Jon Krakauer's Guilt In Into The Wild

Guilt is an emotion that weighs the heaviest, and lingers the longest. Those who have encountered it in the past may recall that it is a devoid expanse that seems to permeate every part of your being. It’s only natural that Jon Krakauer felt such traces of guilt, because it once was all he knew, and that's hard to forget.He was a climber at heart, and the sprawling snow-capped mountains will always be burned into his memory. Even from the introduction one could tell that he was simply another mountaineer who loved climbing, and was put in a devastating situation. In writing this book, he wanted to portray all angles of the horrific incident, and let the readers assess for themselves what happened. Of course, Krakauer did not control the weather,

Krakauer trusted the abilities of those around him, and only mildly questioned them towards the end, when it was too late. It’s not such a horrible thing to respect those who were clearly superior to you, so that is yet another reason why he shouldn’t feel guilt. Only afterwards when he was ruminating about the predicament is when it occurred to him that even they might make mistakes and be in trouble. Growing up, everyone has a figure that appears to do no wrong- it’s how we naturally classify things. Moreover, when embarking on something as unnerving as Everest, it’s comforting to look up to others for guidance. Krakauer put faith in Hall’s words, and agreed with what he’d say. This was demonstrated towards the latter part of their ascent, where he had to restrain himself several times from going too far ahead. He harbored a bit of resentment, but still had immense amount of respect for Hall’s decisions. Building on that, Hall hadn’t even followed his own strict turn around times, which was completely out of Krakauer’s control. He himself had followed Hall’s directions, and shouldn’t feel guilty about doing the right thing. Had he have stayed longer up on the summit, or lingered around for no particular reason, he would have been a hazard to others around him. There were also a million other reasons that just added up to make the entire situation worse. As Hall had said earlier on in the book, “I think it’s pretty unlikely that we’ll get through this season without something bad happening up high. (Krakauer, Pg.