TOW #8: IRB- Adrift 76 Days Lost At Sea

Since reading Adrift, which is Steven Callahan’s memoir of his survival story at sea, I have read the entire book which concludes with his rescue. Where I left off was just when his boat Solo had crashed, therefore I have now read his entire survival story and how he survived when all odds were against him. After finishing the book, I realized that the rhetorical devices Callahan used are the reason why he was able to retell his story his audience of all ages. 

Callahan uses various rhetorical devices such as metaphors and allusions in order to give his readers a visual of what it was like to survive in the middle of the ocean for over three months, and that allowed his audience to visualize what Callahan experienced on his three-month mission of survival. On page 76 Callahan compares all of his decisions to a “two-edged sword”, and every action he did could either help or harm him. This metaphor definitely describes the scenario Callahan is in because he may not be able to give the reader a visual image of what happened, however through these metaphors the audience can now somewhat picture in their mind every aspect of Callahan’s survival mission that ultimately lead to his rescue. Callahan also uses allusions such as the one on page 181 that mentions how Columbus (The Explorer) must have felt when he first saw land once traveling across the sea for weeks. 

While both rhetorical devices are different and are not the same device, they both ultimately allow Callahan to achieve his purpose of telling his survival story because they allow the reader to visualize what happened because Callahan cannot show them what he actually encountered on his survival mission. This allows Callahan to achieve his purpose because the purpose of his story was to explain to the world what happened during those 76 days and why of all people HE was the one that was able to break the record for most days surviving at sea and live to tell his story.

Steven Callahan's story Adrift is definitely an inspiring story of defying all odds and how self-determination is one of the strongest forces on the planet.