Multi faced character in into thin air novel

Into Thin Air

Throughout reading the novel Into Thin Air, you see Jon Krakauer as a multi faced character. He is not only the author of the book, he is the protagonist of the story while being someone crazy enough to be apart of an Everest mission. He was hired by a magazine company to write an article about the principles of climbing Everest. Throughout climbing the mountain Krakauer describes his teammates who are apart of the Adventure Consultants climbing service. His descriptions of his teammates really get you involved and close to the characters in the story. Krakauer makes a complete timeline throughout the book of the adventures and struggles him and his team faced while climbing. Into Thin Air also enlightens you on the dangers of altitude sickness. Krakauer’s detailed writing of altitude sickness made you worrisome and scared for him and his group. Although the group went through many dangerous obstacles, the first death didn’t happen until halfway through the book. From this point on in the book, death to the climbers seemed almost as mundane. The climax of the story happens at the final push to the summit. Rob Hall, the leader of the climbers, set a turn back point where no matter how close you are to the top, you must turn around if you don’t make it in time. However this wasn’t followed and the worst of all nightmares happened. A giant storm hit the summit. Krakauer was ahead of his climbing group so he made it back to camp safely, but had no idea what will happen to his friends.

Three of the characters, Hall, Hansen, and Fischer get lost in the storm. Hasen then runs out of oxygen and later dies. Fischer was found, but unfortunately dead. One of the guide’s assistants dies while trying to save Hall and Hansen. The reason to why I am adding all of these deaths in the book summary, is because part of the book is understanding how dangerous climbing Mt. Everest is. These horrific, detailed deaths really impact you and make you feel sorry for the characters you grown to like. One of the characters, Beck Weathers made it out alive, however he had to go through terrible amputations for his injuries. Krakauer reflected a lot of what happened on the mountain and how it has affected his life. In parts of Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer goes to his unique writing style by reflecting the events of his books on his own personal life. He talks about the survivor’s guilt he has endorsed after making it out alive and how the guilt has affected his life.

After reading Into Thin Air, I can easily say I feel the book has haunted me. Jon Krakauer is an incredible storyteller with such detailed writing to make you feel as if you are on that mountain with him. Krakauer went through all of his feelings of survivor’s guilt throughout certain parts in the book. He states: “ We were too tired to help. Above 8, 000 meters is not a place where people can afford morality” (Krakauer 101). This shows that at a certain point making it out alive yourself is more important than having morals for others. Krakauer’s deeply comprehensible story telling abilities made me feel like it was a fictional novel. Although going into this book thinking I knew how deadly Everest is, I appreciate Krakauer’s ability to really enlighten me on the horrific experiences climbers face on attempting to climb the tallest mountain in the world. Before reading Into Thin Air, I expected it to just be a book about an ordinary Everest mission and maybe it will be an interest to me. After reading a few chapters I knew I was hooked. I very much enjoyed reading Into Thin Air because I felt that I didn’t just learn a lot more about Mt. Everest, I was also given life lessons. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in learning more about Mt. Everest and the dangers climbers must face to complete this seemed unachievable accomplishment.

The protagonist in Into Thin Air is a man named Jon Krakauer who is also the author. Some of his portrayed characteristics is being adventurous, hard headed, and mentally tough. This book clearly displays Krakauer’s adventurous side since he is climbing the scariest, most challenging mountain in the world. Krakauer is shown as extremely mentally tough throughout the book since he had to watch his friends die and worry about surviving the expedition. His trait of being super mentally tough is a very important characteristic because “ the slopes of Everest are littered with corpses” (Krakauer 76). Krakauer continuously shows throughout the book how mentally tough you must be in order to achieve such an accomplishment. One of the main unique features I felt about this book was that the main character was also the author of the story. It made you really close and understand the author’s back life and personality along with the protagonist of the novel. All in all I believed this book was an incredible read and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in a jaw dropping adventure.