alive- a welcome home chillier then the andes
I've finished reading 'Alive" (for the plot see my last blog post here ) and have sufficiently lost my faith in the morality of mankind. Even though the 17 surviving men were rescued, it took way too long for them all to get back home. When the two sent on an 'expidition' finally stumbled across a tiny house, they had to wait days to convince people that they really were the survivors, and that this was not a hoax or a misunderstanding (there had been several before). I expected the escape and recovery to be quick, but it was just as drawn-out and painful as the rest of the book.
But the worst thing, it seemed, was the media. Of course everyone had wanted to know how they'd survived for so long. The survivors were all in questionable and unstable mental states, and mostly didn't want to talk and be judged. But the secret could not be kept quiet for long, so the men decided to tell the press what they'd done, and hope that they'd understand.
I'd love to say that the press was understanding and kind. I'd love to say that no one minded them too muck, and that they were hailed as heroes. I'd love to say that they went off and led normal, happy lives. But the press reacted exactly the way that I'd dreaded they would. They hounded the survivors, spreading stories of wild canabalism and attacks. Of men preying on the weaker men.
To the already fragile men, public hatred was torture. But in a way, it was just the tabloids destroying yet another persons story. It happens every day. Why should these people be any different?
somehow, I feel like thay should be. but why? Maybe it's because they've been through... a life or death experience. but does that make them better then your average tabloid-hounded pop star?
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