[Lansing] (Endurance) Theme Five: Success (Vocabulary Word: Absolute)

Daunting tasks are achieved incrementally. Lao Tzu once said, "The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." For Shackleton, the journey to South Georgia began with setting sail. Throughout the voyage, the crew focused not on the final destination, but they focused on what they were facing at the time: "Instead, life was reckoned in periods of a few hours, or possibly only a few minutes-- an endless succession of trials leading to deliverance from the particular hell of the moment."

The men were free of expectations and limitations of civilized society, so they did not need to focus on the final goal. They thought about whether they could get over this next wave, whether they could kill this seal, whether they could make camp, and every small goal accomplished was an absolute victory for them. Every little bit helped, and there were no qualifications for goals.They knew that every wave passed, every camp successfully made, and every night weathered would be personally celebrated in regard to the fact they they weren't dead.

One similarity to this concept is the plot of Forrest Gump. In the movie, Forrest had small goals that were made on the spot and used his natural ability to run, whether it was running for a touchdown or saving Bubba in Vietnam. The small goals earned him many rewards, such as meeting with the president. Whether the final goal is achieving fame or surviving in the Arctic, small goals add up to large victories.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Theme Four: Variable Conditions (Vocabulary Word: Mood)

The saying "Time waits for no one" applies to last-minute hesitancy in facing a situation that requires a decision. In many cases, Shackleton and his crew faced both situations that required exact timing and situations where they could do nothing but wait, hoping that nothing terrible would strike them in a time of vulnerability. Living conditions varied as well, ranging from the optimistic living at Ocean Camp to the misery of sailing to Elephant Island. Lansing changes the mood of the narration according to the conditions the crew was facing. One example of the notion of defeat is denoted in the opening paragraphs of part three when Patience Camp was established: "Many of them, it seemed, finally grasped for the first time just how desperate things really were. More correctly, they became aware of their own inadequacy, of how utterly powerless they were... Shackleton strove so unceasingly to imbue them with, a basic faith in themselves."

For some, the conditions did not matter. Shackleton was described as extremely optimistic along with other crewmembers, such as McCarthy during the voyage to South Georgia in part six, but there were also pessimists, such as Orde-Lees, who gave consideration to the possible reality that one of Shackleton's audacious plans had failed, especially on Elephant Island. Is self-confidence, the basic faith in oneself, related to this idea that some had inextinguishable optimism or pessimism?

The concept of accepting oneself entirely is difficult to find. Having confidence in one's own abilities creates an inspirational work ethic that creates the willpower needed to push further, harder, and more consistently. It is the suppression of this individuality that creates a lulling society where everyone is expected to be similar. One type of archetypal plot is how the actions of one unique individual or a group of unique individuals stands up against the monotonous world in which they live. Ayn Rand's Anthem, George Orwell's 1984, and Isaac Asimov's I, Robot all center around the protagonist fighting against innumerable odds to re-establish liberty and freedom. The video above is a scene from Irobot that tells why the robots show human qualities, including "seeking out the light." Is this the same optimism that Shackleton seeks to imbue in his crew? It is a drive to improve their current condition, no matter the cost.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Theme Three: Diversity (Vocabulary word: Antithesis)

An intensely debated question is: "Can two people be exactly similar to one another?" My belief on this topic is that two people can superficially appear similar, but when desperate situations occur that bring out the inner self, no two people are alike. Shackleton's skeleton crew aboard the Endurance was a mixture of hardened seamen, experienced arctic navigators, academic scholars, scientists, specialists, a cook, and even a stowaway. The group worked cohesively when conditions were favorable, but some separated in different ways when conditions turned unfavorable and true characters were exhibited. McNeish refused to pull sleds because he thought he was no longer legally required to follow Shackleton's command after the Endurance sank, Orde-Lees refused to row because of his sea-sickness, Greenstreet secretly blamed Shackleton for food shortages, all of these examples showed the true characters of a crew under pressure.

Arguments, disagreements, and clashes over what should be done are common occurrences, even for a crew stranded in the middle of one of the most inhospitable places on Earth.

These methods of contention reveal another aspect of the crew's diversity, personality. Choice of career, experiences, and backgrounds all contribute to the individual personalities of the crew. Backgrounds ranged from poor but strong workers to accomplished academics seeking adventure. The crew eventually picked up on these clashing personalities in part two: "As for James, he probably never should have gone with the expedition at all. He had an academic background and a rather sheltered upbringing. He was a scholar and an extremely capable and dedicated scientist, but in practical matters he was very unhandy and a little unwilling... In personality, he was roughly the antithesis of Shackleton." Lansing describes not only clashing personalities, but also opposing ones in which he describes them as antithetical. Literally, antithesis is defined as, "a statement in which two opposing ideas are balanced." Metaphorically, the balance between James' and Shackleton's personalities could be described as opposite, meaning the range of personalities is also diverse.

I once attended a week-long leadership camp with an assigned group of people that I had never met before. Of the group, there were two pyromaniacs, an amateur comedian, an athlete, a homesick boy, and a dictatorial leader. There were clashes over what to do, proper procedures, and food portions. It was the diversity and personalities of the group, much like Shackleton's crew, that caused the clashes, but both groups made it through in the end.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Theme Two: Justified Savagery (Vocabulary Word: Imagery)

Hunting was a common occurrence for the crew of the Endurance. Even while the ship was locked between two floes, hunting was a job intended to minimize the consumption of the provisions in the ship's cargo. The crew's provisions were extremely limited after the loss of the ship, and even though some supplies was salvaged from the endurance, hunting for food eventually became a necessity. As their situation became more desperate, the methods of procuring meat became more brutal, and Lansing provided a kind of shock imagery to accompany that changing brutality: "Killing the seal was usually a bloody business...This involved approaching the animal cautiously, then stunning it across nose with a ski or a broken oar and cutting its jugular vein so that it bled to death... Another technique was to brain the seal with a pickaxe."

At first the crew was reluctant about killing the seals in such a way, but the need for food allowed survivalist instincts to take over. The need eventually became so dire that Shackleton called for the gradual killing of their dogs for meat. Despite the emotional attachments to the dogs, the crew followed Shackleton's orders. When their food was almost depleted, the killing of a sea leopard had Shackleton calling for feasting on its liver. To me, this seemed like justified savagery, allowing their instincts to take over and ignore personal feelings in order to survive.

This struggle to adapt to a survivalist mindset reminded me of chapter four of William Golding's Lord of the Flies when Jack and several others bring back a dead pig and celebrate in a primitive and almost ritualistic form. During the celebration they chanted, "Kill the pig, cut her throat, bash her in." Ralph and Piggy then confronted Jack in saying the the celebration was immature. In both situations, both groups eventually embraced the ways of survival instead of being civilized. Jack's chant and Shackleton's call for feasting on the liver both show a livid imagery that both Golding and Lansing depicted in detail.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Theme One: Shackleton (Vocabulary Word: Round Character)

Sir Ernest Shackleton (left) and Endurance (right)

Throughout the bout for survival, Shackleton changes in thought patterns and actions. During each stretch of the the journey, Shackleton learned the necessity of making calculated risks while still fearing for the safety of his crew. In part two, the crew gave Shakleton a clandestine nickname: 'Shackleton's aversion to tempting fate was well known. This attitude had earned him the nickname "Old Cautious" or "Cautious Jack.' Shackleton went from the position of taking no risks on the ice to allowing separation of the crew on Elephant Island, and at the near end of the journey, he suggested that the hike crew should slide down the edge of a glacier: " They had to get lower-- and with all possible haste. So he suggested they slide. Worsley and Crean were stunned-- especially for such an insane solution to be coming from Shackleton."

This contrast can also be compared to the decisions made under his current state of mind. For example, Shackleton made the erroneous decision to leave three seals behind in the optimistic belief that they had enough food and that he did not want the food to rot. That repercussions of that decision were exacerbated when the camp nearly ran out of food. From that point onward, Shackleton allowed the crew to take some risks, such as when he authorized the Caird to separate from the Docker and the Wills in order to scout for land ahead. This dynamic change suggests that Shackleton is a round character because he changes over the course of the voyage.

Conditions are not always as they appear. Sometimes the less rational approaches and calculated risks can be the more beneficial. I was in a single person tent once during a stormy night. There was a slight ravine in the ground under my tent, and water began to seep into my tent from that ravine. My towel was already wet from the day's activities, so in a half-awake daze, I threw an old shirt under my sleeping bag. In the morning, I found that the shirt has not only absorbed the water, but it had also leveled out the tent and prevented more water from entering the tent. Even though separation was extremely dangerous, Shackleton allowed the crew of the Caird to sail ahead, yet the Caird found land and reunited with the Docker and the Wills. Shackleton's calculated risk had proven to be successful.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Part Seven and Epilogue: Resolution (Vocabulary Word: Dilemma)

The Caird and its crew miraculously land on South Georgia, but the journey is still not over. Shackleton now faces the daunting challenge of reaching Stromness either by a one hundred and thirty mile voyage by sea or a twenty-nine mile hike through impassable terrain. Both options were unfavorable, posing a dilemma to Shackleton, but he soon figured that the Caird was no longer seaworthy and chose to hike. Once again, he separated his crew, taking only himself, Worsley, and Crean. The hike was perilous, forcing many difficult and risky decisions on Shackleton's account, but they managed to arrive at Stromness and arrange for the retrieval of the rest of his crew.

Often, dilemmas are part of everyday life. They pose as equally difficult decisions towards either favorable or unfavorable ends. Dilemmas could range anywhere from choosing between twix or milky way to cleaning a teacher's room for an hour or paying a visit to the Dean of Students. The choice, depending on its severity, is made by considering the effects or repercussions of the decision. The cause and effect of the decisions is sourced from The Butterfly Effect, sensitive dependence on initial conditions. This concept states that the decision makes its own effects. A dilemma forms when the estimation of those effects intersect. For Shackleton, the decision between the voyage and the hike both carried a high chance of dying.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Part Six: Tide (Vocabulary Word: Diction)

The tides have turned, both literally and metaphorically. The odds are stacked against the crew of the Caird. A twenty two foot boat must navigate nearly a thousand miles of treacherous, rolling waves to literally hit a bulls-eye only a few miles wide. Even the crew of the Caird thought the objective was bleak: "Only very occasionally did they think about South Georgia. It was so remote, so Utopian that it was almost depressing to contemplate. No man could have endured with just that to keep him going." To them, land had become a symbol, an out-of-reach object that became the singular focus of the crew yet impossible to optimistically focus on. Lansing described South Georgia as Utopian, meaning that to find it would require intensive determination to find but seems unlikely to find even for the most seasoned navigator.

In etymology, the word Utopia comes from the Greek ou (not) and topos (a place). Definition of "Utopia" Coined by Sir Thomas More in 1516, this word described the perfect society on a small, remote island in his socio-political frame-narrative Utopia. In one word, Lansing effectively described the crew's feeling towards South Georgia while being consistent with the initial use of the word in depicting a small island. Lansing uses precise diction in this case in making South Georgia symbolic to the Utopia's impossibility of existence. This also foreshadows that South Georgia is not a utopia, meaning there are still difficulties ahead, such as the mountainous terrain faced in the next chapter. Although indirect, the use of Utopia shows that the crew longed to be there, but felt that they would not arrive there; hence, the etymology of Utopia, "not a place," is used correctly in both the denotative and connotative sense of the word.

A map of More's Utopia.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Part Five: Extension (Vocabulary Word: Pathos)

The crew has reached Elephant Island intact. However, the landing is bittersweet because of the next arm of the journey that Shackleton knew would have to happen. The crew would have to split up, and six men were to set sail once again in the Caird: "They would travel perhaps a thousand miles across the stormiest ocean on the globe. The ultimate goal was an island no more than 25 miles wide at its widest point." This invoked a personal feeling of pathos towards the crew. This feeling came not just from the fact that the party would have to travel more than twice their initial distance through rougher waters, but that the remainder of the crew had to rely on the unlikely chance of the Caird actually surviving the voyage.

The Voyages of the Escape Boats (Green - Patience Camp to Elephant Island: Red - The Caird's Journey to South Georgia)

This extension is similar to the last few minutes of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when Galdalf said, "The battle for Helm's Deep is over. The Battle for Middle Earth is about to begin." Although Gandalf's quote does not invoke sympathy, it models the scale of Shackleton's expansion. A larger, riskier battle had just started, one that would dwarf the Battle for Helm's Deep; likewise, Shackleton's extension was riskier and much larger in scale than the journey to Elephant Island. In both situations, the protagonists were in great peril before the extension.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Part Four: Brink (Vocabulary Word: Scapegoat)

After a mad dash to save their equipment, the crew manned the boats and left Patience Camp. Their long awaited dream had come to fruition. However, the victory was short-lived because of the harsh condition forced upon them while sailing. Constant ocean spray, lack of proper campsite areas, and lack of space compounded by freezing winds both deteriorated the moral of the crew and posed a hazardous environment. Everyone was forced to do their fair share of the work or face being verbally ostracized by the crew. The main target of the invective was Orde-Lees, who was incredibly sea-sick and became the scapegoat for the crew's hardships on the Docker: "Most of all they cursed Orde-Lees, who had got hold of the only set of oilskins and refused to give them up. He maneuvered himself into the most comfortable position in the boat by shoving Marston out, and he would not move."

Orde-Lees

Orde-Lees acted incorrectly in this matter in showing a stubborn selfishness and intense longing for comfort, a luxury that none of the crew could afford to have. To a lesser degree, this event happens in many leadership scenarios. I have served as the senior patrol leader, the highest youth leadership position in a boy scout troop, and I have seen this situation many times. One scout refuses to work, hordes food, or complains constantly, and that scout is inveighed at times because of that show of selfishness. The scout and Orde-Lees both show selfish traits and both were called out for it.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Part Three: Tension (Vocabulary Word: Motivation)

Towards the end of part two, Shackleton called for an attempt to move the three salvaged boats from the Endurance to the end of the massive floe they were on. The dogs and the crew struggled and moved away from their camp all for naught because of treacherous conditions on the ice ahead. Forced to retreat and make camp, the crew is now demoralized, and the strain is beginning to show in the crew's mood. The feelings of defeat, anxiety to reach open water, and the time they have been stranded all led more provocative tensions and clashes based on personal ego. Shackleton once told Orde-Lees to leave slaughtered seals behind on the basis that they had enough food: "Shackleton contended that the party already had a month's supply, and ordered that the slain seals be left where they were." This decision initially caused confusion among the crew. Did Shackleton make a rash decision? If that is so, he never reverted it. This decision sparked deeper rifts later on when the camp nearly ran out of rations and resorted to hunting small adelie penguins. The crew secretly criticized Shackleton for not allowing them to bring in as much food as they could.

What was Shackleton's motivation in turning down the procurement of those three seals? Did he believe that the crew would be in the boats within a month based on an optimistic megalomania? Lansing mentioned that Shackleton's deep sense of optimism clouded his realistic judgment at times. This reminded me of the plot behind Back to the Future when Marty traveled to 1955 thinking that he had enough plutonium to generate the energy needed to travel back to 1985; instead, there was not enough to travel back, leaving him stranded in 1955. Both Shackleton and Marty were optimistic in completing their goals, but that optimism led to a desperate situation because of a single rash decision.

[Lansing] (Endurance) Part Two: Adapt (Vocabulary Word: Irony)

The crew of the Endurance is now stranded on the ice with no hope of rescue unless they move to a remote island. In one fell swoop, the crew was forced to adapt to everything the inhospitable ice floe gave them. For all practical purposes, one would believe that the crew would be extremely demoralized and paralyzed by fear. Shackleton now bears the burden of leading the men to safety, but the crew was able to adapt quickly to their new home as well as maintain a modicum of morale. This definitely shows a striking irony that either promotes the grit of the crew or their inattentiveness to the harrowing journey ahead. Macklin wrote an entry in his journal depicting a general sense of their new lifestyle: "Really, this sort of life has its attractions... I read somewhere that all a man needs to be happy is a is a full stomach and warmth, and I begin to think it is nearly true. No worries, no trains, no letters to answer, no collars to wear--"

Macklin tells of simplicity and that the bare essentials are what really satisfies a person. From what I've seen lately, there is a societal need to keep busy with something, communicate instantly, and constantly be on the move. When traumatic events occur or danger is sensed, that business becomes secondary to human instinct. One such example is being at the top of roller coaster, and having a subsequent clearing of the mind to focus on surviving the ride. After the ride is over, the mind is clear and relaxation becomes the primary feeling. Macklin and the rest of the crew no longer have to worry about the business of their lives or the bureaucracy behind the expedition in pleasing their benefactors. They have endured the traumatic experience of losing their ship, reoriented their minds to suit their current condition, and now focus on surviving in a bitterly freezing wasteland.

[Alfred Lansing] (Endurance: Shackletons's Incredible Voyage) Part one: Audacity (Vocabulary word: Setting)

[Author's Note: These posts will most likely be a personal voyage. I've never maintained a blog before, so please excuse the excessively long title for this post. As for the structure of these twelve posts, I will have seven posts for the seven parts and five posts covering various themes inserted by Lansing.]

The first part of the novel consists of Lansing depicting the background material on Shackleton's third expedition from its origins in England to Shackleton's call to abandon the ship. From the beginning, Shackleton's plan of crossing Antarctica on foot was deemed audacious by his cohorts, and it proved to be extremely challenging in regard to procurement of equipment and logistics. Custom tents, ship modifications, and the sheer amount of food required were all signs of the difficulty of preparation.

According to Lansing's depiction, who was better for handing such a feat than Ernest Shackleton? On page fourteen, Lansing included a tribute to Shackleton: "... but when you are in a hopeless situation, when there seems no way out, get down on you knees and pray for Shackleton." For this to be true, Shackleton must remain decisive even in the darkest of times.

It is this resolve, this audacity, and this leadership that leads into the final chapters of part one and establishes the setting. The time was October 27, 1915, when a voyage of the same magnitude was not attempted until 1957. The place was 69 degrees 5' South and 51 degrees 30' West, adrift on a floe deep inside of the treacherous Weddell sea. The environment was grim: brutally low temperatures, changing conditions on the ice, no remote human contact for around three hundred and fifty miles, and a greatly reduced supply of food all worsened the nightmare of losing a ship unexpectedly. Will this dire situation test the iron will of Ernest Shackleton?

The Endurance listing on the ice floes

If common experience tells anything of value, this will challenge Shackleton, but he and his crew will miraculously survive the great challenge of survival. A suitable, albeit humorous example of this is in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl when the HMS Interceptor battles the Black Pearl. The Interceptor is forced to fire silverware at the Pearl due to a lack of ammunition, but the Black Pearl overran the Interceptor, destroyed it, jailed its crew, and marooned Jack and Elizabeth. This situation is can be related to Shackleton's loss of the Endurance. Both captains desperately attempted to save their ships, both ships were destroyed, both crews survived the sinking of their respective ships, and both captains were put in perilous situations in the end.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - HMS Interceptor battling the Black Pearl