The following two books are narrations of tough real life situations faced collectively by groups of people over multiple days. The stories show how different group members reacted, thereby bringing out the characters of each one. Both books are highly recommended reading:
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Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party by George R Stewart (416 pages, 1971). The book traces the tragic journey of a group of eighty seven — men, women and children — trying to cross the Sierra in California in the winters along a new route. The party continues to make progress in bitter cold; roughly half survive the journey; towards the end, group members resorted to cannibalism.
Reading the wikipedia article on Donner Party and reading the book are totally different experiences. The book develops the story slowly, in great detail, explaining the circumstances that led to cannibalism, painfully but empathetically.
An article attempts to explain why women were far more resilient in surviving the journey than men.
- Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing (288 pages, 1999) is the story of British explorer Ernest Shackleton whose ship, Endurance, was trapped and then crushed by ice, as he attempted to reach the South Pole. Shackleton and his men survived five months on ice floes, finally getting help by sailing one of the ship’s lifeboats almost 800 miles to South Georgia, a 25-mile wide island, in tough conditions. An incredible saga of courage and endurance.
Tough times present opportunities for persons to reveal their true character. For example, after an earthquake or a train accident, some start praying for the departed souls, some provide succor to the survivors, some stand bemused, some raise the price of coffins and some start relieving the dead of their ornaments. Tough times extending weeks or months build character, as exemplified by the heroes and villains in the two books listed above.
