A Comparison between ‘Second Wind’ and ‘Alive!’

I have been working on a piece of Drama called ‘Alive! ‘ based on the story of a South American team being stranded in the Andes for days desperately trying to stay alive, living on little rations and hope with the group having many mixed emotions in the dilemma at hand. I will be comparing this with the novel ‘Second Wind’ which is a thrilling novel about two BBC meteorologists wanting to go into the heart of a hurricane in the States but crash on a isolated Caribbean island.
The Historic period of both pieces is very similar as both are quite contemporary being set in the 1970’s, we can see that it is very contemporary in ‘Alive! ‘ through the clothes we wear. But there are differences like ‘Alive! ‘ being set in the Andes and ‘Second Wind’ being set in the Caribbean. Our piece is set over a period of a few months but ‘Second Wind’ is set over many months, possibly a year or so. The Society in the two pieces is very different but do have a few similarities with ‘Alive! having young inexperienced youths trying to survive in a desolate mountain range, for example we have the characters that have very different views, people who want to survive like Antonio and escape the mountains and then there are other pessimistic views like Eduardo who think that they are already doomed and there is no hope at all of them surviving, we se this in the scene when the group decide that no one is coming to rescue them and he declares he knew this all along.
And in ‘Second Wind’ we have characters like Michael and Perry who want to escape the Island while helping other people to survive this is very similar to Antonio taking the lead of the group and helping others to survive until help arrives. But like Eduardo Kathy in ‘Second Wind’ she to thinks that they are all doomed. In ‘Second Wind’ the characters are split with the meteorologists and the rest of the crew and the entrepreneurs on the other side.

In our piece there is some division between within the group but they manage to stick together and get rescued. There are many similarities in the style of both pieces, firstly the most obvious is the tragedy of being wrecked in an abandoned place where no one ever visiting meaning less chance of survival. Both pieces show naturalism within them as both pieces reflect the effect on a deserted island or mountain range, as in ‘Alive! there is lots feelings of lost hope, but in ‘Second Wind’ there is a lot calm reflection we can see this as lots of times we have Perry thinking back to when he was young and playing with his grandmother this reflection can also be seen in ‘Alive! ‘ as there monologues that refer to the thoughts and memories to the stranded victims, this made him happy and forget his dilemma, but he would also come back to realisation.
But we must take into account that ‘Second Wind’ is a novel so lots of creative techniques like reflection would help the reader feel the effect of the crash, but in ‘Alive! we use sound and lighting effects this helps visualize the piece, also with a dramatic piece you can see the characters and be drawn into them and feel part of the scene. To conclude there are many similarities between the two pieces such as the historic period, a bit of society and the style. There is also the huge similar theme of a tragedy due to a plane crash on an unfamiliar place. But there still is the difference on ‘Alive! ‘ being a dramatic performance and ‘Second Wind’ a novel so it is difficult to compare.