In life threatening situations, people show their true selves. The book 'No Saftey in Numbers' by Daynba Lorentz is an exciting book which takes place in a mall in the suburbs. On a busy Saturday a biological bomb in found in one of the mall's air ducts. The mall is locked down. Soon food and supplies begin to run out, and the people tyrn against one another. Although these people tend to form small, tightly knit groups, the groups themselves are in constant competition with everybody else in the m,all.
Early on in the book, when there is still food and the bomb inst such a huge problem, the people begin to form groups.For example, Ryan and his football team join nup almost instantly. Mike says " stick with us!" as reassurs Ryan that he will watch his back. This shows that even early on in the book, people begin to look out for one another and portect each other. These little groups are very tightly knit, and hard to tear apart.
However, these groups are ONLY looking out for themselves. When Ryan is beaten up by another guy (over some food), his group come after the people who beat him up. Ryan's friend Mike says, "you mess with my family, you mess with me." Although this sounds endearing, this little vengence fight results in one boy with a broken nose, and a few others unable to walk. This shows how the groups, although they watch out for eachother, are in constant competition with everyone else in the mall.
In these types of situations, people show that deep down, they only care about themselves. All they want is their own survival. Although they may have formed small groups, they were in NO way untited. This book does not evision teamwork, rather, it shows how difficult it is for people to be selfless when they are in danger.
I like how you went into detail for different examples explaining your claim. You did a great job of elaborating all the way through. You also did a nice job of give examples from the text to support your claim.
ReplyDeleteHmm...sounds like a really interesting book. I like that you choose the words "tightly knit" to describe the groups relationships towards one another. By choosing to talk about the problems Mike and Ryan run into was very helpful for me to understand your statement on how people's true personalities tend to break out in tight situations like these. I also think your quote from Ryan was interesting when it comes to trying to identify who he is; that Ryan referred to Mike as his family, showing their relationship with one another as well as how much he cares about others at a certain level. In the end, nicely done response Anna!
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