The book “ true grit” contains a short story text called “Nando Parrado: The taste of Human flesh” is a short story that I would recommend towards an older audience who like to hear about the hardships that people have experienced. This text follows the story of Nando Parrado, who was a part of the Uruguay rugby team. Traveling over the ande’s mountain pass their plane had crashed in the mountain range and many were killed. Those who survived endured a cold hell, for a total of 72 days, which included cannibalism and extreme fatigue. An interesting character from the text was Nando Parrado because of his extreme resolve and stubbornness. One of the key messages in that text was to never give up hope. A faced extreme hardship and decisions such as cannibalism. It is a great and traumatic short story read for an older audience.

In the text “Nando parrado: The taste of Human flesh” A character I found very interesting was Nando Parrdado because of his resolve. Nando was part of the family, which includes his other and father and a little sister. Both his mother and his sister were passengers of the fatal plane crash to hell. His mother died instantly and his sister 9 days later. Nando was set on surviving saying “everything had been taken from me, except one thing: My father, back Uruguay,. I made a silent promise to myself that I would not allow myself to die here in the frozen waste of the Andes.” This shows an incredible amount of resolve to survive and live on. Nando did everything in his power to stay alive and not to back down on the promise he made it himself. This included that when someone had died or his family had died, he fought back tears because he knew that was going to lose salt and he need salt to survive, he battled unthinkable altitude sickness, which I have seen the effects of first hand. When all hope seems lost he was stubborn and showed such large amounts of resolve a did not allow himself to die. This resolve is something that an older or teenage person, such as year 12/ 13 students could learn from. That even when you seem to have lost everything that you must resolve to pull yourself back from your lowest points and grow stronger. For example the recent all blacks, loss to England. This looks would devastated them but like Nando, they must show resolve and dig deep and come back even stronger than they were before. That is why I find Nando Parrado an interesting character and why I would recommend this text to and older audience as well as some mature young adults/teenagers.

“Nando parrado: The taste of Human flesh” is text which demonstrates a great message of never giving up hope. The plane crash threw this Uruguay rugby team into the pits of frozen hell. Here they struggled to survive even for a few days and made desperate contact to try a search for rescuers. After surviving nine days of cold, rationed food and resources they had managed to get a radio working, here the only faced further troubles though, they heard that their rescue has been searched up and was impossible to find survivors. Morale everything when trying to survive, and after facing many more adversities such as this one Nando and his friends somehow managed to never give in or give up and believed there was a way to survive, a way to reach their goal. After scaling one of the highest 17 000 ft peaks in the Andes, in an attempt to find civilization they still saw nothing but endless packs but Nando and his one other friend, made the journey to head towards the direction of melted peaks. After scaling something that big and still seeing no nope they still never gave up and never lost hope, they found a man walking, after 10 days for searching. Eventually, these allowed all 14 people still back the plane site to be rescued. 16 out of 45 in the plane survived for 72 days. This can teach year 12 and 13 students to never give in life and never give up on your goal. For example aiming to achieve an excellence endorsement for the year or a subject, even if it means getting expense in the rest of every single assessment they have left, if they work hard and never give up on trying to achieve they will get there in the end, That is an important message from the text and why I would recommend it to another year 12 and 13 students. 

In the text “Nando parrado: The taste of Human flesh” A challenge faced by the people in the story is cannibalism. It was 9 days after their crash, their food supplies had run out after about a week and no amount of water was going to bring them back from the brink of starvation. There was only one option they could have taken if they wanted to survive. They were going to have to eat the dead bodies of those already dead, their corpses were well preserved after sitting in the cold. They took strips of flesh ripped apart by glass shards, They had try their best not to think of it as people only as of the meat it was hard, with no flavor. After surviving the 72 days Many people accused them and said what they did was wrong, and would have been right to die. However, Nando had said “ In one of our darkest moments, the survivors made a pact with each other. If any of them died, they permitted for others to eat their bodies. Because they know that in eating the meat of there wasn’t showing a disregard for human life. They were showing just how precious it is.” This shows that did not disrespect their friends that had passed, They rather showed that it was so precious there were willing to do anything they could to cling to is even though an unimaginably harsh environment did its best to rip it from them. Cannibalism is not something that can relate or inspire young adults and teenagers in year 12 and 13 but instead to have a releasing of how precious life is, and your life can change with a snap of a finger just like Nando’s did. This can teach us to be grateful for what we have and how we are blessed where we live in the safe town of Wanaka. Also to cherish our friends, as their life is something important to you as well, That is why the challenges that the people went through is something that should be read by other year1 and 13 students.

In conclusion, The short story text “Nando parrado: The taste of Human flesh” is enticing nonfiction story shared by bear Grylls. This story shows why Nando is an interesting person with great resolve, as well as he demonstrates a message across by sharing his troy that you should never give up. Humans always find a way to live and will never do anything to disregard their closest friends. This why the short nonfiction story is something I would recommend for another year 12 and 13 students to read.