Abandonment and Choices

 Do you believe the crew did the right thing in abandoning the search for Mark? Was there an alternative choice?

I strongly believe that Mark Watneys crew did the right thing in abandoning their search for him. If the tables were turned Mark himself would of made the same decision. After a very severe dust storm almost kills your entire team your first thought should be to survive!

 Three summers ago I went to a camp house site with my dad my younger brother, my boyfriend and a couple other cousins around my age. We were paddle boating on a lake in Oklahoma for my cousin Zachs birthday and the currents were very strong . Me and my brother had gotten off of our paddle boat we were just hanging onto the sides of it when the paddle boat started floating away from us  and my brother said he felt something on his foot. Seconds later he started to bob under the water and next thing I knew my dad was yelling for me to swim away from him! Me with tears in my eyes could not process why I wasn't told to help him. My brother was bobbing up and down and struggling against the current. In this instant their were many different alternative choices I could of made. I could of not listened to my dad and dived under the water to help my brother, I could of just stayed where I was in the water only a couple feet away from him or like he wanted I could of swam away and got into my paddle boat. I ended up swimming away some from where my brother was and that was my choice. To wrap up the story my dad ended up being able to grab my brother while in his paddle boat and we all made it out of the water safe. I don't think there were any alternative choices for the crew to make especially in such a dangerous setting so abandoning Mark was a sad but right choice. In the ending of the book Mark was saved and the crew members were safe which is all that matters!