The novel "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer, he writes about an experience that changes his life when Outside magazine asks him to write an article about the commercialism of Mount Everest, he knew from that moment that he needed to climb the mountain. But of course his expedition does not go as expected. On May 10th Krakauer reaches the summit after a extremely stressful and treacherous trek up, but only to have to scale down the mountain with his team in one of the most dangerous seasons in the history of Everest. Many things went wrong when they came down the mountain and throughout this book, Jon attempts to evaluate what exactly happened and how things went wrong. He researches and figures out every person actions on that mountain. He has speculations about the failures of the expedition, and blames the catastrophe due to a series of little …show more content…
mistakes.
He believes that he has a place in this disaster, and he accuses himself for causing a person's death and he doesn’t stop thinking about it as he says here “half a year has passed since I returned from Nepal, and on any given day during those six months, no more than two or three hours has gone by in which Everest has monopolized my thoughts” (296) .The experience has in many ways, affected him very deeply, which influenced him to write this book. The character development in "Kindred" by Octavia E. Butler is not as strong as "Into Thin Air", in this novel Dana, a young black woman who is a writer living at the end of the Twenty-first century, she is sucked into the south during the 19th century. Dana must go's through struggles so that she is able to establish her own identity and have
freedom. She is constantly saving her forebear, Rufus so that will she will remain alive. At the same time, she wonders if she is destined let him die. Making things harder, she grows affection for Rufus. As she is back in the modern age she explains to her husband what happened to her, though he does not really understand. Although she knows he is a man with many imperfections, she accepts him as the man she chose to spend the rest of her life with. As far as character development goes I favor "Into Thin Air", the development is real. It isn't a made up story, it's a tragedy where Krakauer realizes the mistakes that were made on that expeditions and has to live with the fact that he caused a death, where in "Kindred" Dana goes back in time has has to fight for her survival learning things about herself along the way. Also the plot complexity that "Into Thin Air" has to offer is much better than than the plot of "Kindred". “Into Thin Air” has a plot that is simple but it makes you think. Throughout the text Jon Krakauer talks about his journey in a way that keeps everything interesting. He talks about the dangers that they face when they cross cravases and the sicknesses that some of the mountaineers had gotten which forced them to go back down the mountain. He describes the important things in detail but not so much that it is overwhelming, though he challenges you throughout the book with different words and facts that I had never known before. “Kindred” has a plot that is very readable, I wouldn’t say that there are any challenges in this book because it is fairly easy to understand and follow. I did not find this book’s plot very engaging. Personally I thought that in this category “Into Thin Air” is a clear winner. These books both would be good candidates to have on a class list, but I think that “Into Thin Air” shows more strength when it comes to learning and expanding our knowledge. I learned new words and and different ways to do things mentally. “Into Thin air teaches you about the financial struggles of climbing Mount Everest as he stated "By 1996 Hall was charging $65,000 a head to guide clients to the top of the world. By any measure this is a lot of money—it equals the mortgage on my Seattle home—and the quoted price did not include airfare to Nepal or personal equipment." (37) Also I believe that this book shows that you need to trust someone in a difficult situation, within the text Jon says that “In climbing, having confidence in your partners is no small concern. One’s climbers actions can affect the welfare of your entire team” (47). This can relate to many things in life, if you are out doing something with your friends and one of them does something stupid like steal something, you are involved in that whether you like it or not. “Kindred” also has a lesson or two. The biggest life lesson in this book is the that the influence of power can corrupt you. Rufus is a young white boy when Dana first saves him who is constantly told that the color of his skin makes him more important that people who have black skin. This idea of him being better than all the black people will corrupt him and make him believe that for the rest of his life. I think that the lessons that you learn in both of these books are both important, though the lessons that “Into Thin Air” teach you are more beneficial for kids our age and in our generation
Chapter 7: In chapter 7 Krakauer talks about how Everest has changed from a professionals trek to anyone's trek. He explains that many inexperienced people have climbed Mount Everest with the help of sherpas and guides. He also mentions about the determination of Everest and how in some instances in history people who weren't allowed into Tibet or Nepal but they snuck in and managed to climb and summit Everest
Throughout the novel, the protagonist encounters many difficulties when trying to reach his goal of climbing Mount Everest. He encounters problems, from illnesses to deaths but most affectively the catastrophic weather. When Krakauer’s 5 friends die, including Rob Hall, Krakauer takes responsibility of the other climbers and helps them get through the tough weather safely. When they arrived to the base camps, many of the climbers gave up but Krakauer kept trying, he was motivated by Halls death to reach the top of Mount Everest. Krakauer finds ways to get around
Kindred by Octavia Butler is incredible book that leaves the reader hypnotized as she depicts the antebellum period that left a deep and unremovable scar in United States history. This story educates people who might be ignorant
Night by Elie Wiesel and First They Came for the Jew by Martin Niemoller both show two perspectives of people throughout the Holocaust. The poem by Niemoller is about him staying silent to survive because the people they were coming for where not his people he shows this by saying “I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.” The book by Wiesel talks about just staying alive because he knew his chances of living were not great but pushing through as he says in this quote “I could have gathered all my strength to break rank and throw myself into the barbed wire.” As stated in both quotes both Night and First They Came for the Jews share the theme of survival. Even though what they had to do to survive is different Niemoller has to stay quiet to survive, but Wiesel has to do much more then just stay silent even though he must do that too.
Jon Krakauer is a very unique author which his story creates many emotional and valuable lesson throughout the story.
In Octavia Butler’s novel "Kindred," A young African-American woman writer named Dana who is married to a white man named Kevin whom is also a writer. Dana is pulled back into time during the 19th century. Dana comes face to face with many obstacles and is forced to deal with her "people’s past" (Harris) until she returns to her present day life in California. Throughout the book; Dana continues to save Rufus, her ancestor, and slowly begins to accept slavery in order to survive.
In order to survive, people have been known to go to great lengths and to do
Everest is an unbelievable mountain that has taken the lives of a number of the greatest climbers in history. It was my job to ensure that clients make it up that treacherous mountain safely. My name is Rob Hall. I was the main guide and cofounder of a climbing company called Adventure Consultants. My friend, Gary Ball, and I used to be professional climbers. Together we succeeded in climbing to the highest summit on each of the seven continents in seven months. This was our greatest achievement. After this, we decided to start our own company guiding clients up large mountains. In May 1992, we successfully led six clients to the summit of Everest. Unfortunately, Gary died of cerebral edema in October 1993 during an attempt on the world’s sixth-tallest mountain. He died in my arms and the next day I buried him in a crevasse. Despite the pain that his death had caused me, I continued guiding for our company and eventually led thirty-nine climbers to the summit of Everest.
Kindred by Octavia Butler is an incredible book that leaves the reader hypnotized. This story educates people on the first hand abuse of slavery. Butler took a woman of the modern era and transferred her back into a period in which she, like the rest of us only heard about in books and television. Octavia Butler depicts how trauma not only affects the slave 's, but the slaveholders. Butler also brings attention to adaptation in her work by using a key literary devices such as foreshadowing to expose the trauma and the cause of that trauma.
The best teachers have the capabilities to teach from first hand experience. In his memoir, Night, Elie Wiesel conveys his grueling childhood experiences of survival to an audience that would otherwise be left unknown to the full terrors of the Holocaust. Night discloses mental and physical torture of the concentration camps; this harsh treatment forced Elie to survive rather than live. His expert use of literary devices allowed Wiesel to grasp readers by the hand and theatrically display to what extent the stress of survival can change an individual’s morals. Through foreshadowing, symbolism, and repetition, Wiesel’s tale proves that the innate dark quality of survival can take over an individual.
The first novel, Kindred involves the main character Dana, a young black woman, travelling through time to explore the antebellum south in the 1800’s. The author uses this novel to reveal the horrific events and discrimination correlated with the slaves of the south at the time. Dana, who is a black woman of modern day, has both slave and white ancestry, and she develops a strong connection to her ancestor Rufus, who was a slave owner at the time. This connection to Rufus indirectly causes Dana to travel into the past where she helps many people suffering in the time period. Butler effectively uses this novel to portray the harshness of slavery in history, and the impa...
Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred is categorized as science fiction because of the existence of time travel. However, the novel does not center on the schematics of this type of journey. Instead, the novel deals with the relationships forged between a Los Angeles woman from the 20th century, and slaves from the 19th century. Therefore, the mechanism of time travel allows the author a sort of freedom when writing this "slavery narrative" apart from her counterparts. Butler is able to judge the slavery from the point of view of a truly "free" black woman, as opposed to an enslaved one describing memories.
The book Lone Survivor was based on a true story with the main character/ author of the book Marcus Luttrell is a story about him and his brothers as they fight for their lives to protect one another. The real question is will they survive?
”Jon Krakauer strives to educate and entertain his readers with a trio of styles used in his books, Into Thin Air, Into the Wild and Under the Banner of Heaven. Each story contains detailed passages to make the reader an expert and engage them in the story. Krakauer spends time in each of the books reflecting on what makes people undertake a mountain or a murder. By using suspense, Krakauer pulls the reader into the story and makes it exciting.”(Morse 1). The way that he wrote the books makes the reader engaged during even the most boring scenes. He made the text so interesting by using excruciating detail. ”Excruciating detail is what sets Krakauer apart. There is no doubt that extensive research was conducted for each of his books. His memory and notes are crisp and brilliant. He makes the reader feel as if they are climbing the mountain along with him. He educates the reader on every possible aspect of the story.”(Morse
"The Snows of Kilimanjaro" tells the story of a dying writer who is on a safari in Africa with his wife, Helen. The plains of Africa in the vicinity of Mt. Kilimanjaro are also places that attracted Hemingway in the past. Furthermore, Carlos Baker reveals in his book Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story the events in the author's life that determined him to write this fiction. It all began in 1934 in New York when a rich woman offered "to stake" Hemingway to a safari in Africa. He refused, but then he started to think about what would have happened if he had agreed. Baker also adds: "The dying writer in the story was an image of himself as he might have been. Might have been, that is, if the temptation to lead the aimless life of the very rich had overcome his integrity as an artist" (289).