Throughout history, people have always dreamed of standing at the top of the world to look down on everyone, to feel a sense of power and of achievement above anyone else. Mountain climbers take this adventure to the physical extreme and push their bodies to the limit for a singular moment of ecstasy at the summit. This is exactly the moment Jon Krakauer dreams of, but it's also the moment that almost killed him. In Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer describes what really happened during his trip to the top of the world. Although he had written an article about the Mount Everest disaster a year before this book was published, many minor facts were soon discovered to be inaccurate and, ultimately, further harmed the family of one of the deceased climbers. Through the retelling of his original story published in Outside, Jon Krakauer warns daredevils and people who love the outdoors that in the battle between Mount Everest and humanity's ego, Everest will always win . In doing so, Krakauer also highlights the fact that the commercialization of Everest harms the safety of climbers by encouraging competition among guides which leads them to make rash decisions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Krakauer begins the book by describing the climax of the story, only from his point of view, which is when he reaches the top of the mountain and sees a giant storm approaching. He realizes what is happening and foreshadows events to come. “None of them imagined that a terrible ordeal was approaching. No one suspected that at the end of that long day every minute would matter." This first chapter draws the reader in and makes him wonder what will happen in the end. The lack of detail in this chapter also gives the reader room to imagine how a “cloud blanket” turned into one of Everest's worst storms. In addition to the beginning of the climax, Krakauer tells a brief history of the area around Everest and the mountain itself. This gives readers an idea of ​​what was going on during that time period so they could form their own opinions about what happened on the day of the storm. Many bad decisions were made that day due to the political circumstances of that time. Without this background information, Krakauer would seem very biased in describing the dangers of climbing Everest in the process. Throughout the book, Krakauer divides each chapter by elevation, and as he begins his journey from the bottom, he begins dividing the chapters by camps along the mountain. It begins its journey at Everest Base Camp at 17,600 feet and climbs until it reaches the summit at 29,028 feet. These chapters mark his progress throughout the book, and the entire group usually spends a couple of weeks at each camp to acclimatize to the new altitude. As Krakauer and his group reach the summit it becomes clearer that the more people climb, the more people die. The first death occurred in chapter eleven and after that death lost its effect on the minds of the mountaineers. Regardless of whether the cause of death is due to acclimatization disease, an accident, or even a storm, as the group moves higher they all become weaker and sicker. At the summit one of the climbers, Beck, who had undergone major eye surgery, lost almost all of his sight during the climb. “The more he climbed, the more the barometric pressure dropped and the worse his vision became.” However, he kept telling himself that he was fine and that he couldget to the top, and by the time he made it down, several of his limbs had severe frostbite and had to be amputated. When people are so close to the top it's hard for them to go back and convince themselves that they can do it. Even if they reach the top, there is no guarantee that they will make it back to tell others, and that's where arrogance comes in. People forget to consider the risks when climbing Everest, especially at the top, and eventually end up getting killed. As Krakauer writes, he tends to follow a typical disaster pattern where the book goes from bad to better to worse. First, Krakauer describes the difficult journey to the top of the peak where they faced many challenges and had to overcome unexpected obstacles such as broken lines and frozen gear, but when they reached the top, the group felt a sense of accomplishment and success. “They had climbed Mount Everest. It was a little iffy for a while, but in the end everything turned out great.” It was only when they began to descend that the storm that would cause the deaths of eight people began to arrive. Krakauer had felt safe during that short time. “Many hours would pass before he learned that in fact all had not gone well: that nineteen men and women had been stranded on the mountain by the storm, caught in a desperate fight for their lives.” This strengthens Krakauer's thesis by showing how he became arrogant and felt safe during the most dangerous mountaineering expedition on earth. This false sense of security, as well as exhaustion and oxygen deprivation, led to a series of poor decisions. Krakauer's self-confidence led him to believe that going down would be good, but he was very wrong. In addition to this disaster model, Krakauer uses multiple time jumps in these chapters to reflect Krakauer's confusion and the chaotic events that took place throughout the entire expedition. If it were not for Krakauer's journalistic skills he would not have had the chance to move forward. this trip first and foremost. The first part of the book reflects his investigative writing style, but as the story progresses Krakauer becomes more and more involved and begins to insert his own opinions on the expedition. In the first chapters, only the facts were exposed that gave readers the opportunity to form their own opinion. Krakauer, for example, told the story of his guide, Robert Hall, who came from a middle-class Catholic family and had already had success climbing Everest. “It took ten years and three attempts, but in May 1990 Hall finally reached the summit of Everest as leader of an expedition that included Peter Hillary, son of Sir Edmund.” This fact establishes Hall's credibility and success and also gives the reader a chance to form their own opinion of Hall before his writing becomes more subjective. This same style of writing continues until we reach the base of the mountain, which gives the reader an unbiased view of the expedition before Krakauer inserts his own opinions and arguments. This objective writing style is shown early in the book, but as he becomes more involved, Krakauer begins to insert his own opinions, particularly about the other people he climbed with. "Take Beck Weathers, for example... My first impression of Beck had not been favorable: a back-slapping Dallas pathologist with less than mediocre mountaineering skills... Yet, the more I got to know him, the more he earned the my respect.” His opinions gave readers an idea of ​​how Krakauer felt during the duration of the trip and give first-hand insight into what it is likeKrakauer. He's not just some fool who decided to climb Everest one day. He had previous climbing experience and his opinions on other climbers give readers an idea of ​​the type of people who undertake this journey. Furthermore, Krakauer showed little emotion during the chaos. Even when he first saw a corpse, Krakauer didn't think twice. That is, until he was safely on the ground. “Sure now, the overwhelming fatigue of the previous days lifted from my shoulders, I cried for my lost comrades, I cried because I was grateful to be alive, I cried because I felt terrible for having survived while others died.” His lack of emotion until the end underlines the danger and the price that Everest takes on people. While on the mountain, Krakauer was devoid of all emotion because he had no time to cry, which he would not be able to do if he were dead. Due to the severity of this event and the effect it had on the author, Krakauer, is very outspoken in his writings. He tells readers exactly how it happened and doesn't beat around the bush, especially when it comes to injuries or death. “Several serious accidents had occurred in the previous six weeks,” someone fell into a crevasse, another had a heart attack and one even got a severe case of HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) and continued to get worse until death. . Krakauer was not one to sugarcoat events, even when bodies were found on the mountain. “Few of the trudging climbers had given more than a fleeting glance to the corpses. It was as if there was an unspoken agreement on the mountain to pretend that these desiccated remains were not real.” The frankness in Krakauer's writings makes his point about the dangers of Everest very clear. The actual sight of a dead body made both Krakauer and the readers realize how important this event was to him and all the other climbers who were on this journey. This type of writing is Krakauer's attempt to scare the reader and discourage him from thinking about attempting the dangerous climb. Unfortunately, these two corpses would not be the only corpses that Krakauer would have seen during his time on Everest. For every event that will take place Krakauer is sure to have the right dates and times as well as the altitude that marks each camp along the mountain. (from base camp to camp 4). Before each chapter the location, altitude, time, and date are indicated so that the reader can keep track of each event as Krakauer moves chronologically through the story. Within sixteen hours the storm at the top of the mountain had reached its maximum intensity. This shows how quickly the storm went from innocent-looking clouds to "...a full-scale blizzard with driving snow and winds gusting in excess of 60 knots...". In the case of life or death, every minute is precious and worth something. Krakauer's precise timing made it clear to the reader that this storm was not something that could be easily seen or escaped from. In addition to Krakauer's specific times, he also provides an entire history of the mountain and the countries surrounding the mountain, Tibet and China. , as evidence to demonstrate the negative impacts that commercialization has had on the areas surrounding Everest. Soon after the first conquest of Everest by two climbers, the expeditions continued and began to raise some concerns. “The Government of Nepal has recognized that these crowds flocking to Everest create serious problems in terms of safety, aesthetics and impact on the environment.” To solve this problem, in the spring of 1996, Nepal began charging thousands of dollars to anyone who wanted to climb Everest, but what Nepalhe didn't take into consideration is that China would charge less money for a climbing permit. Tension between the two countries increased dramatically and the debate over the commercialization of Everest became increasingly necessary. This story provided readers with background information that would make them understand why Krakauer was being offered the chance to climb Everest and why the climb was becoming increasingly popular. Expensive permits reserved the chance for wealthy, egotistical people to climb Mount Everest as it became a more common expedition for people who wanted to say they had actually accomplished something in their lifetime. Not only was Everest's marketing growing, but so was the competition. between the two countries. Increasing competition allowed only the richest and most ambitious people to climb Everest, and all they needed was a guide willing to lead them through one of the most difficult expeditions. humanity can move forward. Competition among guides for money has also increased because each guide must demonstrate that they are more likely to take a person up and down the mountain safely. This ultimately led to many bad decisions being made. The pressure on guides to succeed often clouded their judgment, especially towards the people they accompanied on the climbs. Many of the climbers had very limited mountaineering experience, yet they kept going, which not only put them in danger, but also put the rest of the team in danger. The overconfidence and big egos of these climbers were what caused the deaths of some of them. Too much trust was placed in stressed guides because climbers thought these guides were the best that money could buy since they had the highest success rate. This book originally began as a story about the commercialization of Everest, which was already a controversial topic, stirred up even more feelings after its release. In the epilogue, Jon Krakauer chooses to include some of the letters he received after the book's initial publication and acknowledges his own faults during the mailing. One of the deceased guide's sisters wrote to him saying, "Maybe you get a glimpse of what you are doing by appearing to KNOW EVERYTHING... What I am reading is YOUR OWN ego frantically struggling to make sense of what has happened." By including this in the book, Krakauer indirectly admits his own shortcomings and the role his and everyone else's egos played on the expedition. When humanity's ambition becomes too great in the face of nature, nature will always win, no matter what, and this was the hard lesson Krakauer learned during his time in the mountains. The same letter also appeals to the reader's feelings of guilt. Guilt has proven to be a universal feeling that everyone has felt at some point. In Krakauer's case, he had survivor's guilt and it tore him apart after the tragedy. During the day of the storm, his failure to act killed one person on his team. “…as Yasuko Namba lay dying…he was just 350 meters away, huddled inside a tent, unaware of her struggle, concerned only with his own safety.” A lot of bad decisions were made and it showed, but the worst decision Krakauer ever made was to go on the trip. If he had not participated in the expedition he would not have received all the negative reactions and emotional distress; however, his ego got in the way and he decided to go anyway. The guilt and remorse Krakauer felt after this trip made it easier for readers to understand the toll this trip took.