The first paragraph of chapter one, Roach describes the living quarters in the isolation chamber. She also talks about the slippers that they give you when you enter JAXA. Roach goes on to talk about the importance of the isolation chamber in the process of choosing two astronauts from the candidates there. She says that though a one-on-one interview can show you lots of things about a person, they can still lie and hide their true self from you. In the isolation chamber it is much, much harder to hide your true colors from those watching the cameras 24/7.
The applicants then receive their first task, origami. They must fold one thousand cranes before Sunday. The one thousand crane task is a tradition in Japanese culture that will bring the folder or whomever they give the cranes to great wealth and longevity. When someone folds the thousand cranes and gives it to another it is normally given to patients in a hospital. Then lunch arrives and the applicants stop what they are doing and unpack their containers. But, no one tries to eat. They stare at each other. They know that whoever is watching them will assume something about them if they are the first or last to start eating. Finally they all start eating together and when they are done their plates are taken away, photographed, and examined for further details into their personality and character. They all help clean up afterwards so not to show their laziness. Then there is a 'self-merits presentation', where the author talks about how the applicants get up in front of each other and show off a talent. Just like a talent show in elementary school.
At the end of the chapter, the author talks about which two were chosen from the applicants and how the others were sent to NASA to hopefully be chosen as a partner for one of the men there.
You did a good job on this blog. Do you think if they didn’t start working together when in space things would have feel apart? I feel as if I was hungry I would not wait on others to eat I would just start eating, but with being watched 24/7 it must have been hard. The saying goes team work makes dream work. This was shown to be true. They all helped clean up afterwards so not to show their laziness. They wanted to show their skills that way they would be accepted by NASA to go into space. I think it was a good idea to give an example of being in elementary because everyone can relate to it.
ReplyDelete