Death of the Endurance (4 to 6) Tone

"Away across the pack, the stern of the Endurance rose 20 feet into the air and hung there for a moment with her motionless propeller and her smashed rudder held aloft. Then slowly, silently she disappeared beneath the ice, leaving only a small gap of black, open water to mark where she had been."

As the Endurance sank, the men felt farther from their homes more than ever. Although was completely useless in the ice, it still held for a symbol of civilization. With the ship gone the men had to continue to hope and pray that the winds would help carry their floe towards land. Meanwhile, with the loss of their tie to civilization the men soon start following some of the morals they once held in order to survive, such as the gruesome slaughter of seals using pickaxes and knives. All of these incidents the author writes with a very serious and glum tone. Things are starting to become more and more desperate and the crew is finally starting to see that.

The killing of the seals reminds me of the western expansion of North America. Riding out into the unpredictable wilderness, the pioneers had to adapt and succumb to very shameful acts in order to survive, even cannibalism. These two incidents show how far a human being can go in order to survive.