Alive

“Inside the passenger compartment there was a holiday atmosphere.” 

The passengers laugh and joke with one another as the pilots begin to worry. The weather and the difficult terrain present a serious challenge to any plane crossing over the Andes, but the passengers do not think twice about the danger. They are on holiday. The trip is a chance to enjoy themselves. The holiday atmosphere quickly turns into a nightmare, and the jubilant mood at the beginning of the flight provides a point of contrast showing how quickly the situation can change. 

“The night was unending.” 

The first night after the crash is one of the most difficult. The survivors are all dazed, disorientated, and anxious, and many are severely wounded. They do not yet have the systems in place to deal with the extreme cold that the night brings. The first night feels “unending” because it is so radically different from the wealthy, middle-class upbringing many of the passengers have experienced in Uruguay. Their shock and fear draw each passing minute out until it feels almost infinite.

“The choice had to be made between the pain of the biting cold and the agony of lying with the others.” 

The choices made by the survivors of the plane crash quickly become impossible. The cold of the night means that the survivors must huddle together for warmth, but doing so causes their many injuries to keep them awake. They must choose between the constant pain of their injuries or the biting cold of the wind. This impossible choice foreshadows the decision over whether they should eat human flesh. The decisions the passengers make become increasingly more difficult as their situation grows more perilous. 

“‘Then I’ll cut meat from one of the pilots,’ said Parrado. ‘After all, they got us into this mess.’” 

In the aftermath of the crash, the passengers want someone to blame. They have lost loved ones, and they fear losing their own lives. Nando Parrado is the first person to vocalize the idea of consuming human flesh. His comment about cannibalism is delivered in a facetious tone, which could make it a joke but could also be very serious. Parrado wraps the idea of cannibalism into the idea of guilt. Those who are responsible for the crash should be consumed first. Although this idea is initially ignored by the others, this scene reveals that Parrado is not afraid of saying what many others are thinking. 

“Their minds turned to other sources of food.” 

The survivors try to think of any option other than cannibalism. They scour the mountainside for something to eat but cannot find anything. The mountain is bare and sterile. There are no plants or animals and nothing beyond the endless amounts of snow and rock. The survivors’ minds turn to “other sources of food” (50) in a desperate attempt to avoid what now seems inevitable: They will have to begin eating the dead soon otherwise they will all die.

“They knew quite well that their expedition was not so much to find the boys as to keep up the spirits of the women at home.” 

The families of the survivors face a monumental challenge of a very different type. Just like the survivors themselves, they realize that morale is key to success. There are tasks and duties they complete which are not so much designed to succeed but to lift the hopes of the people involved. Whether it is scouring mountainsides, meeting with military personnel, or charting flights which will likely not help, the men chosen to lead the expedition to search in Chile perform their duties with stoic reassurance. They want to maintain the hopes of those at home almost as much as they want to find their loved ones. 

“The boys gave him an extra cigarette and made a birthday cake out of the snow.” 

Although life on the isolated mountainside is unbearably grim, there are moments of elation which provide a juxtaposition. The birthday of Numa Turcatti is one of these moments. The boys make a birthday cake out of snow. The irony of the cake is that the snow may actually kill them, either via the avalanches or the cold. The boys celebrate the birthday by building a cake out of the very substance which may end their lives. This moment of relative levity provides a break from the crushing misery of the crash site. 

“The nearness of God in the still landscape set a seal on his conviction.” 

The time spent on the mountain is a near-religious experience for many of the survivors. They say their prayers each night and talk about God often. There are also quiet moments when the transcendental takes over and they are left in awe of the power of nature. The power of the mountain, the snow, the weather can kill the men at any time, striking awe into their minds. Moreover, the survivors feel closer to God for having lived rather than died. 

“He wept and pleaded and told them over and over again that he knew no more about radios than anyone else.” 

While Roy Harley is the closest the survivors have to a radio expert, his expertise is absurdly limited. He pleads with the other men that they should not put their faith in him as he cannot put faith in himself. The failure of the radio becomes inevitable. Roy’s pleas become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The other survivors refuse to accept his pleas of ignorance, dooming the plan to failure before it has even begun. 

“Some had learned to live with their uselessness, but others did not admit to themselves that they made no contribution to the welfare of the group.” 

The psychological trauma of the crash makes people react in different ways. Other than those who take an active role in the daily activities, there are those who are more reluctant to get involved. Some are too injured to help while others simply choose not to. They begin to internalize their uselessness as a kind of pessimism. They see no point in helping if they are all going to die anyway. Helping the group means nothing if the group will eventually perish. These attitudes breed resentment and are another extension of the damage done to the men during the crash. 

“The instinct to survive was a harsh tyrant which demanded not just that they eat their companions but that they get used to doing so.” 

Cannibalism is not enough to survive on the side of the mountain. The people who begin to consume human flesh must develop a taste for the process. The horrific nature of what they are doing must become a ritual in which the consumption of flesh is not just necessary but preferential. By treating the flesh like regular food which is prone to tastes and routine, they can imagine the meat as anything other than human. The survivors learn different ways in which to cope with their chosen means of survival. 

“At this moment of the day they were almost happy.” 

The way in which the survivors develop a routine reveals the capacity of humans to cope with any situation. They perform the same tasks each day and settle into a regular pattern. Part of this routine is a late afternoon cigarette enjoyed in the sun with the spectacular views over the mountains. Even amid the violence and the death of the situation, the survivors manage to carve out some space in their day for a quiet moment of contemplation and beauty. The afternoon cigarette is a moment of relief from the hellish situation when the survivors seem to be almost normal once again. 

“The view which met his eyes was of paradise.” 

Canessa and Parrado arrive in the valley and they are awe struck by what they see. The valley is filled with life. The flowers, plants, river, animals, and birds that surround them are a stark contrast to the lifeless danger of the mountainside where they were stuck. The valley is “paradise” (156) because it is filled with so much life when they have witnessed so much death. The entrance into the valley is like entering heaven after so much suffering. 

“Then the two boys sat down and ate what they had been given, and never in their lives had bread tasted so good.” 

The boys arrive in the valley and cannot believe their eyes. They have survived by eating the meat of the dead bodies of their friends. They have not seen grass or vegetables in months. They eat the bread given to them by the Chilean peasant as though it were a feast. The bread may not be particularly special in its own right, but it represents a return to normality. Aside from representing an opportunity to eat something other than human meat, the bread tastes good because it symbolizes survival and success. 

“You can’t just sit around doing nothing.” 

Although the characters insist that they cannot just sit around and do nothing, there is very little they can actually do to change their situation. Whether they are survivors of the plane crash or the families trying to conduct a search, only a few select people can do anything more than sit around and do nothing. Largely, the characters must wait for expeditions and good luck. 

“Tears poured down Dr Canessa’s cheeks, and with a cry of happiness this strong middle-aged man turned and embraced the bewildered taxi driver as he spun his car down the streets of Buenos Aires.” 

The sheer joy experienced by the loved ones of the survivors overcomes social distinctions. Dr Canessa is like many of the wealthy families in Montevideo. He is separated from the majority of the society by his wealth and privilege. He rides with a taxi driver when he hears the news that his son is alive, and all of the barriers between different social classes fall away. He hugs the taxi driver as though he were a brother. The class boundaries that typically exist are overcome by the joy of the moment. 

“Again, omitting one or two details, notably those about what they had eaten to stay alive.” 

The initial discussions with the rescue team and other individuals are vague. The survivors have a vague idea that they have committed acts which will repel the majority of society. They know innately that they should avoid discussions of the cannibalism even if they have not planned how they will broach the topic. They omit details and ignore certain questions to allow themselves a moment to simply enjoy being saved before the difficult introspection begins. 

“Commander, we have a panic situation back here.” 

Although Nando Parrado has barely survived a plane crash, he is quickly sent back up in a helicopter to find his friends. He agrees to make the journey, but the latent trauma of his recent experiences is quick to catch up to him. When the helicopter hits a patch of difficult weather, Parrado screams. The horror of his recent past flashes in front of his eyes as he finds himself in another potential crash situation. For all of Parrado’s bravery, his fear is real and inspires sympathy. The “panic situation” (178) hints at the sacrifice Parrado is willing to make to find the other survivors quickly. 

“We have to tidy ourselves up.” 

The men who boarded the plane in Montevideo were young, handsome rugby players. They have emerged from their experience as gaunt, bearded, filthy survivors. They recognize that they may need to tidy themselves up before being rescued, but this is not only an aesthetic choice. The survivors have lived outside of society for months and have done things which would horrify many people. They have to tidy up not only their appearances but also their morals, as they prepare to reenter a society that will inevitably judge them for what they have done. 

“The sound was not at all what they had imagined, which proved to the boys that what they saw and heard was no mirage.” 

The sound of the helicopter appearing over the mountain highlights the hollowness of much of the hope the men have experienced. They believe that they have heard helicopters in the past, but all of these memories are incorrect. The hope they had at the time was false hope, as the actual sound of the helicopter proves. For the first time, they are experiencing genuine hope which is not clouded by their poor judgement. While the feeling is new and wonderful for them, it is also a reminder of their previous missteps. 

“Her shock shocked him.”

The truth about how the plane crash victims survived is a shock to the family members. The survivors themselves are shocked by the shock that greets the truth. They have spent so long doing what they must to survive and they have already made their peace with cannibalism, so they cannot understand the shock of other people. The consumption of human meat has become so essential a part of their lives that they cannot imagine a world where it does not take place. 

“And it was not just these physical manifestations of starvation and privation which told them what he had suffered; there was also the expression in his eyes.” 

The bodies of the survivors will heal in time and the wounds will disappear, but the truth about what they did is imprinted on their souls. The truth in their eyes reveals what they did in order to survive and how close they came to death on many occasions. The expressions in the eyes will linger like scars and reveal the trauma of what occurred in the months following the plane crash. These are the wounds that the survivors will have to carry with them forever. 

“Had they not proved that they could look after themselves?”

The survivors’ loved ones are concerned by the hedonistic, freewheeling way the men decide to act when they return to society. The men cannot understand this concern for their wellbeing. They have already endured such extreme trauma and pain that overeating, drinking too much, or staying out too late seem to pale in comparison. The survivors overindulge themselves as a means of coping with the suffering they have endured, so the concern of their loved ones has little impact. This is a step they must take to reintegrate themselves into society.