Eating Your Friends Is the Hardest

This week’s article brings up how our world is socially constructed, and that nothing contains built-in meaning. Some may argue that some things contain a built in meaning, but ultimately they do not. The article about the Uruguayan rugby team is a perfect example of this. Prior to the plane crash, the world (for the most part) considered cannibalism as an out of this world idea. That idea everyone inherited from their uprising, which is why it may seem like it already has a built in meaning because we are so used to it. However after the plane crash of F-227 and the events necessary to survival, the world (mainly media) transformed the idea of cannibalism as an act which was formerly unconceivable to something that was, and could be necessary in times.

                Immediately after reading the article I made a connection to what we had talked about in class a few days ago. We were discussing how the world is socially constructed and whatever meaning something has, it’s arbitrary. We brought up the idea of saliva/spit. Normally we think of spit as that disgusting liquid in our mouth that we spit out. Our outlook on it changes under different circumstances like when we are kissing someone. The spit is no longer “spit” and isn’t disgusting, its saliva and something that is part of kissing and is desirable (to some).

                These two things tie in to one another because spit will always be spit, but is only socially acceptable when kissing. While eating a peer is not okay to normally choose and is only acceptable if it is under complete necessity.

                On another note about the article, I thought it was very interesting and a few of the parts were pretty hard to imagine but caught my attention. One of the paragraphs talked about how a survivor was sleeping inside the fuselage and a frozen hand rubbed against his face because someone had “gotten a late night snack.” Besides it being already hard enough to eat a friend, I imagine it must have been even harder to be the first one to take a bite of human flesh. I also thought it was interesting how they ultimately decided on cannibalism, which was they determined the bodies were no longer people because their souls had left them. Overall I enjoyed reading the article and the author’s social connection’s at the end of it and I will probably watch the movie again sometime soon.

I have seen the movie about the flight of F-227 and I remember starting the book and seeing a disturbing picture, which also relates to how it is only socially acceptable to eat a friend when it is absolutely necessary for survival. Here is the picture, notice the human spine and ribs next to the guys on the right. Yet they are still smiling because they are surviving because they ate their friends because it was necessary to survival.