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Who Is Mark Watney A Complex Character

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As is the case with most stories, the complex character in The Martian is also the main character, Mark Watney. A complex character is a character that changes throughout whatever story is being told, whether it be their personality, their appearance, et cetera. Authors develop complex characters to make them more realistic - most people in the real world are complex. No one stays the same for their entire life. Mark Watney is the complex character in The Martian because he has to be to survive. That’s just one of his many astounding traits.

It’s not obvious at first that Watney is a complex character. While he is constantly adapting to his challenges, his personality and outlook on the situation remain fairly consistent throughout the book. Watney is always running into a new obstacle he must overcome and while he takes them all in stride, he must use his mind to create a solution for everything that comes his way. The theme of The Martian is that humanity will do anything to survive. Watney embodies this theme as he spends the entire book attempting to live through the disaster of being left alone on Mars for years. …show more content…

He has a dry sense of humor and a positive, yet realistic outlook on his situation. He makes do with what he’s got and doesn’t complain. Things couldn’t get much worse for anyone, and yet, he still manages to get up every day and do what he needs to do to live. That ties in with the theme of humanity and survival. It’s a basic instinct for living things to want and try to survive in dangerous

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