Victor Garza

Professor Dr. Suzanne Gates

English 1A
11 November 2018

Annotated Bibliography for Essay 4

Read, Piers Paul. Alive. New York: Avon, 2002. Print.

A book based on real events, composed of interviews that were made to the group of 16

survivors of the air crash of flight 571 in the Andes in 1972. The crew was rugby players

belonging to the Stella Maris school in Montevideo in Uruguay as well as relatives or

friends, in total 45 people traveled. On October 13 the accident occurred and the

survivors had to resort to cannibalism, teamwork, risk management, and difficult

decisions to overcome the lack of food in the ten weeks lost in the mountains.

This book is one of the best sellers and is backed by global or local newspapers as well as

by other news media and even more books of the survivors; also have black and white

photographs. A film based on this story was also recorded in 1993 and is possible to find

maps and monuments on the impact site. Unfortunately, there are too many perspectives

of the survivors to unify them in a single idea, it is necessary to specify only one of the

survivors, possibly Roberto Canessa because his leadership was crucial to saving the

group.

Ripley, Amanda. The Unthinkable. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009. Print.

The book is an invitation for readers to develop their own strategies when they are

immersed in a catastrophe and everything seems to go wrong or even seems impossible,

also has a perspective on human behavior in emergency situations. Presents concepts

about how people react to the emergency: Groupthink (find support in groups and follow

the orders of a leader), Paralysis (decide that the danger is too great to face and prefer to

hide or "play dead" and Risk management (Evaluate the possible conditions from the cost

and benefit to increase the chances of survival.) Analyze stories of tsunamis, earthquakes,

terrorist attacks, and other extreme situations.

Amanda Ripley worked as a journalist for Time magazine and has a Bachelor of the Arts

in government, had to document a lot and also interview and train with firefighters,

congresses of government security agents, military and people who performed heroic acts

long enough to authenticate that she is a serious writer. However, it is clear that there are

contradictions in his position. On the one hand, it is in favor of people taking more

responsibility for their own security, but at the same time, it wants governments to be

more actively involved when it is certified that some sector of the population has weak

survival skills or is a geographical situation very vulnerable to risks. It can be confusing.