#1 A symbol is an object, action, or event that represents something or that creates a range of associations beyond itself. In literary works a symbol can express an idea, clarify meaning, or enlarge literal meaning. Select a novel or play and, focusing on one symbol, write an essay analyzing how that symbol functions in the work and what it reveals about the characters or themes of the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.
In his novel, The Martian, Andy Weir utilizes the planet Mars as a symbol in order to convey Mars as both a home that supports life for Mark Watney, and a constant struggle with death and destruction, ultimately illustrating humans tend to find normalcy in extraordinary situations.
To Begin, Weir symbolizes Mars as a home that has enough resources, alongside his own, to help sustain life, showing the normalcy of survival in extraordinary locations like Mars. When Mark Watney finds out that he needs to find a way to keep his food supplies up long enough to escape Mars, he realizes he can grow potatoes. Along with his feces, he gathers Martian dirt and creates soil, capable of growing plants. Because Mark’s feces are not enough to grow potatoes on their own, Mark needs to find another way to grow food. Since Mark in on Mars, though, he utilizes Mars’s resources in the form of Martian dirt. Thus, containing the resources that help sustain life, Mars symbolizes life and home that, without, would mean death. Moreover, Weir symbolizes Mars as a means of life through its moons, which allow Mark Watney to navigate and survive his time on Mars. When Mark Watney needed to make his way to the landing area of the next Mars mission, he needed a way to navigate. Mark utilized the moons on Mars to read his direction and make his way to the landing spot. Because Mark would not be able to navigate Mars without a sense of direction, he had to rely on the resources given by Mars to obtain that sense of direction. Consequently, the moons of Mars became to way that Mark was able to navigate and subsequently survive. As a result, Mars and its resources are shown and symbolized as being a source of survival on Mars. Therefore, by giving resources necessary to survival, Mars becomes a symbol of life and survival, ultimately illustrating even in the unfamiliarity of new places, people find means to live as they would in familiar places.
Not only does Weir symbolize Mars as a resource that helps sustain life, but he also symbolizes Mars as a bringer of death and destruction. Mars is symbolized by death, almost killing Mark Watney several times. At the very beginning of the novel, Mark wakes up and has to retreat to the Hab after nearly dying, since he was impaled by flying debris. Mark Watney is impaled because Mars causes frequent dust storms, including the one that starts the novel. Consequently, Mars, due to its sand storms, is seen as the reason why Mark was impaled. As a result of its stormy qualities, Mars is portrayed and symbolized as a bringer of death and destruction. Thus, by making Mars’s natural qualities appear fatal and destructive, Mars adopts a symbol of such death and destruction. Additionally, Mars is symbolized as a bringer of death through the sudden problems that occur when Mark Watney was experimenting in the Hab. When Mark Watney was growing potatoes as a food source, the Hab was broken, and the Martian atmosphere penetrated it. The potatoes died and left Mark Watney with few choices for food conservation. Because the potatoes were Mark’s only long-term source of food, their absence would mean crisis to Mark’s survival on Mars. Since it is the differing atmosphere of Mars compared to the Hab that causes this problem, the blame of the potatoes’ deaths falls on Mars. Thus, by being the blame for the destruction of Mark Watney’s main food source, Mars is symbolized as a bringer of death. Even when faced with the crisis of famine, Mark Watney attempts to search for another way to sustain life in the form of seeking out the next Mars landing location, ultimately illustrating when posed with a problem that is different from what is normal, humans tend to retain normalities.
Andy weir utilizes Mars as a symbol, symbolizing sustention of life but also of death and destruction. Weir constantly brings Mark Watney, into unfamiliar situations, unfamiliar problems, unfamiliar locations, always resulting in some piece of familiar knowledge or some solution. Mars can be characterized as fatal--life cannot exist on Mars without extreme measures. On the other hand, Mars can be characterized as a life sustaining resource--life can still exist on Mars, and, being a planet, it has similar resources to earth. Ultimately, these circumstances are dependent on human action, illustrating that even in extraordinary circumstances, humans tend to find normalcy.