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Discussion Questions On Into Thin Air By Jon Krakauer

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Part I: Précis
Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, is an adventure novel that takes place near and in the surrounding areas of Mount Everest in the spring of 1996. The main characters of this book are two profoundly different “people”: Jon Krakauer, the protagonist, and the beautiful, yet notoriously deadly Mount Everest, the antagonist. Conflict arises as each member of the climbing groups set foot on Everest; this would be the ultimate test of endurance and self-preservation as every one of them knows how unpredictable the mountain can become. Jon Krakauer, an avid mountaineer and reporter, receives a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to climb Mount Everest and write about his experiences as he ascends to the top of the world. As the elated …show more content…

Explain the different ways that Jon Krakauer faces situation where he must go “into thin air”, both literally and figuratively.
2. After Krakauer arrives back to the States, he recollects memories of the descent from the summit and starts blaming himself for the tragedies that occurred, “My actions- or failure to act- played a direct role in the death of Andy Harris. And while Yasuko Namba lay dying on the South Col, I was a mere 350 yards away, huddled inside a tent, oblivious to her struggle, concerned only with my own safety”(283).
Is this guilt Krakauer feels a consequence of his negligence or only for surviving against all odds?
3. How did the Sherpa’s belief in the goddess of the sky, Sagarmatha, play a significant role in how actions were done on the mountain? Is there any way to better prepare oneself for a disaster that is inevitable in an expedition like …show more content…

Before arriving at Base Camp, Krakauer was not the most experienced climber, only venturing at barely the altitude of Base Camp, but still possesed the dream he had when he was younger to summit Everest. He writes, “None of the climbs I’d done in the past, moreover, had taken me to even moderately high altitude. Truth be told, I’d never been higher than 17,200 feet- not even as high as Everest Base Camp” (28). Following the unspeakable events that happened on his group’s descent, Krakauer’s naivety to death has been shattered with his words, “Mortality had remained a conveniently hypothetical concept, an idea to ponder in the aspect. Sooner or later the divestiture of such a privileged innocence was inevitable, but when it finally happened the shock was magnified by the sheer superfluity of the carnage…” (283). Even months after his trip to the roof of the world, Krakauer is emotionally scarred and expresses it through this statement, “Not even in sleep is there respite: images from the climb and its aftermath continues to permeate my dreams” (296). As a result of the disaster on the mountain that spring, the author himself, Krakauer, has seen a side of nature never confronted by him before and realizes how precious a human life actually

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As the team ascends to camp one they face there first route or area known as Icefall. It’s given this name due too a large glacier that moves everyday, it also forces the climbers to use dangerous roping techniques that cause them to ascend parts of Icefall independently and not roped to other climbers for support. Once at the top of camp one, Krakauer tries to help one of the sherpa move some equipment up quickly realizes that all physical labor is a heavy and difficult burden on the body. Krakauer later summits to camp two and finds that his body is even weaker the higher up he is. At camp three the winds are very high and temperatures are below zero at night.

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Into Thin Air Novelist, Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air, recounts the catastrophe that happened on Mount Everest, at the top of the world. There are many factors that led to the final conclusion of the tragedy on May 10, 1996. It’s impossible to know how different courses of action could have changed the outcome of those desperate hours, but there were things done that made the rescue more problematic. Rob Hall’s actions directly affected the success of the climbing expedition. Rob Hall was the head guide of Adventure Consultants, the climbing group that Jon Krakauer was assigned to.

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, 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

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In the month of May 1996, a huge climbing disaster occurred atop the world’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest. This disaster took the lives of many people from several expeditions who were climbing to the summit after a deadly blizzard struck the expedition. However, there are many perspectives on what happened on the day of the disaster including Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Anatoli Boukreev’s The Climb. The catastrophe revealed the ethos, pathos, and logos of Krakauer and Boukreev, but there are many arguments on who is more credible. In conclusion, despite the experience and knowledge of Anatoli Boukreev, Jon Krakauer’s knowledge, character, and goodwill made him a more credible person in this dispute.

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While reading this narrative, I felt a strong familiarity with the characters and their extreme dedication to reach a difficult goal despite the difficulties. Earlier in the year, my life was changed entirely when I tore my ACL in a sudden accident. I had no choice but to receive an intrusive and painful surgery that would take over a year to recover. Although the pain and emotions often affected my recovery, I remained dedicated to my one true goal, which was to return to my everyday activities. I refused to give up and I worked countless hours to strengthen and heal myself through physical therapy.

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In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer tries to address the controversy surrounding the McCandless case. This controversy comes from the argument between those who believe McCandless was a tragic hero, looking for life away from the materialistic and corrupt states of current civilizations, and those who believe he was a total idiot. In the novel itself, it is evident that McCandless did not plan to die, and that he was simply seeking self fulfillment. With this, the argument that John Krakauer actually makes is that McCandless was a total idiot, but Krakauer, wanting to stay at least somewhat objective in his journalism, does not come out and say so directly. Krakauer instead makes this argument by showing readers the harsh reality of the wild with

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Chapters 14 & 15 explained Krakauer’s personal expedition to Devil’s Thumb. I learned a lot about Krakauer’s personal life and the factors contributing to his journey. After reading his personal experience, I understood his compassion for Chris McCandless 's life and journey and why he wrote Into The Wild. Krakauer explains how he had such devotion to climb Devil’s Thumb, but I interpreted this as him being type of guy who sets his mind to a task and then is extremely driven to accomplish it.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

Christopher McCandless, the protagonist of the novel and film Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, is not your average guy. Driven by his minimalist ideals and hate for society, he challenged the status quo and embarked on a journey that eventually lead to his unforeseen demise. A tragic hero, defined by esteemed writer, Arthur Miller, is a literary character who makes an error of judgment or has a fatal flaw that, combined with fate and external forces, brings on tragedy. Christopher McCandless fulfills the role of Miller’s tragic hero due to the fact that his tragic flaw of minimalism and aversion towards society had lead him to his death.

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1827 Words | 8 Pages

It was a dangerous climb, “I put a foot through a snow bridge spanning a slot so deep I couldn’t see the bottom of it….I bent over double with dry heaves, thinking about what it would be like to be lying in a pile at the bottom of the crevasse, waiting for death to come, with nobody aware of how or where I’d met my end” (Krakauer, 139). Krakauer survived that climb and managed to reach his destination which some may think was an act of bravery, but only because he survived. The inclusion of his experience is the use of ethos, he has personal experience which he uses to convince the audience that he is reliable and his opinion should be considered worthy. If the reader doesn’t think he was insane, why should they assume McCandless was.

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801 Words | 4 Pages

Julia Deegan July 22nd 2016 English 9 Was Chris McCandless a raving idealist, with a disjointed belief on how life was to be lived or was he a young man with a yearning for the wild, and a need to quench his thirst for adventure? Though many would argue otherwise I believe our protagonist was more the later of the two. McCandless was simply haunted by an impractical existence that would allow him to live his life to its fullest. Unlike many people and the mainstream American way of being, the feelings of security, stability, and safety never called to him. Rather, he rejected those wants with a want of his own; to go through life from adventure to adventure never knowing what was next, never having enough confidence in what was to come.

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For as long as anyone can remember, people have dreamed of reaching the summit of Mt. Everest. During May of 1996, an expedition set out to Nepal to attempt a climb up Mt. Everest. By the end of this expedition to the top of Everest, many climbers lost their lives due to the brutal weather. In Jon Krakauer’s novel Into Thin Air, he takes readers through the story of the expedition, and he talks about the climbers who died. Among the list of the dead was a man named Doug Hansen.

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532 Words | 3 Pages

Drifts piled up around me. My feet became numb. A damp chill crept down my chest from the base of my neck, where spindrift had gotten inside my parka and soaked my shirt.” (p. 151, Krakauer) When Krakauer was up on the mountain, freezing to death, his mind did not rush to extreme instincts, unlike someone with much less of a mind would have. The wilderness state of mind

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1566 Words | 7 Pages

“The Devil’s Thumb” and “Everest” Perhaps there is one accomplishment everyone needs to feel complete whether that is something along the lines of making an advancement in something say cancer, and while that may be true others have what may seem to be a little more trivial goals and not as illusory when compared to one extravagant as that. In this case, John Krakauer sets out to try and make something meaningful with his life by climbing The Devil’s Thumb in “The Devil’s Thumb.” Some may regard this dream of one that is of a gratuitous or even a spurious one because there is not any real reason why he feels like this will help him to feel accomplished in life other than the fact that it is something he has never tried to do before. Similarly, Erik Weihenmayer sets out to do to the same thing as Krakauer with Mount Everest

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607 Words | 3 Pages

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. Knowing that any person in the world can climb Mount Everest is amazing. In the novel Into Thin Air written by Jon Krakauer, climbers climb to the highest point of the world. Some everyday people like Jon Krakauer, who is an author hired to write an article about Mount Everest for an adventure magazine and Doug Hansen who is a postal worker climbing Mount Everest for the second time.

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721 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the novel Into Thin Air, written by Jon Krakauer, the Everest climbers constantly faced with challenges that came along with their expedition; whether it be lack of oxygen, inability to keep pace with time schedule, weather conditions, etcetera. Every year, every expedition will be unpredictable meaning the outcome of people’s survival is based on the individual’s ability to react appropriately to danger. Since each expedition’s results are uncertain, the guides and clients will be forced to make decisions under pressure when an obstacle obstructs their path. Under pressure, the margin for error begins to decrease. Unfortunately, in circumstances like these, humans are bound to make a mistake since it is a part of human nature.

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