47 pages • 1 hour read
Alive
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The Cost of Survival
After the plane crash, those who survive face a series of difficult decisions. They must consider the cost of survival. The price they must pay to live through the ordeal is too high for many. The cost of survival becomes a key theme as the characters encounter an ever escalating situation against which they must measure themselves. The first test is their determination. The situation on the mountainside, surrounded by dead bodies, seems almost hopeless. The survivors lost loved ones and face the prospect of almost certain death. They must decide whether they want to try to stay alive or simply give up. The optimists in the group believe that they will be saved while many others cannot combat their own pessimism. The first cost of survival is simply having the determination required to stay alive. For some people, this is too much to ask at such a traumatic moment.
The situation becomes so dangerous that the survivors must consider breaking one of the most serious social taboos: They must eat the flesh of the dead bodies to survive. Cannibalism is considered immoral in most cultures around the world. To break this social taboo is to cross over a moral boundary that many people are not willing to traverse. The cost of survival becomes clear: either eat human meat or die in the cold. Most of the survivors reluctantly pay the price, but others such as Liliana Methol try to resist. The struggle not to eat human meat nearly kills Liliana, who is then killed during the avalanche. The other survivors see the price paid by a person who clung on to their moral believes rather than pay the price of survival. After the death of Liliana, every survivor resorts to cannibalism. They pay the cost of survival.
The breaking of this taboo leaves the survivors with another problem when they are eventually rescued. They have reasoned themselves into the position where the cost of survival justified cannibalism. The extremity of their situation meant that the issue was not just theoretical. The rest of society learns what they have done and judges them accordingly. Some people understand, others are reviled. The final cost of survival is the lack of acceptance from the rest of the world. The men pay this price when they are treated with contempt on their return to civilization.
The Power of Faith
The impossible nature of the survivors’ predicament puts their faith to the test. The boys are part of a rugby team which was founded by Catholic priests. Many of them attended the same religious school, and most are full-fledged Christians and have been their entire lives. The men have a grounding in faith which provides them with a natural outlet for their hope and prayers. When faced with an impossible situation, they turn to the religious figures they have learned about since a young age. Their beliefs, morality, and optimism are ground in Christianity, and the power of their faith gives the survivors strength at difficult moments.
An example of the strength the men derive from their faith is the rosary they say each night. They recite the Catholic prayer every single evening before they sleep and take turns leading the recital. The routine brings them closer together as they bond over the shared demonstration of faith. The prayer reminds them of their homes and their families, providing them with a reason to endure the pain and hardship. The power of the rosary is that it delivers a unifying optimism at the darkest moment in many of the survivors’ lives.
The recital of the rosary can be contrasted with the paranormal practitioners employed by the survivors’ families. The rosary is a personal prayer which becomes a unifying experience for those who are suffering. While the power of faith in this situation is evident, the families place that faith in the wrong people. The clairvoyants and psychics provide them with no useful information about the fate of the plane. The families waste many hours, days, and weeks because of their misplaced faith. The power of faith, for good and ill, is shown in the comparison between effective and ineffective demonstrations of belief, religion, and the supernatural. The survivors, meanwhile, experience a transcendental development through faith. The consumption of human flesh becomes like the holy communion while the height of the mountain brings them closer to God. They feel more religious as the extreme nature of their situation empowers them with belief. Many emerge with deeply held religious views which they did not necessarily hold before. The survival of the men becomes a demonstration, for them, of the power of faith.
Class Divisions in Uruguayan Society
One of the first themes introduced to the book is the relevance of class divisions in Uruguayan society. The book begins with a brief overview of the country’s history and describes the emergence of the middle class, landowning social order that accumulates most of the wealth in the nation. The founding of the rugby team is explicitly linked to the emergence of this class. Wealthy parents wanted their children educated in a specific way, so they hired a group of Irish priests who brought the game with them from their home country. The game of rugby is played at first almost exclusively by these wealthy young men while the working-class groups tend to play soccer instead. The choice between rugby and soccer reflects the class divides in the country and becomes a key descriptor of the differences which remain in the society at the beginning of the story.
The people onboard the plane are from different backgrounds. Many of the men are rugby players from wealthy, landowning families. They have lived lives of privilege. Not all of the passengers are the same, however. Arturo Nogueira is one of a number of socialists who demonstrably reject the contemporary structure of Uruguayan society. They prefer a more equal, egalitarian approach, and their differences in class are reflected in their clothes, demeanors, choice of sports, and who they vote for during election season. These class differences lead to many insults and accusations.
The nature of the ordeal helps to destroy class boundaries. The divisions which existed before the crash mean very little on the mountainside. The survivors have no dominion over land, and no one has anything more than anyone else. The class divisions begin to disintegrate as alliances and friendships are formed. The only threat to this dissolution of the old class structure is the creation of a new one. The men selected for the expedition enjoy certain privileges such as bigger rations and fewer chores. The others begin to resent those chosen to go on the expedition. The speed with which the class divisions are changed illustrates the artificial nature of social hierarchies. There are few actual differences between the men who all share a common humanity. The class differences of Uruguay, like the class differences of the crash site, can be torn down easily if only people are willing to do so.
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