Disorientation leads to knowledge. Man can learn from being in a situation that is unfamiliar to him. No matter what one learns from a teacher, a parent, or a book, the only way to ever learn something is to experience it. Whether it is a job, sport, or learning survival, in order to learn from events such as these, a person must experience them. The novel Deliverance is a great example on how disorientation leads to knowledge. All four characters leave their trip with different beliefs. They all change their initial feelings of disorientation.
             Lewis's belief is based on doing. He states, "...it's not going to be what your title says you do, but what you end up doing." In this quote Lewis is talking about survival. He says that the only thing that matters in a survival scenario is what a person is capable of, not his position. Lewis believes that survival depends on the human body and he wants to be physically prepared. "I decided that survival was not in the rivets and the metal, and not in the double-sealed doors and not in the marbles of Chinese checkers. It was in me." Although he adopted this idea as his article of faith, he later fails to live up to its standards. Lewis prepares for this type of scenario a large portion of his life. He trains his body by weight lifting in order to be physically able to handle what comes his way. He thinks his body is ready for this test, yet he fails by breaking his leg in the rapids. This injury sets back Lewis physically as well as mentally. His thoughts on survival are wrong, and his accident makes him reevaluate the factors that are involved in survival. His belief in the human body is disproved as he learns from his experience.
             Although Lewis believes in doing, Ed believes in sliding. "I am a get-through-the-day man...I'm mainly interested in sliding." Ed lives life by avoiding everyday confrontation and st...