ipl-logo

Blind To Failure By Erik Weihenmayer

425 Words2 Pages

In “Blind to Failure”, Erik Weihenmayer has many good character traits. Particularly he is extraordinary, brave, and very committed. To begin, Erik proves himself to be extraordinary when he decides to take on a great challenge, disregarding his disability, and his reasoning was “I knew that if I went and failed, that would feel better if I didn’t go at all.”(277) I consider this to be extraordinary because not only does he climb Everest, but he is also blind. Additionally, in the excerpt, Erik mentions how he does not let his disability hold him back. Ordinarily, a blind man doesn’t choose an intricate, complex task because they rely on patterns, but Erik decides to take on a task that almost guarantees to need sight. Second, I characterize …show more content…

When Erik lost his sense of sight, he went through denial. Erik would not use Braille and refused to get a cane because he was embarrassed of something he could not control. This may seem minor to people who cannot understand what he went through, but making this transition was immense to his everyday lifestyle. Not only did Erik return to a lifestyle that became his new normal, he also found ways to use his loss as an advantage. Erik says “I realized that I could take sighted people and slam them down on the mat.”(276). This shows how brave Erik is because not only did he overcome something that was holding him back, he also found a way to fit in. Undoubtedly, Erik is a wildly committed man. Erik gives positive encouragement to his team throughout the whole trip. Surely, this is an example of him being committed because he must have been terrified, but he pushed it aside and encouraged the rest of the team. “ He was the the heart and soul of the team. The guys spirit won’t let you quit.”(274) said Eric Alexzander, a climbing partner. He also shows how committed he is when he explains how being carried to the top of the mountain is not what he wants. He describes that even though he is bloody and does not feel well, he would still be a fully useful member of the

Show More
Related
513 Words | 3 Pages

Many of them are inexperienced and would undoubtedly never make it to the top without a guide. The one unifying characteristic shared by all of the climbers is that they have money—enough to shell out $65,000 a piece for their shot at the top. Krakauer spends long chapters giving his best, most educated guesses about why climbers made certain decisions, and what happened to the people who disappeared. This is an exercise that must result in major frustration, as no one can be entirely sure what took place. Many mistakes later, Krakauer manages to piece together an outline of what happened to whom and when during the climb, but the questions he struggles with in almost every situation are "why" and "how".

Read More
974 Words | 4 Pages

, it is important to note that the characters portrayed in this book are real people. The unique conditions and the weather of the setting forced the climbers to make choices that they could not have made in a different situation. The tough choices made by the climbers and the setting influenced the result of the story. Krakauer’s tone for the most part is respectful toward the guides and climbers, and he narrates as objectively as possible, while including his own concerns and doubts. His tone in the beginning expresses excitement and nervousness, but later turns into

Read More
459 Words | 2 Pages

All in all, the author manages to balance out his appeal to emotion with the intense sequences of his journey up Mount Everest. Describing how sad he was when he saw his teammates buried in the snow ice cold, and also rescuing one of his teammates, only to see him die a few minutes later from severe

Read More
659 Words | 3 Pages

Erik’s father was so into the “Erik fisher football dream” that he did not realize that Erik is the reason that Paul is halfway blind. Erik thought that Paul told on his friend and he got in trouble “ You’re going to have to pay for telling on Castor. You told who sprayed paint on the wall, and Castor got into trouble. Castor doesn’t like getting into trouble….. And I remember Erik’s fingers prying my eyelids open while Vincent Castor sprayed white paint into them.”

Read More
564 Words | 3 Pages

In the movies, the blind moved slowly and never laughed. Sometimes they were led by seeing eye dogs. A blind man in my house was not something I looked forward to.” This is a common stereotype that the narrator uses in the story leading his character down a path of misunderstanding.

Read More
176 Words | 1 Pages

The central idea of the story is to never let anything stand in your way of doing what you love. Amare Leggette is an 8 year old boy, who has been blind his whole life. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, and attends Charlotte’s Eastover Elementary school. To start off, Amare began his love for reading and education at a very young age (not letting his problem of being blind get in the way). He could talk in full sentences just at the age of three, and could name all the 50 states at age five!

Read More
484 Words | 2 Pages

Surviving Death World War II began on September 1, 1939. Hitler believed that because of the Jewish population, Germany lost World War I. Hitler also believed that the only way to restore Germany and as well as avoid losing was by torturing and killing Jews. Hitler's inhumanity towards the Jews was the cause of this mass murder that killed 11 million innocent people. About six million out of eleven million Jews were killed. This was later called the Holocaust.

Read More
1375 Words | 6 Pages

The narrator placed himself in Robert’s shoes and realized how inaccurate his perception about Robert was. By sketching a Cathedral, they were drawing a piece of art that represents a collaboration closer to sight. By sharing an intimate experience, Robert the physically blind man was able to help the unnamed narrator, metaphorically blinded prejudice man see his errors in his conscious and see things

Read More
1642 Words | 7 Pages

Murphy lacks mobility and sensation in his lower body other than the feeling of occasional muscle spasms, and has limited movement in his upper body below the neck including his arms. Murphy writes the story as it recounts events throughout his entire life, from childhood onwards. He was sixty-two when he wrote the novel. The story provides Murphy’s anthropological commentary on the life of a person with a disability and how society views and treats people with disabilities (Murphy, 1990). Murphy’s performance patterns both support and inhibit his occupational engagement.

Read More
1249 Words | 5 Pages

In Gavin Carter’s article Between Nothing and Everything, he said “Why people climb mountains is the subject of frequent speculation, and once one steers clear of the red herring ‘because it’s there’, one tends to land on the notion that it has something to do with constructing, embodying and communicating meaning- for oneself or for others” (15). Since this quote talks about how someone either climbs Everest for themselves or someone else for a personally reason, it fits Doug because he climbs Everest for himself. Since Doug climbs Everest because he did not reach the peak the previous year, he proves that he only wants to climb Everest for himself. Ever since the day he could not reach the summit of Everest, Doug only thinks about climbing to the summit of Everest, and fights through extreme injuries (like the frozen larynx and frostbite) to reach the summit. In a way, Everest is a part of Doug because the thought of Everest never left him, and he died after reaching the one goal

Read More
913 Words | 4 Pages

People have had a penchant for seeking thrills for a long time. Whether it is skiing fast, base jumping, or racing, people have been chasing the rush of adrenaline and the feeling of accomplishment from participating in such activities. Mountain climbing has been one of these thrills that people have participated in for years. The arduous task of scaling a mountain has mesmerized people and inspired them to climb it seeking fame and accolades. But is also inspires them to challenge themselves and prove to themselves that they can do anything.

Read More
910 Words | 4 Pages

“His being blind bothered me” (Carver 1). In Raymond Carver’s short story Cathedral, Carver establishes an ignorant narrator, who is dependent on alcohol and fixated upon physical appearance; he juxtaposes the narrator to a blind man who sees with his heart rather than his eyes. Through indirect characterization, Carver contrasts the narcissistic narrator to the intuitive blind man while utilizing sight as a symbol of emotional understanding. He establishes the difference between looking and seeing to prove that sight is more than physical.

Read More
178 Words | 1 Pages

After finishing reading Wolfe’s essay, I found some parts of his essay are tough to understand, but several ideas this essay introduces are interesting. He states that blindness could be a unique form of abled-ness. People with disability in visual system ironically have more access to the truth, while on the other hand, normal people with intact eyes are blind. His interpretation of normality as inferiority really intrigues me. From my understanding, the weakness and blindness that normal people possess are actually inside of humanity.

Read More
917 Words | 4 Pages

However, the story takes an unpredicted and meaningful turn at the end when the narrator see things from a blind man’s standpoint. Since the beginning of the story, the narrator does not like the idea of having in his house a blind man. He does not know how to socialize with blind people because his idea of blindness came from the movies. He thinks blind people move slowly and they never laugh.

Read More
860 Words | 4 Pages

“I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And being blind bothered me” (104) The narrator has no knowledge of experiencing seeing a blind person. “My idea of blindness came from the movies” (104).

Read More

More about Blind To Failure By Erik Weihenmayer

Related Topics

Open Document