Joe Simpson Touching The Void

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson is an extraordinary biography that has numerous meaningful and significant themes and lessons embedded in it. It is indeed an extremely engaging and captivating book that continuously engages the reader throughout the story. Touching the Void is indeed a survival story. Joe’s memoir is about his journey with Simon Yates to climb the West Face of Mount Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes, which had not been done before. Despite being a book about climbing, it contains many life lessons. A huge question that the book poses is self preservation versus moral values. A situation is placed, in which Simon must choose between his own life or Joe’s. Joe and Simon are both alpine climbers. According to The American

Simon cuts Joe’s rope and leaves him to practically die. This is most likely the most captivating part of the story. It is also a very controversial moment in the book. Many people do not agree with Simon’s decision of cutting the rope, while some do. Joe does mention at the end of this book that he has written this memoir to loosen up hate from others towards Simon and his decision of cutting the rope. Joe surprisingly supports Simon’s decision of cutting the rope. Simon claims he cut the rope for the sake of his own survival, and Joe said he would have done the same if he was put in the same situation as Simon. If Simon were to pick his companionship with Joe, he would be endangering his own life to save

Should one risk their life for the sake of someone else’s? When put into perspective, it is a human survival instinct to put their own life before anyone else’s. The website, “Changing Minds”, address human survival instinct, “Most of us, however, would think twice about sacrificing ourselves, as the instinct for self-preservation takes priority over the cognitive choice of sacrifice” ("Self-Sacrificing For an Ideal"). However, it may be against morality or one’s moral values. Despite idolizing saving someone else’s life before their own, human survival instincts will restrict oneself to risk their own subconscious instinct to survive. On page 1412, Simon justifies “I was alive, and for the moment that was all I could think about. Where Joe was, or whether he was alive, didn't concern me in the long silence after the cutting. His weight had gone from me” (Pg. 1412). As stated by Simon himself, his survival was his first priority. He was not concerned about Joe’s well being. Joe also talks about the moment when “I was looking at him when I cried out. He remained expressionless, and continued to lower me. He had no time for sympathy.” (Pg. 1191). As Joe explains, Simon showed no sympathy for Joe. Sympathy is shown when moral values are considered. In this case, Simon did not care about moral values at this point. The only thing that he considered was saving his life opposed to someone