What is one thing you can’t live without?
Well top of the list I would say is oxygen.
Followed in order by Water then food.
But if I need to be a little bit more… I was going to say sensible there, but in fact I was being.
Never mind, if I answer the question in the way it was meant then I would have to say… people.
By that I mean human contact. Yes I know I quite like my own company and too much peopling makes my head hurt.
In history, castaways and people lost have really struggled having no-one to talk to. It’s why solitary confinement is sometimes used to break someone’s will. Pirates marooned were given a loaded pistol and a bottle of rum. Pistol was for when the loneliness became to hard to bear. Yeah starvation and thirst too, but a number did survive and we’re picked up by passing ships. Ben Gunn from Treasure Island was a literary example of real people.
Let’s not forget the great book Robinson Crusoe. Eight and twenty years alone on an island. Defoe would have heard of many such stories and possibly Alexander Selkirk was one such tale.
Poor Alexander spent four years and four months on an uninhabited island. Now interestingly he asked to be left there as he deemed the ship he was on was unseaworthy. Sadly for everyone else he was proved right. He did however try to get back on the ship but was refused by the captain… Lucky old Selkirk. Six survivors of the ship were picked up by the Spanish and sent to the mines.
Here he is, reading his bible and singing psalms. He hunted feral goats, tamed feral cats and generally made a life for himself. He was however incoherent with joy when rescued by the British.
Thinking of a couple of films here…
Castaway with Tom Hanks… Wilson the volleyball becomes a personified object.
I can no longer watch the bit where poor Wilson gets washed overboard… Heart breaking! In fact Wilson won an academy award for the best inanimate object ever. I concur with the decision.
Will Smith in I am Legend gives the display mannequins names and talks to them when he goes shopping…
Finally in the Film genre we have Hell in the Pacific…
Two enemy combatants who after spending a bit of time trying to kill each other. Learn to trust and then rely on each other.
Sorry for the rambling post….but yeah although they annoy me, I would have to say people.
