The Martian--Mark's Life prior to Mars

Hannah Pflug

Dr. O’Leary

9 February 2018

Honors FYE

The Martian Blog Post

I believe that the author provided almost no back story regarding Mark’s life on Earth for the sole purpose of building suspense. By not creating and revealing a prior life of Mark’s to the readers, the author set a strong tone of curiosity and suspense on the reader’s reaction to the story. If the author would have created a tone in which Mark’s life back on Earth was laid out for all to understand, then there would have been no curiosity within the readers as to what occurred prior to Mark being on Mars. This would ultimately lead to a major loss of interest for the book itself, and this is far from what the author truly desires.

I imagine that Mark was never in a committed romantic relationship, however, that he went out on dates frequently in hopes of finding his one special person. I imagine that he grew up with loving parents and a small number of siblings that most likely toughened him up a bit, which shaped him into who he became. In turn, this set him up with a select few of the various skills required in order to survive being stranded on Mars. I also feel as if he most definitely had at least a couple nieces or nephews, and that he was the fun uncle who was always around and was extremely supportive. I imagine he lived a solid life in the financial sense, and that he was prudent but still spent money somewhat loosely. He seems to have had a nicer apartment with brick interior walls and somewhat cohesive interior design. He definitely was not a mess, and it is quite evident that his life was very much so put together. I imagine him to have had a nice wardrobe with some Columbia, Patagonia, Eddie Bauer, and other brands just like those tossed in there.