Luck for the Endurance: The Fortune of Shackleton's Voyage Anonymous 11th Grade

Luck appears at a moment in time when people need it the most. When all of one’s knowledge, experience and skills have been exhausted, luck can alter given circumstances thus allowing people to push past difficult situations. Luck can be defined as a spontaneous change or stroke of good fortune that alters a seemingly unchangeable situation for the better. On account of luck’s elusive nature, most societies do not believe it exists at all: these nonbelievers view a situation altered by luck as instead events as containing controllable factors, which through perseverance can be overcome by human ingenuity and the ability to look for alternate solutions. In cases of extraordinary luck, these nonbelievers easily view them as purely circumstantial. Yet luck is undeniably present whether it be in day-to-day life, or the stroke of luck that changes the course of someone’s life. Luck played a major role in the true story of Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. The experienced captain and crew could not foresee the dire circumstances they would endure. Their survival was in thanks to luck providing them food, water, and favorable environmental conditions, and not due to their own abilities or realities. In the case of this true...