Blake

Mr.Liam

Language and Composition

1 September 2022

How does Grace change over the course of the book

In the book “Project Hail Mary” written by Andy Weir, the lead Grace is a very interesting

character. His task is to save humans from the Astrophage crisis, but when he wake up in the space-

ship, he finds that he is the solo survivor. What worse, he cannot remember anything at first, let

alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. The whole book adopts a two-line narra-

tive method. On the one hand, it shows how Grace found a way to save mankind in an unfamiliar

galaxy. On the other hand, with the gradual recovery of memory, the truth of Project Hail Mary and

the protagonist's life experience also surfaced. During these processes, Grace has grown a lot.

In the beginning, Grace cannot remember anything. However, he soon leaves a great impres-

sion on readers that he is very clever and learned. Even though he doesn’t know where he is, he

uses experiments to calculate gravity. Using just physical knowledge, he soon infer that he was in

another galaxy. Then he realizes an important fact —his mission doesn’t allow him to survive. At

the same time, he experiences his first dramatic change. He chooses to do his work without com-

plaint, but in the past, he cried out in disbelief because he was on a mission. From now, he start ac-

cepting the truth, even though it is cruel.

Grace second dramatic change happens when he works with Rocky. In fact, before meeting

Rocky, Grace has never worked so closely with anyone. Just like he said: “ seriously, he's my only

friend. When the world was peaceful, I didn't have much social life”(chapter 29, Andy). Working

with Rocky releases his stress and feeling of loneliness. In addition, he has more courage than be-

fore. When they face the problem that their spaceship cannot enter Adrian Planet, Grace thinks of a

plan of great darling——making tens of kilometers of rope to sample. To achieve this plan, Grace
and Rocky almost die, but it also reflects that he's no longer the cowardly high school teacher he

used to be.

Grace's last dramatic change happens in the last. At that time, Grace has already remem-

bered everything. He knows that if he goes back, everyone will view him as a hero. “I can go home,

really. I can go back to Earth and spend the rest of my life as a hero… I will enjoy a whole new

world order where all energy problems are gone… I can find Strat and call her a scumbag in per-

son”(chapter 29, Andy). However, if he does so, Rocky will die. In the past, he will probably go

back because he “doesn’t want to die”. But now, even though he knows he doesn’t have enough

food to save Rocky, he turned the spaceship back. From then on, he is no longer a coward. He is an

optimistic hero willing to sacrifice for his friends.

In the end, Grace becomes a teacher again, but this time his students are not humans. After a

series of epic adventures, everything seems to back to where it started, but also seems to change

dramatically. But there is no doubt that Grace is no longer a middle school teacher on earth, but a

common hero of Eridians and humans.