47 pages • 1 hour read
Piers Paul ReadAlive
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1974A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaParts 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 10 Summary
On December 16, Canessa and Parrado ascend the mountain and aim for a valley on the other side. Their descent on the other side is difficult. Parrado tries to toboggan down a slope but struggles to control himself and crashes into a snowdrift. They reach the bottom of the mountain at noon of the sixth day of their journey. At the bottom of the mountain is a valley which they hope to follow to civilization. Canessa prays while he walks and struggles to keep up with Parrado. They make camp and set off again the next day. As Canessa continues to struggle, he imagines himself walking on the streets of Montevideo.
The two men reach the valley where the snow melts away and becomes a river. The valley is filled with flowers, birds, and lizards. Canessa and Parrado fall to their knees and pray. They rest a short while then follow the river along the valley. Canessa has to double back after leaving behind his sunglasses, and when he rejoins Parrado their journey is interrupted by a cliff in their path. They cross the river with great difficulty and then decide to rest. Canessa thinks he sees cows in a distant field, but it may be a mirage. Later, they find cow dung, a horseshoe, and then the cows themselves. Then they find a shelter and decide to stop for the night. Their supplies of meat have begun to rot so they start a fire and cook everything they have. They are sure that they will find people soon.
The next day, Canessa and Parrado discard any equipment they assume they will no longer need such as their sleeping bag and extra clothes. They set off again but walk for hours without meeting anyone. Eventually they arrive at a corral with stone walls and a gate. They stay the night beneath a grove of trees as Canessa, who is struck by a bout of severe diarrhea, is too weak to continue. After they light a fire, they hear someone shout. Three men on horseback are herding cows on the other side of the corral. Canessa and Parrado try to signal to the men, but the men ride away.
Both men awake early. They see a fire in the distance with people gathered around it. Parrado runs toward them, but a raging river separates him from the people. Parrado has to throw messages scrawled in lipstick on a piece of paper to a man on the other side of the river. He tries to explain his situation and begs for help. The Chilean man throws him a piece of bread and suggests that he will get help. Parrado returns with the bread to Canessa. They both believe they are saved. Hours later, a rider appears. He talks to the survivors and feeds them what he can, though he appears to be a poor man. While the Chilean man attends to his farm, the two Parrado and Canessa bury the rest of their human flesh. Canessa is placed on the man’s horse, and they begin the journey down the valley. Eventually, they arrive eventually at a modest house where they are welcomed in with food and milk. Canessa and Parrado eat as much as they can. They thank their hosts profusely and then sleep in beds. The date is December 21—70 days since the plane crash.
Part 11 Summary
The families of the missing passengers continue their search. Bad weather limits their ability to survey Curico. Another engine failure causes more delays. The downed flight is stuck in a remote town when a scattered radio broadcast informs them of the good news: “the plane’s been found” (167).
They wait anxiously for more news. Canessa’s father hears the news and breaks down in tears in the back of a taxi.
Part 12 Summary
Canessa and Parrado wake up in actual beds. They are still astonished to no longer be trapped in the Andes. They eat more and talk to their hosts. A man named Sergio Catalan has already been sent to the authorities with news that the plane crash victims are alive. Police officers arrive at the small cottage. Canessa and Parrado thank them all and reveal the whereabouts of the plane and the survivors. Men are dispatched to inform people in the Chilean capital that military aircraft will be needed to fetch the survivors. The next day, reporters desperate to speak to the survivors arrive at the small house. Shocked by the media interest, Canessa and Parrado speak to the press but omit "one or two details, notably about what they had eaten to stay alive" (174). Afterward, they set off for the nearest town on horseback and hear the sound of helicopters in the distance.
The initial news that the survivors have been found is met with skepticism in Chile. When the news is authenticated, the Chilean military steps up its efforts to recover anyone left alive. Helicopters are sent to the valley where Canessa and Parrado were discovered. Doctors examine the two men. Canessa is still deeply exhausted and can barely walk. They tell the military what they can about the location of the downed plane. Parrado offers to accompany the search team in the helicopters. He wants to reunite the two red shoes, just as he promised. Parrado sits in the helicopter and charts the entire journey down from the mountains. The pilot is shocked by Parrado’s insistence that they scaled the mountain. The helicopter is difficult to control at such altitude, but it pulls through. Eventually Parrado recognizes the surroundings and guides the helicopter to the crash site. The pilot tries to land.
Parts 10-12 Analysis
Canessa and Parrado never explicitly agree to omit the story of the cannibalism when they explain what happened to the survivors. They reach the same decision separately due to an innate understanding that society will not understand them. The people who judge the survivors will only be able to think about the matter in a safe, theoretical way. They will not be faced with the starvation and the threat of death which forced the men on the mountainside to break one of society’s oldest taboos. The survivors do not want to lie. They are aware of what they have done and they have come to terms with the moral weight of their actions. The decision to eat human meat was argued long into the night in the wreckage of the plane, and eventually everyone came to their own explanation of why it was justified. This explanation is impossible to explain to a parochial policeman or a member of the world’s press, especially so soon after rescue. Canessa and Parrado have only just returned to civilization but they are already forced to navigate the tricky moralities which separate society from the wilderness they have just left behind.
The families who search for the missing plane are constantly struck by bad luck. Planes break down, witnesses go missing, and people struggle to deal with the intricacies of planning a cross-border search of an inaccessible mountain range. For all of the bad fortune, however, the families also make terrible mistakes. They place their trust in the paranormal practitioners and spend a huge amount of time searching in all the wrong places. The psychics and the clairvoyants offer information which is unhelpful and actively distracts the searchers from more meaningful clues. The trust placed in the paranormal practitioners is not an example of bad luck but bad judgment. Were it not for the success of Canessa and Parrado’s expedition, the decision to trust the paranormal research could have cost the survivors their lives. The fine line between life and death is occasionally determined by luck but often by poor judgment.
Parrado reaches civilization and is saved from the mountains, but he faces one more threat to his life. He bravely agrees to be taken on the helicopter up the mountain to locate the survivors. Parrado has very recently crashed in an aircraft on the exact same mountain. The crash killed his mother and his sister while forcing him to do things he never could have imagined. Although the trauma and the pain of the crash are very recent, he feels obligated to his fellow survivors to make the trip. The helicopter hits a pocket of bad air and nearly crashes. Parrado is terrified. In a single moment, he is forced to relive his worst nightmare after only just escaping from it. Parrado’s bravery and his ill fortune are clear, but he manages to survive and save the other passengers, justifying his decision.
