Having The Right Stuff Analysis

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Having the Right Stuff: A Definition In Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff the author opens his novel by beginning with test pilots performing their day-to-day dangerous job. The over all point that he makes in the first chapter is exactly how deadly the job really is. He makes this point by dramatically describing to the readers death after death of various pilots, detailing their specific accidents. Using the point of view of what the wives went through made his point even that more emotional. Wolfe than continues his story by describing the dangerous job of being an astronaut in the early stages of the space race. The over all message of the novel that Wolfe successfully explains is why these men choose to pursue these hazardous, life threatening…show more content…
Those with this personality trait believe that they must “prove at every step of the way… that [they] were one of the elected and anointed ones who had the right stuff” (Wolfe 18). Test pilots and astronauts don’t perform their hazardous job because they feel morally obligated, or because it is simply the right thing to do. They do their job because these types of people have a natural need to perform courageous acts. They need the adventure, and they seek the danger. So not only do these types of people know the dangers that their getting into, but it is the danger itself that encourages them to persist. This form of courage is bravery against the life threatening. There are many who would perform a courageous act, if the act itself was not threatening. For example, public speaking is commonly known as most peoples worst fear, it takes courage for these people to go on stage and speak to a room full of people, and though courageous, the act was not life threatening. However, for those who have “the right stuff” they will perform their duties knowing full well that they might die doing

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