What theme is common to the two excerpts below? . . . His theory of running until he reached camp and the boys had one flaw in it: he lacked the endurance. Several times he stumbled, and finally he tottered, crumpled up, and fell. When he tried to rise, he failed. He must sit and rest, he decided, and next time he would merely walk and keep on going. As he sat and regained his breath, he noted that he was feeling quite warm and comfortable. He was not shivering, and it even seemed that a warm glow had come to his chest and trunk. And yet, when he touched his nose or cheeks, there was no sensation. Running would not thaw them out. Nor would it thaw out his hands and feet. Then the thought came to him that the frozen portions of his body must be extending. He tried to keep this thought down, to forget it, to think of something else; he was aware of the panicky feeling that it caused, and he was afraid of the panic. But the thought asserted itself, and persisted, until it produced a vision of his body totally frozen. (Jack London, To Build a Fire) Presently the boat also passed to the left of the correspondent with the captain clinging with one hand to the keel. He would have appeared like a man raising himself to look over a board fence, if it were not for the extraordinary gymnastics of the boat. The correspondent marvelled that the captain could still hold to it. They passed on, nearer to shore—the oiler, the cook, the captain—and following them went the water-jar, bouncing gayly over the seas. The correspondent remained in the grip of this strange new enemy—a current. The shore, with its white slope of sand and its green bluff, topped with little silent cottages, was spread like a picture before him. It was very near to him then, but he was impressed as one who in a gallery looks at a scene from Brittany or Algiers. He thought: "I am going to drown? Can it be possible? Can it be possible? Can it be possible?" Perhaps an individual must consider his own death to be the final phenomenon of nature." (Stephen Crane The Open Boat)

2. read the excerpt from martin luther king, jr.'s nobel peace prize acceptance speech: i accept this award today with an abiding faith in america and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. i refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. i refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. i refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. i refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. i refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. i believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. this is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. i believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. i believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. i have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. i believe that what self-centered men have torn down other-centered men can build up. i still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of god and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "and the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." i still believe that we shall overcome! instructions: create an outline for a speech that connects a theme from this excerpt to your own life. in the first part of the outline, organize an explanation of what king's theme means. in the second part of the outline, organize your explanation of how this theme connects to at least one event from your life. the first and second parts of your outline do not need to be of equal length. throughout the outline, be sure to cite or describe specific evidence from the text or from your personal experiences. also, organize ideas appropriately, develop your argument with relevant information, and provide a concluding section. (15 points)