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Tension, Humor, And Foreshadowing In The Martian By Andy Weir

Decent Essays

Tension, humor, and foreshadowing are some examples of elements that readers will find in The Martian. In The Martian, astronaut Mark Watney is left behind on Mars. Because of a dust storm, Mark's teammates believe that he is dead and left him behind. The Martian is a science fiction book that gives readers an idea of how people might be able to colonize Mars and gives readers an idea of what space is like. The Martian has an author that self-published his book, and who used humor and foreshadowing to keep his readers engaged.
Andy Weir is the author of the book, The Martian, a science fiction book that started out as an ebook that he published himself. He was born on June 16, 1972 in California (“Biography.”). At the age of fifteen, Andy Weir became a programmer for a national laboratory (BookBrowse. “Andy Weir author …show more content…

In the book, Weir writes: “Designed for a mission of thirty-one sols, AL102 [a sheet that is in one of the airlocks] continued well past its planned expiration. Sol [a Martian day, 24 hours, 39 minutes] after sol went by, with the lone astronaut traveling in and out of the Hab [the habitat that Mark lived in on Mars] almost daily. Airlock 1 was closest to the rover charging station, so the astronaut preferred it to the other two” (Weir 154 ). Since Mark is left behind. AL102, which is a sheet located in the airlock number 1, is being used more than expected. AL102 is designed for thirty-one sols while Mark has been stranded for about one hundred nineteen sols. In addition to the previous example: “We were six days in when all hell broke loose, so that leaves enough food to last six people for fifty days. I'm just one guy so it will last me 300 days” (Weir 8). Readers now know that Mark is going to last for about 300 days on Mars before he runs out of food and possibly die. Foreshadowing can be useful when trying to keep the readers guessing about what is going to happen

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