The Martian - Megan McMillen

Question

4. Did you find the science and technology behind Mark's problem-solving accessible? How did that information add to the realism of the story?

Throughout the book, the author constantly explains why Mark would need to do certain things in order to survive. One of the biggest ways he solved the problem of eating was trying to find a continuous source of food for however long he was going to be stuck there. He was a botanist, so he only had a small amount of soil to use and gathered up all of the resources he could find to figure out what he was going to do. He made soil by slowly adding some martian soil and used his own feces as fertilizer. He then made water, which was more thoroughly explain in the book and used the potatoes that they were saving for Thanksgiving to plant into the soil. I think actually reading the process in which it took him to be able to eat made it more real for the readers because of how difficult it was. We got to actually understand all of the things he needed to do just to provide food for himself and how dangerous it was. Without going into detail, the reader wouldn’t if been able to find the real life scenarios in the novel. When I was reading the book, it surprised me with how well he knew what to do in that situation. That is what made it so real for me, I was able to relate my own knowledge and life to his accomplishments and realize I wouldn’t of been able to do that.