Blog Eight: Endurance Pg 179

The use of an exclamation mark in Alfred Lansing's novel could only mean one thing...something amazing has occurred.  Hurley wrote, " How delicious to wake in one's sleep and listen to the chanting of the penguins mingling with the music of the sea.  To fall asleep and awaken again and feel this is real.  We have reached the land(Lansing 179)!!) This exclamatory sentence truly does convey the feelings most of the men were feeling as they finally stepped onto something solid and something they knew would always be beneath them as long as they stayed there.  Progressing through school, I know that a exclamation mark signifies something has happened or someone is extremely excited. As we see in this quote, both of those things apply.  The men, having been stuck on frozen water for 495 days, finally have a feeling of security and protection from the environment.  Though they are not completely safe yet, their minds can be put to ease.  They no longer had to worry about which direction they were headed, the ice cracking beneath them, or whether the presence of a bird was a good or bad thing.