Why root for Mark Watney to survive?

What makes us root for a character to live in a survival story? In what ways do you identify with Mark? How does the author get you to care about him?

 

In this story we have a character named Mark Watney who through his actions and thought process seems to be understood by the current generation Z. In any survival show, movie, or even game the point is to keep the reader guessing and provide lots of temporary solutions which is how situations could be handled in real life. Having this variable of unpredictability creates odds against the main protagonist, and in the Martain, that is Mark Watney. Most of everyone likes to see the underdog win and what better way to make the experience worth it to make almost any error possibly catastrophic and ending with the worst result: loss of human life. Mark, as explained in the book, is a botanist and an engineer. This provoked him to do the two things he knew he could do, and that was fix his Hab and grow his food in an attempt to make more for reserves later. Now with identifying with Mark, I would have to say the most common thing between him and us in real life is his speech. Not only is this character given a rich back story to connect with the majority of its audience but is also given a voice in which he can convey the message to us in a similar language. Obviously he speaks English but the way he speaks it givens him depth instead of being a character hidden in between the lines of the page. His likeness draws attention to his action like we are so prone to doing today as a society. We care about Mark Watney because he alone represents on a slightly generic level one or two generations of our scientists with a  little attitude attached. We root for him because he is an underdog constantly faced with death (that we are so morbidly fond of). We identify with him because he is one of our own. We care about him because we can follow a thought process like our own and not have to think things through but rather imagine it along the lines of which it is given by Mark.