The Devils Thumb By John Krakauer: A Literary Analysis

, 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

Notably, preparations for an Everest expedition is no simple undertaking. Notwithstanding for an experienced mountaineer like Rob Hall. Vitally, every bit of the puzzle needs to fit perfectly for the ascend to be successful. One slip in the arrangement and individuals can be in genuine threat. However, by reading Krakauer’s Into Think Air, I realized that there were many steps involved during the climb which caused the disastrous event on Everest.

The Devil’s Thumb and Everest were both memoirs of two men conquering mountains. The Devil’s Thumb was written Jon Krakauer. Everest was written by Erik Weihenmayer. They both tell a story about climbing mountains but from different perspectives. They both have their own organizational structure.

Erik Weihenmayer who also had a dream, wanted to be first blind man to successfully climb Mount Everest. Although Jon Krakauer and Erik Weihenmayer have some similarities the differences between their stories are their perspective, their organizational structure, and their tone and word choices. In the Devil’s Thumb Jon Krakauer reflects on his decision and perspective of climbing the Devil’s Thumb when he was just twenty-three years old. At such a young age Krakauer was not happy with how life had been

In the non-fiction survival story, Into Thin Air, author Jon Krakauer recounts the traumatizing events of his adventure to the Summit of Mount Everest. Krakauer tells of his experiences in depth while attempting the climb and explains how his childhood dream to climb Everest became a grim reality. We follow Krakauer as he ascends the mountain and faces much life altering events, and as he struggles to cope with these experiences afterward. While analyzing their story, readers may wonder why Krakauer’s team and thousands of other thrill seekers would feel compelled to attempt such a painstaking journey. Throughout his experience Krakauer’s outlook on climbing Everest changes from feeling excited for an opportunity to fulfill his childhood ambition, to feeling pain and turmoil as he realizes the consequences of attempting such a feat.

I always endeavour to achieve my goals be it short-term or long-term. I had decided to climb the Squamish Chief Mountain, in spite of the fact that I was not notably athletic and rather petrified of heights. The journey was initially endurable, however, that quickly changed as I struggled my way through the enormous rock formations. At one point, I stumbled over an exposed root and tumbled down a rocky hillside. My knees and palms were scraped and suddenly a rush of fear consumed me.

The novel contains very good separation, initiation, and return phases which did not reflect the conventional monomyth archetype. The separation phase involves Brian noticing his environment as well as how the temperature was changing, and because of that, Brian no longer felt the sense of security that he had before. The initiation phase involves Brian Preparing himself for different challenges. for instance, Brian felt that his survival was being threatened by a bear, so he is decided to take matters into his own hands and attempt to fabricate a much larger and more powerful version of his bow. The return phase sees Brian discover two parallel mysterious straight lines in the snow.

Another way Odysseus shows his cleverness is when he rescued his men from Circe. In order to save his men, Odysseus had to climb up a huge mountain in Aeaea "home of the enchantress and goddess Circe. Here a party of twenty-three men, led by Eurylochus, goes off to explore the island. "(673, Summary). Once again his men disappear and just as he is about to set off to find them, Eurylochus comes running back to the ship in a hurry.

To the east of the Everest National Park is the Makalu-Barun National Park, a remote and wild stretch of mountain peaks and deep densely forested valleys. To the west is the Rolwaling valley, a well protected microcosm of cultures and ecology. The southern part of the district, Solu is much less frequented by tourist and be a very rewarding destination in its own right. Beside Mount Everest there are other 8,000 meter peaks in the region.

On the mountain when everyone was getting separated and lost high on the mountain Anatoli actively looked for surviving climbers. He tried to rouse some of the climbers that had returned to camp but they refused to help saying they were too exhausted. Even though Anatoli himself was exhausted from the climb he kept going back to search for climbers on the South Col even if it was risking his own life. Although his early return to camp allowed him more rest to attempt a rescue. He could have collapsed from exhaustion or gotten lost but kept going back anyway.

This book takes the reader through in-depth history like first explorers at the base of the mountain and famous climbers who summit. He also writes with extreme detail about the Sherpa culture, for without their skills and adaptations, the attempt to summit would be inconceivable. But along Krakauer’s journey to Mount Everest’s peak, he adds how much more accessible the mountain has become as a result of commercialization. Into Thin Air is most known for its precise structure of the storm in the Death Zone. Although many disagree and criticize his memory of the blizzard, Krakauer recalls specific locations and struggles of the other climbers.

When Chris was twelve, Walt took Chris and his other child out on a hike in Longs Peak down in Colorado. The mountain was approximately 14,256 feet. That is a pretty big mountain, as soon as they reached the 13,000-foot elevation Walt decided they should turn around. Krakauer writes, “ [Walt] was tired and feeling the altitude. The route above looked slabby, exposed, dangerous.

Whenever you are focused and ready, time goes by much faster and that is what this simile is referring to. The mountain is described as a “huge fin of exfoliated tone.” (Page 135). This metaphor shows the difficulty of the journey to come and what this trek really will bring. Alex knows going into the wild that it will be a formidable task, however he is willing and feels he does not have much to lose with what is going on in his life at the time.

Mountain climbing is a very tough activity that includes years of training before someone is ready to complete an exhilarating climb. Looking around the world, there are many amazing places to climb. Although two of the most difficult and intense climbs include the Devil’s Thumb in Alaska and Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on earth. “Everest,” by Erik Weihenmayer and “The Devils Thumb,” by Jon Krakauer have some similarities and some differences in terms of the author’s perspective, organization structure, and tone and word choice. As the two authors wrote, they showed their struggles and feats of every situation through words.

Chaos… the total lack of order… Stephen Vincent Benet and Shirley Jackson show in their respective books; Salem Massachusetts and The Lottery how chaos in society is. We know that Benet’s story talks about the witch trials in the 1691’s and Jackson’s story makes us live a long lasting tradition of a weird lottery that involves killing innocents. In fact, Chaos is a main theme found in both books through the actions, the thoughts and the feelings vehiculed/transmitted by the main characters of each story.