Selfishness In The Peak, By Roland Smith

Peak, by Roland Smith, has many characters, and even though these characters had great personalities and skills, they had flaws as well. They all were very brave, determined, and courageous, but everyone was more or less selfish. In page 182, it states, “To climb… you have to be completely selfish”(Smith 182). I do think that everyone had shown some selfishness in the book, but some of the characters happened to stand out more than others to me. These characters were Josh Wood, Holly Angelo, and all of the other climbers. By the other climbers, I mean, the people who didn’t get to climb the summit because of Peak’s sudden attempt to climb to the summit on Mount Everest. Being selfish when climbing on Mount Everest, has two sides, it can be …show more content…
He is Peak’s dad but the last time Peak had seen him was seven years ago. Now he came back when Peak was in court and had Peak stay with him. But, it was not for the reason Peak thought, it wasn’t to help out his own son, but himself. Soon Peak finds out if Josh can get him to climb the summit, it could help his company, Peak Expeditions, and make it very successful because Peak would be the youngest person to climb Everest. Josh didn’t tell Peak this, or even that Peak was climbing until after flying him to the checkup. That is a big way in how Josh was selfish, he even admitted to Peak that if Peak was too old, he probably wouldn’t have even come. Another way Josh was selfish was that in those seven years that Josh was not in Peak’s life, Peak wrote him several postcards. He never got any back, however, not once. Naturally, Peak and his mom assumed the mail got lost or never made it to the camp, though Peak had gotten mail from his family while he was at camp. This meant that Josh did get all those letters and just didn’t bother to write back, which was another sign of selfishness. This were both very big examples of how Josh was selfish to not just Peak, but his own clients and climbers as …show more content…
There were many ways she was selfish and the first one was how she came. Josh had asked her not to bring anyone and travel light. Holly came with a personal cook and a massage therapist. This is selfish because if you are climbing Mount Everest, you don’t bring a cook and a massage therapist when it’s below zero degrees and the are is more thin. The next way was Holly had sherpas carry her luggage. The first two examples of how she was selfish was how she acted like a celebrity who didn’t do anything for herself. That is selfish, she should carry her own luggage, not make other people who don’t even work for her do it. The last way Holly seemed selfish, is definitely the worst. She blackmailed Josh. First, she said that if Josh doesn’t give her an exclusive, she’ll print a story about Peak’s Everest attempt. Second, she blackmailed him and said he has to let her try and climb to the