"Conflict"

The first section of this chapter, "Deal with anger in small doses", stood out to me because I usually allow lots of small things to pile up and then  I usually end up exploding when I overflow with anger, which is a really bad thing... If I am able to deal with the small doses of anger each time, I feel like I would be able to handle my anger better. 

It is scary to think how severe environments can make a person overact in a certain way, like in the Karluk expedition. Stealing is obviously not an action that would be forgiven in regular circumstances, but I think killing because of theft would only happen when people are put in such extreme situations without a proper leader to help smooth out the conflict. Shackleton, being able to learn from the mistakes of other leaders, became a role model for his crew and knew that he had "to set an example in dealing with the inevitable tensions and strains caused by the close quarters and the physical and emotional stress suffered by the crew members" (115). I liked how the book talked about Frank Wild, not just Shackleton, and how he was able to keep the rest of the crew settled on Elephant Island, when Shackleton and some of the other men left. With the main leader gone, I imagine it must have been a lot of pressure for Wild to keep everyone under control and as comfortable as possible without much information on Shackleton's whereabouts. 

When I read that Shackleton was actually known to have been short tempered (115), I was very surprised because the actions he took on this expedition make him look like a very calm, friendly, and optimistic man. Allowing the ones who do not get along very well with the others (or already have problems) to bunk with him was very smart. Although, if I was in his position, I probably would have felt it to have been like sacrificing myself so that my crew did not have to deal with those people. Taking these troublemakers to South Georgia made him have more to deal with, even though he must have actually been very stressed ever since they shared tents on the island. I wonder how Shackleton dealt with all of this stress if he was known for being a short tempered man.  Personally, I think that I am not one who gets stressed or angry very easily, but when small things pile up too much, I either have a meltdown or just explode. I feel like Shackleton, who seems like he sacrificed a lot for his team and the expedition itself, would have had these small things pile up too. It seems like he was taking most of the stress in by allowing to let his crew live in peace, but he's human too right? Did he not explode at one point  during the expedition from the stress and anger piled up inside him?