Truths are never esoteric, obscure things.

They are often understandable on first reading, seemingly

commonplace sentences, but only when you have read it do you realise the energy it contains.

----Alan Cui

The Martian is a book was written by Andy Weir and published in 2011. Although the author's style
is light-hearted and even funny in this novel, we must admit that it is also a thought-provoking book.
It contains a reflection on human nature, an interpretation of the word perseverance, and the reader
can even appreciate the value of life in this novel. This article will analyse the novel and demonstrate
the public impact it can have on various aspects.

The first thing that is most evident in The Martian is "perseverance", never giving up. No more
getting my hope up, no more self-delusion, and no more problem-solving. These are the words he
utters in sol119, after the explosion of his habitat, when he is in a state of self-loathing. But still in
sol119, he makes another video recording where he says: Sigh... I've had my tantrum and now i have
figure out how to stay alive. again. okay, let's see what i can do here... I have to admit it's hard for
normal people to adjust in a few hours when the environment they live in has been completely
destroyed. It's not an easy thing to do. With all the potato plants that Mark Watney relied on to
survive in his habitat pod sacrificed, instruments possibly destroyed and oxygen leaking from broken
pipes, which is a truly devastating situation. With his life at stake, he came up with the idea of rolling
the airlock chamber next to the RVR and getting into it to escape. This spirit could be called
perseverance, or "wanting to live". This is the same situation as Covid today. People struggle under
the oppression of a virus or a Martian storm, being crushed over and over again, but getting up again
and again and hitting the thing that is oppressing them with the hand that holds the Covid test paper
or mashed potatoes. This is definitely something to learn from.

Another striking point is the cost of space travel. the Martian chapter4 p43 writes: one thing i have
in abundance here are bags. They're not much different from kitchen trash bags, though i'm sure
they cost $50,000because of NASA. The reader's intuition may be "NASA is rich" or something like
that, but if you think about it, if you replace these expensive plastic bags with cheap, functional ones
What's the difference? Even in the extreme conditions that Mark Watney was in, he just put these
bags together to make one big bag. These budget savings could be used to subsidise government
loan deficits, to pay out social welfare, and in sufficient amounts could even be used to start another
space trip. Why would NASA prefer to spend so much money on such inconsequential things?
Apparently not. Which leads us to the next topic - how much is life worth?

The Martian Chapter 8, page 107 says: Everyone's pulling together to save Mark Watney, with no
interdepartmental squabbling. Even then, this is going to cost tens of millions, maybe hundreds of
millions of dollars. It's not a small amount, but if it were a homeless person or a refugee, it's clear
that no one would spend so much time and energy trying to save it. This book is a very thorough
explanation of the value of life." Being valuable is not about who you are, but who you can be. "The
marketing benefits and social repercussions that could come from rescuing Mark Watney already far
outweigh the cost of saving him. This reasoning also works today. An unknown person dying at home
of a disease is nothing new, but a child dying at home of a disease is covered by the media. This is
not because children are inherently superior, but because their death brings more marketing value
than the average person. When they, be it Mark Watney, a dying homeless man or a terminally ill
child, their lives don't really matter anymore. The first thing they need to do is not to self-saving as
much as possible, but to prove to those who have the ability save them that, the added value of
rescuing them outweighs the consequences of abandoning them. This is a very profound and real
point. This also explains why NASA is spending so much money on plastic bags - a few tens of
thousands of dollars extra budget are nothing for the possible consequences of cheapness.

There are so many life lessons to be learned from a small work of science fiction. Defiance of
adversity, caution against the unknown, and dealing with danger are all things that the author wants
us to learn, and that we should master. Even if we never go to Mars in our lifetime, we may face
more complex dilemmas than Mars, and Mark Watney's spirit and quick wisdom in dealing with
danger is what we need.