Defining The Right Stuff Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Defining The Right Stuff - Essay ExampleThe right press is make around courage, yet also holds a simple humility to the dangers they face on a day by day basis. The willingness to take a space flight of steps to the edges of science while remaining coldly in state manpowert placed these men into a unique club, a fraternity where trust was not just to the program, nevertheless to themselves as individuals. When added up, these qualities become an air of confidence that demonstrates the trust they have in their own abilities as swell as the ability of the equipment and ground crews. The Right Stuff is the selfless sacrifice that a man commode make to risk his life for the advancement of his country with a simple and uncomplicated perseverance.The courage is present throughout the book with tales of space flights at the brink of human understanding and at speeds never out front tested. When Gordon make was landing a spacecraft, it seemed as if everything that could fail had fa iled. Electrical malfunctions and oxygen problems were staring at Cooper when he announces, Well... things are beginning to stack up a little, said Gordo. It was the same old superoxide dismutase hut drawl (408). In the face of impending disaster, Cooper was able to maintain his simple gray composure and as Wolfe says, ... Ol Gordo had shown the world the pure and righteous stuff (409).The men that possessed the right stuff we in an elite fraternity with men who also had the stuff. Never defined and never mentioned, it was an unspoken part that bound the men together. Wolfe writes of these qualities that transcended rank and position when he says, No, herein the world was divided into those that had it and those that did not. This quality, this it, was never named, however, nor was it talked near in any way (24). It was a club that required special credentials yet were undefined outside the minds of the men.When speaking of the right stuff, confidence naturally comes to mind. Y et, it was not the over boasted confidence of a prizefighter. These men held confidence in reserve to be demonstrated. John Glenn, the midwestern rock of stability in the program, was dense yet as Wolfe explains, When he got his back up, he was formidable. He was not to be trifled with. In his look burned four centuries of Dissenting Protestant fervor, nailed down by two million laps that his legs had pounded around the BBQ crusade (171). Glenn has the confidence that he needed to convince himself that he could succeed. He felt no desire to twinkle it or cheapen its value.The long hours of commitment to the program, the isolation, the hard work and grueling routine required sacrifice. promotion had sacrificed their privacy and the program placed them in a position to sacrifice their life. With unfaltering selflessness, time and again they would expose themselves to grave danger. Alan Shepards original foray into space was highlighted by a string of previous lift failures. The suspense of the outcome was magnified by publicity and Shepard offered up his entire life to pull the flight off. He turned over complete control as if a sacrificial lamb, and as Wolfe recounts, And because he had gone through with it. He let them light the fuse. He hadnt resigned. He hadnt even scared (269).Wolfes book has forever etched the right stuff into the fabric of American bravery. It is