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Joseph Conrad's Use Of Foreshadowing In Into Thin Air

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On Everest, the odds are not in a person’s favor. Chapter fifteen of the book Into Thin Air is the core chapter of the book where disaster strikes. Jon Krakauer provides immense amount of foreshadowing in the book to prepare the readers prepared for the tragedy that is soon about to strike; including Joseph Conrad’s quote from Lord Jim in chapter fifteen Epigraph. Conrad provides various emotions and actions a person commits when placed in a time of hardship. The quote by Joseph Conrad displays the painstaking journey a person takes when climbing Mount Everest. The weather on Everest is so unpredictable that it can change from a pleasant, sunny day to a raging blizzard in seconds. In the epigraph, Conrad talks about the disappearance of “all that is priceless and necessary--- sunshine, memories [and], the future”. The storm initially starts as light snow, but soon winds develop into a full force hurricane with speeds up to seventy knots per hour. The visibility is reduced to one or two feet. The climbers who have not made their way back into the safe haven of the tents in Camp four, saw their future vanish in front of them. In such dire situations, a person brain detaches from practicality and the body starts making unwise decisions; in cases like Yasuko Namba, it forced her into the act of giving up her life. The greatest danger a …show more content…

It provides insights on both the mental and physical problems the climbers face when they are in the death zone. Some of the climbers who are, during the duration of the storm, forced to undergo the death zone without oxygen experience severe versions of mental deterioration and contribute to the poor decisions and actions on the mountain. The Epigraph not only shows the human body’s reaction to the surroundings, but also shows the changing weather on Everest. The changing weather shows the constant confusion the human body experiences on

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