survives their ordeal or does not. The five traits that are successful in survival situations are confidence, intelligence, faith, calmness, and desire. The five traits that can cause failure over the ordeal of a survival situation are hubris, ignorance, misplaced dependence, overconfidence, and panic. All people have these traits ingrained in them and either embrace or ignore those traits. In my study of people who were successful in their survival situations I saw a determination to live because of more than just self-preservation. People that do not have a reason to live on basically give themselves to nature and let the hand of fate determine their outcome. The decision to survive is often determined by what that person thinks of themselves and the world around them at that time. In the readings assigned to this course I have seen stark differences between those that survived and those that did not survive. People like Parrado and Ralston see that there are reasons beyond merely themselves to survive. Then there are people like McCandless and Reuss who have turned their backs on the civilized world because they have become disillusioned with the world in general. McCandless and Reuss were not comfortable in the world that valued the obtainment of material things and the completion of specific accomplishments. They did not want to be hindered, as they saw it, by the desires of others who thought what they wanted should apply to everyone. There is part of me that understands this and sympathizes with the two men because no one likes to be narrowed into a box of
Open Document