There is a horrible book by William Golding about children marooned on an island. I've never read it, and I don't plan to read it, but I read about it. So what did the children do when left alone? Many behaved stupidly, some did not survive and some hurt each other. The book ends with the best of them crying for 'the loss of innocence'.
But would that happen in reality? A historian found a real story of six children stuck on the deserted island of Ata who survived for 15 months. They ate eggs, drunk the blood of animals instead of water when it did not rain, made a fire and took turns in keeping it alive for a year, and helped each other survive until a ship finally found them. One broke his leg, and the others put it in tree bark and leaves and did his share of the work while it mended perfectly. Eventually, a ship arrived, and they made it home. And when they got home, they were placed in jail for stealing the boat that led to this whole experience. However, the captain that helped them escape paid for the boat, and wrote down the story and got a TV Channel to film the boys. Interestingly enough, their survival story was nowhere as famous as the dark version from Lord of the Flies, and the world forgot them. This realistic version must have been too similar to Robinson Crusoe to be worth remembering. I did read the Robinson Crusoe books -- he had it too easy -- marooned in a tropical paradise with tools and loads of things to use, while these kids appeared to be the real thing.
But would that happen in reality? A historian found a real story of six children stuck on the deserted island of Ata who survived for 15 months. They ate eggs, drunk the blood of animals instead of water when it did not rain, made a fire and took turns in keeping it alive for a year, and helped each other survive until a ship finally found them. One broke his leg, and the others put it in tree bark and leaves and did his share of the work while it mended perfectly. Eventually, a ship arrived, and they made it home. And when they got home, they were placed in jail for stealing the boat that led to this whole experience. However, the captain that helped them escape paid for the boat, and wrote down the story and got a TV Channel to film the boys. Interestingly enough, their survival story was nowhere as famous as the dark version from Lord of the Flies, and the world forgot them. This realistic version must have been too similar to Robinson Crusoe to be worth remembering. I did read the Robinson Crusoe books -- he had it too easy -- marooned in a tropical paradise with tools and loads of things to use, while these kids appeared to be the real thing.
The island of Ata is still reported to be uninhabitable today. It did have a relatively prosperous community up to the mid 1800 until half of the inhabitants where taken to be sold as slaves, and the others left the island because they were worried for their safety. What I find interesting is that the chicken survived. The human story is about the people who survived for a bit more than a year. The chicken reproduced for close to 200 years and they are mentioned only in passing -- to say that the kids built chicken pens and recaptured some of them. The survival of the chicken is what amazes me -- because we claim that domestic animals need us and yet we don't consider it a feat that they survived on the island -- in a volcanic crater -- about hundred times longer than some kids who fended for themselves. We take them for granted.
We've taken our freedom for granted up to now, too. As the world imposes crazier and crazier rules, it scares me enough to think it might be easier to die than to survive a Russian+Chinese style captivity. They are the leading powers after all. People are sure that children are irresponsible and silly, which could be why we are put in
the same category as animals on declarations in Romania and have
had fewer rights than pets in Spain. But if these 'responsible' adults who lead us bomb each other's countries until there is little left or find some other way to make the planet uninhabitable for people, it consoles me to think that there will be some chicken left behind who will be free to make it where we have failed. They'd be unable to tell a story our way, but perhaps they'd be there nevertheless.
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