Survival In Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air

“With enough determination, any bloody idiot can get up this hill, the trick is to get back down alive.” This quote from Jon Krakauer captures the gripping story of Into Thin Air which summarizes Jon’s emotional and physical journey while climbing the tallest mountain in the world. Through extensive climbing and note-taking Jon is able to share his experiences and tell a riveting story about his life or death experience from the perspective of a reporter which provides an amazing point of view about summiting the most vigorous mountain known to man. When Jon Krakauer was tasked with writing an article about Mount Everest from base camp he said that he wanted to experience Everest from the summit. Outside Magazine was surprised but paid …show more content…
Into Thin Air summarizes the travels of the Adventure Consultants expedition, the team which Krakauer belonged, that was …show more content…
He uses characterization because it helps the reader understand the personality of the character he is describing as well as foreshadow their attributes. For example, when Beck Weathers is stranded in the snow and tired he pushes through. “Finally I woke up enough to recognize that I was in deep shit and the cavalry isn't coming so I better do something about it myself.” For the past 20 chapters, Krakauer had been building the persona for Beck as the guy who doesn't give up and defies odds like when he managed to make it back to camp 4 on his own and wasn't expected to live through the night he did and defied all odds. Krakauer creates these personas for every character which really makes the book enjoyable to read. The characterization that is used really helps add to the extreme detail of the book. By describing every character it almost makes it feel like you are there and can picture the exact emotions of the different characters that were being used in this