Chapter 9: Into the Abyss - Part 2

     The five crew members of the H-60 helicopter ditched the aircraft and are now at the mercy of the reckless sea. Spillane, one of the crew members, is greatly injured from the impact of hitting the sea at such a high velocity and he also loses all of his memory. After swimming to a life raft, he soon regains his memory and sees a light flashing in the distance. Remembering that the life vests that each member of the crew was wearing emitted a light, he quickly decided to swim towards the flashing light. Upon arrival to the where the flashing light was, he discovered that it was Mioli and Ruvola.  Having already saved Buschor, the Tamaroa eventually pulls Spillane, Mioli and Ruvola out of the water. Everybody in the H-60’s crew is now safe on the Tamaroa, except for Rick Smith. Although he is stuck in the water, he is one of the most experienced rescue men and it is estimated that he can last anywhere from 5-7 days at sea.

     The second half of this chapter can be related to the story The Allegory of the Cave. When Spillane loses all of his memory, he is unaware of anything that is around him and all he knows is survival. Driven by survival instincts, he sees a life raft and quickly swims to it. Since he lost his memory, he was unable to identify anything around him because we can only develop ideas of what things are from previous knowledge. This is parallel to how the people living in the cave could only see the shadows as reality because that was all they knew. They thought that the shadows existed solely by themselves and there was nothing more to the world. Also, the caveman coming out of the cave and realizing all that the world has to offer can be directly linked to when Spillane regains his memory. Both of them gain a new reality and more understanding of the world around them because their perspectives have been changed by their experiences. Lastly, this half of the chapter shows the importance of Maslow’s basic need for a person to feel a sense of love and belonging. Spillane shows this because once he is safe on the life craft; he travels a great distance with just the hopes of someone else being where the flashing light was.