Untitled Essay, Research Paper

A true survivor can only depend on himself. The novel deliverance is a story

about four characters each with different views on surviving. Every man in

the world can relate to one of the three secondary characters in the novel

Deliverance. Men can relate to Lewis Medlock for his primitive views, Drew

for his rationality, or Bobby for his lack of ability to survive. Many people

say that Lewis is the man that most men want to be like, Drew is the man

that most men are like, and Bobby is the man that most men fear becoming.

Lewis is the man most men want to be because he does not depend on anyone

or anything. He loves a challenge and will do anything he can to live life

to its fullest extent. Ed Gentry, the central character, represents all in

the way he looks up to Lewis and strives to be like him. Most men fall into

the same category as Drew because their ability to survive has been clouded

by rational thoughts. Then there is Bobby. Most men do not want to be linked

with Bobby because he can not live without help from civilization. Even though

these characters posses many of the same traits, their main differences are

in their ability to survive life. They also have different views on life.

Lewis sees life as a game that you must constantly challenge if you are to

survive. Drew sees life as a struggle that should never be challenged. Then

there is Bobby who sees life as something he does not have to worry about

because their will always be someone their to help him through it. All three

of these characters possess traits that can be identified in every man.

First there is Lewis, a middle aged man that is at the prime of his life,

and fears nothing. He is the strongest character in the book. He is, “…

a physical-conditioning perfectionist with misplaces survival-of-the-fittest

instincts and cave-man yearnings”(Warren). Lewis is the man that most men

want to be like because he needs no one to survive but himself. He constantly

demonstrates a primitive life-style that no longer exists. The primitive

life-style he demonstrates is one of survival. Lewis is an attractive character

for males because of his need for no one. He needs no one to life his life

for him. He knows that the only way to fully enjoy life is to take chances.

He also feels that live is a game that you must constantly play or you will

die (Graham). Because he sees life in this manner he believes that he must

constantly challenge himself just to make sure he is self sufficient. “He’s

nuts about roughing it” (Warren). Even though Lewis has a strong ability

to survive whatever life might bring upon him, he is not blind to the fact

that he can still be hurt even with help from others. This is most evident

when he says, “But I believe in survival. All kinds. Every time I come up

here, I believe in it more. You know, with all this so-called modern

conveniences, a man can still fall down”(50). Lewis does not believe it is

right for man to let machines take our independence away from us. He believes

that it will be better if we all began to depend on ourselves instead of

others. Lewis is the only true survivor out of the characters.

Next there is Drew, the man that most men are like. Drew is a rational man

that has just begun to lose his ability to survive. Drew unlike Lewis does

not see life as a game, but instead as a struggle that will pass you by as

long as you to do not interfere. He is a normal man with a lovely family,

a delightful suburban house, and a good job. Drew is often seen as a

self-made-man that has been living in the city too long and has forgotten

how to be independent. He has spent so much of his time using rational thought

that he can no longer use his primitive survival skills. This is most evident

after they kill the first mountain man. Drew says, “Put the body in one of

the canoes and take it down to Aintry and turn it over to the highway patrol”

(121). Drew believe that they should go to the police, and depend on them

to do the right thing; however, the others know that if they do that they

will all be faced with murder charges, and might go to jail. Drew can not

believe that they want to hide the body from the police because it is not

the rational thing to do. This scene shows Drew’s inability to be

independent. He represents the first stages of man’s loss of his ability

to survive. At the beginning of the book Ed’s survival skills resemble

Drew’s inability to survive. However, because of Ed’s trials and

tribulations he takes a different path, and by the end of the book is completely

independent. Drew represents a majority of the population because he lets

his rational thoughts cloud his ability to survive.

Finally there is Bobby, who represents the man we all fear of becoming. Bobby

is completely dependent on other people and machines. Without either he would

not be able to survive. Bobby, unlike Lewis and Drew, sees life without any

dangers, and because he does not see the dangers he walks blindly through

life. He has a weak mind and is easily persuaded. He is unlike Drew and Lewis

in the fact that he has never been forced to depend only upon himself. During

his entire life he has had someone to take care of him. The scene after they

find Drew’s body shows Bobby’s inability to survive. After seeing

Drew’s body, Bobby began to hide his head, and loses control of his

mind. Bobby represents the future of mankind. He represents a man of the

future that has become so dependent on other people and machines that he

can no longer function. Ever time he is faced with a dilemma he turns to

either Ed or to Lewis for the answer. When Lewis breaks his leg and either

Bobby or Lewis must climb the cliff to kill the second mountain man, Bobby

is the first to let Ed know that he can not do it because, “I can’t

even shoot a bow” (155). This cowardly position, again, shows Bobby’s

dependence upon others. Bobby is the man most men fear becoming because he

is unable to depend on himself therefore he is unable to survive. If Ed had

not been delivered on the river then there is a chance that he would have

ended up like Bobby.

In conclusion, every man can be linked to one of the characters in the book.

To Ed, Lewis seems to be a super human being that is not afraid of anything.

He will challenge anything or anybody to prove he can survive. Drew is the

most rational man and the man that most men can relate to. In the beginning

of the novel Ed did not know how he felt about Drew, but by the end of the

book he realized that Drew was, “The only decent one; the only sane one”

(220). Finally there is Bobby, who Ed sees as a friend at the beginning of

the trip, but by the end he has seen that Bobby is helpless. It is ironic

that the only one who walked away from the adventure without any physical

wounds is Bobby. This could be due to the fact that he depended on other

people to take care of him and in the process they got hurt. These four men

went down the river to test their survival skill, and, “… to break the

ho-hum-ness of their suburbanite weekends by taking a canoe trip down a dangerous

river.” The book deliverance is almost a prophesy of things to come if man

does not stop relying on other people so much.Works Cited

Warren, Eyster. James Dickey. Computer Software. Discovering Authors, 1995.

Graham, Keith S. “‘Deliverance’: 20 years after”. The Atlanta Journal

and Constitution 18 March 1990

Moorhead, Michael. “Dickey’s Deliverance”. Explicator Summer 1993: 247-248

Dickey, James. Deliverance. New York: Delta, 1970.