Bird Dream
By: Matt Higgins
Synthesis Page
The focus of my synthesis page is “Who has ‘power’ in your text?”.
In the text Jeb Corliss (the main character) has the most power because he has become one of the best BASE jumpers and wingsuit flyers in the world. Since he was a boy he has been wanting to fly. One day he saw a group of guys BASE jump on TV, this inspired him to start BASE jumping. While BASE jumping he learned about another sport very similar to BASE, which used wingsuits (Suits that give you a wing to fly on). Jeb first made himself famous when he flew through the Tianmen Shan, a place in China which is a big hole in a mountain that is a popular tourist attraction. “Jeb’s flight through Tianmen Shan was viewed, they said, by tens of millions on Chinese TV.” (Higgins, Location 3176) Next, his goal was to be the first person to land with a wingsuit and without a parachute. Now, this is not as easy as it sounds because wingsuits normally fly at around 120 mph and the average wingsuit can fly, at its slowest, at about 70 mph. Imagine how it would feel to land on the hard ground going 70 mph.
Jeb is not the only person that wants to land a wingsuit and without a parachute. In the text there are a few other groups of people that would like to land without a parachute. Since Jeb is so famous in the BASE jumping and wingsuit world he is the one with “power”. For example, “‘With Jeb going in, all sorts of chat surfaced that others would attempt a landing soon, Mark would recall.” (Higgins, location 3528) (Mark is part of one of the groups that is also trying to land a wingsuit) This quote shows that Jeb is the one that everyone is competing against, he is the one with “power”
Jeb gave the others an opportunity to complete the landing before him when he crashed while doing a BASE jump for HBO. In this crash it looked from the outside as if Jeb had been killed, but when the rescuers came to him he was in a survivable condition. “X-rays revealed that Jeb had broken both ankles. The right ankle requiring pins. His left knee sustained ligament damage. And beneath the gaping wound on his right shin was a broken fibula.” Higgins, Location. 3415) With Jeb being in the hospital the others were given the chance to develop their plans and complete their landings before he could. Jeb has a very good chance of completing his landing before anyone else because he is so skilled. “Jeb is rapidly becoming or already is extraordinary. He’s unique. He’s extremely skilled and has an amazing perspective on this sort of thing.” (Higgins, Location 3441) With “this sort of thing” the author means wingsuit flight.
Although Jeb is famous in the BASE jumping world, I had never heard anything about him until I came across this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fAvbqQWRW I had seen this video a few years ago, but when I started reading the book I didn’t realize it was him in the video. I made the connection when I read about his jump through Tianmen Shan. On YouTube there are a few videos of him doing his jumps.
I think that the author chose to show two different perspectives, one being Jeb Corliss and the other being Gary Connery and Mark Sutton. Although Jeb is the main character, the author shows that he has power because Gary and Mark have to race to be able to be the first to land a wingsuit without a parachute. This race is not only a race of skill but also of technology, each team has to design the best wingsuit that can achieve to highest glide ratio (The longest amount of distance covered by the least amount of distance dropped) and the slowest flight. Like Mr.Streko taught us without competition products don’t become better.
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