Jessica Ramirez  

The Martian  

The Martian is a suspenseful, yet comedic novel about an astronaut named Mark Watney who encounters many obstacles on the planet of Mars. The first catastrophe includes him getting stabbed with a piece of communication equipment that leads his crew mates into thinking he is dead. Therefore, they abandon him on a deserted waste land. Throughout this novel the main character, Watney expresses himself through many log entries that make you feel a connection to him. He is a very humorous guy that understands it is a necessity to be able to laugh at disasters in order to survive. One of my favorite quotes of his is, "I don't want to come off as arrogant here, but I'm the best botanist on the planet." This is obviously funny because he is the only one on the planet and is expressing this to himself. Connecting to Watney I share the same humor and characteristics traits. For example, my mom gets easily mad if I make a small mistake in school or just in general. This causes an argument, but these types of situations make me very uncomfortable, so I like to crack jokes to somehow lighten up the mood and forget about the fight. I know that this type of situation is not near as bad as Watney's, but it is something that helps me connect to him. Having this connection with him makes me want to root for him to do whatever he can in order to survive. This keeps me invested in the novel as I continue to read on. Therefore, his knowledge of botany is just as an important survival skill as being able to laugh through hard times because what is the point of knowing how to survive if you don't want to live, am I right?