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Rhetorical Analysis Into Thin Air

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The passage in question is taken from Jon Krakauer’s personal account of his endeavour to summit Everest in 1996, and it is a description of Jon Krakauer’s experiences while at approximately 21,000 feet on the mountain itself. The book is called Into Thin Air, and was published a mere year after the tragedy that struck the team headed by Rob Hall, the founder of a mountaineering agency: Adventure Consultants. In this specific extract, Krakauer uses vivid imagery and similes in his description of the surroundings to show the obvious peril that climbing the most formidable peak on the planet entails. Additionally, he deploys diction that conveys his initial shock when he sees the corpses, as opposed to the other climbers, who seemed to be fairly …show more content…

Moreover, he could have done this to engage the reader a bit more to induce shock in them too. In example, when Krakauer first encounters the corpse, he says he was “shocked and disturbed” (14), whereas later on, following his discovery of a second corpse, he says that the “shock of encountering the second wore off almost immediately” (30-31). This shows that by the time he encountered the second corpse, he fully understood and accepted the dangers associated with the climb, and had recognized that he would have to move on anyway. This quality can be extended to all those who successfully climb Everest. They are very likely to see a few dead bodies on the way to the summit, and the first one would undoubtedly rattle them, but after that, they would feel the need to put their fears and values aside to push on and reach the summit.

The passage definitely showcases Krakauer’s excruciating journey, even through a mere 35 lines, but also conveys how Krakauer matured as a mountaineer just after seeing one dead body. An “unspoken agreement” is also talked about, which highlights the figurative weight that the climbers must have been carrying during their endeavor. Lastly, through this extract, it becomes evident that climbing a mountain, or facing any challenge in life, is bound to induce a certain maturity and acceptance in everyone. A certain acceptance of the fact that life is hard, and that hard work must be put in to achieve any

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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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(130 Krakauer). This adds more to the story. It also helps the reader understand his decision to climb the

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Krakauer ends Into Thin Air by logically developing an argument which explains the deaths of Scott Fischer, the leader of an expedition ascending Everest at the same time as the Adventure Consultant’s expedition, and Yasuko Namba, a client of Adventure Consultants. The storm had rendered both Scott and Yasuko helpless and unable to descend the mountain by their own strength. Consequently, in the final chapters of the book, the surviving leaders must decide between attempting to rescue Scott and Yasuko and “needlessly jeopardizing] the lives of the other climbers” or returning to base camp without the Scott and Yasuko. Realizing that the climbers were “as close to death as a person can be and still breathing” led the leaders to abandon any attempts to rescue either Fischer or Yasuko in the hope of saving the lives of everyone at camp. Including this argument helps Krakauer establish the motives of the surviving climbers.

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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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[his] sights” (152). In his crestfallen tone of “lower”, the narrator illuminates a churning sea of internal conflict: the pull between realism and his dreams for the expedition. That same pull forced Krakauer to face his failure and concede his loss to not disappoint himself further. Similarly, the narrator crafts a feeling of situational irony for his audience, since they know he always expected the best from himself but did not succeed at meeting his expectations. In creating unattainable goals, he

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In the novel, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, stated multiple connections between psychological distress and mountain climbers. An analysis of mountain climbers reveals that more than 85% of them share a dilemma of psychological distress due to the dreadful experiences in their life (website). For numerous of climbers, it may have been a temporary adventure and for others it is a committed task they are willing to actualized. The novel describes Chris McCandless as an idealistic and intelligent man that has his own beliefs in how human beings should live their life. A ruthless man who thought his only solution was to escape into the wild.

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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.

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This is how the last stage, return, manifests for him. In many stories, the hero receives a powerful token or a trophy of some variety. Unfortunately for Krakauer, his trophy or token is major PTSD and trauma. He goes on to write his book, shares his experiences and lessons he has learned, but he ultimately does not see his time on the mountain as positive or a prize

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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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And in subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium, and suffering, it struck me that most of us were probably seeking, above all else, something like a state of grace." ( Krakauer 136) This quote shows that reaching the top of Mount Everest is a goal or achievement for many of the climbers despite the fact that this experience is also painful and dreadful. Not only is the experience not enjoyable, but also the outcome of achieving the mountain isn’t clear. In this instance, it was seen as “state of grace”, or maybe free of

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“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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Jon Krakauer is a writer known for writing novels about being outdoors and mountain climbing. He is also the author of, Into the Wild, based on the journey of Christopher McCandless. Krakauer has a very unique type of writing style which the style of his book is not very easy to read. The books itself is not in chronological order and jumps around and it also changes from the journey of McCandless to Krakauer’s point of view.

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Many things could go wrong climbing the highest mountain in the world with an elevation of 29,029 ft. 12 people died climbing Mount Everest. No is responsible for those death. The climbers had chosen to climb the mountain. In the novel it states, “Hall was charging $65,000 a head to guide clients to the top of the world” (Krakauer 35). This shows that a person is willing to pay to go through so much pain, risk and sickness to summit the top of the world.

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Nobody suspected that by the end of that long day, every minute would matter” (Krakauer 9). The reason that is a cliffhanger is because after finishing chapter one on the top of Everest, chapter two is written about 1852, when the first expeditions of Everest are occurring. Another cliffhanger that Krakauer puts in Into Thin Air is that after he finally describes the emotional events that occurred on May 10th and 11th, he writes a whole chapter about what is happening on the other side of the mountain. Krakauer chose to write that chapter to calm the readers down from the emotional rollercoaster he just put them onto. In addition to cliffhangers, Krakauer uses foreshadowing.

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Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is a personal account based on the 1996 Everest disaster. Jon Krakauer is a writer that is questioned by a magazine to write an article about Mount Everest. Subsequently, he accepts to progress to Mount Everest. Before he goes, he trains by climbing countless different challenging mountains. When he is inclined, he is notified that he is bustling to join Rob Hall’s climbing expedition team.

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