2021-22 Honors Summer Reading by Daniel Anilonis https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje Books: "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer en-us 2021-08-30 17:39:10 UTC 2025-11-23 04:22:32 UTC hello@padlet.com Emotional Journey danilonis23 https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705065333 The author, Jon Krakauer, went through probably the most difficult experience of his life on Mount Everest.  Krakauer watched his team die and get injured the entire journey.  He starts his memoir off really dark with his statement that "I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care"(Krakauer 7).  Krakauer had been suffering from lack of air because of how high in altitude he was.  He had seen people die.  He was alone.  Krakauer's journey he had been on had led to this moment but he didn't see how it was worth it.  All his life Krakauer wanted to climb.  It was what he wanted to dedicate his life to.  He thought "climbing provided a sense of community as well.  To become a climber was to join a self-continued, rabidly idealistic society, largely unnoticed and surprisingly uncorrupted by the world at large"(Krakauer 23).  He was able to stick to his dreams and eventually climb Everest. Krakauer had to sacrifice things to be able to make time to prepare for his dream.  Climbing was his passion and he went and did what he had to do to get there.]]> 2021-08-30 17:46:38 UTC https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705065333 Obstacles danilonis23 https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705065865 Climbing a mountain is no easy task.  Krakauer describes his time maneuvering up the mountain as "subjecting ourselves to week after week of toil, tedium, and suffering"(Krakauer 140).  To reach your goals, there's always steps you need to take.  Climbing Everest wasn't easy for Krakauer, or anyone else.  It was a hard and tedious journey.  Going into an adventure like this you know of the things that could happen, but you hope the worst doesn't happen.  Krakauer and his team knew the weather would be on their side, but so did everybody else.  It was looking to be a nice trip, at least at the time.  Sadly "the annual weather pattern was no secret, and every expedition had set their sights on the same window of fair weather"(Krakauer 146).  The struggle to climb with many other climbers would prove to be an obstacle and hopefully the amount of climbers wouldn't affect them, and the mountain.  Although, more people means more resources used, more people to take care of, more people worry about, and more people that could cause an accident.  Spending all that time in high altitude didn't help people either.  Air is needed to breath and survive and they didn't have much of that.  People started to develop "high-altitude sickness.  They looked as if they were dangerous"(Krakauer 243).  Having to spend that much time in the cold and in high-altitude for long periods of time isn't welcomed by the body.  From physical to internal pain and obstacles, these travels and climbers were in for an experience for a lifetime.]]> 2021-08-30 17:46:54 UTC https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705065865 Relationships danilonis23 https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705066211 Along the journey, Krakauer had been with people who shared his passion for climbing.  He grew to love his companions and it made saying goodbye to them so hard, and it was such a tragic way.  For his friend, Beck Weathers, climbing was a major part of life.  He felt "Climbing was like life itself, only it was cast in much sharper relief, and nothing had ever hooked Beck to such a degree"(Krakauer 141).  Climbing became more than a hobby for these men and women.  It was their life.  Something they train for and go into knowing it's a life or death situation and anything can happen.  While working with people they learned to look out for each other in such a difficult moment.  During one moment "When Lopsang saw Hansen was faltering, he held up his own descent long enough to make sure Doug and Rob made it safely across a dangerously corniced area just below the top"(Krakauer 237).  They had all suffered so much together and were doing anything to keep each other safe.  These relationships built were important and they would create a bond of trust.]]> 2021-08-30 17:47:06 UTC https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705066211 Theme danilonis23 https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705066351 Many themes and ideas are shown throughout this memoir, but a key one that stands out is that good decision making is important.  Krakauer shows this theme through the trials he went through and the many situations he got in.  After many setbacks and injuries and close deaths they had to decide what to do.  They had "discussed what to do about Namba and Weathers and whether to descend, Neal Beidleman was mustering Fisher's team from their tents and hectoring them to start down from the Col."(Krakauer 261).  Krakauer and his team needed to do what was best for their team.  Ultimately the goal was to reach the top of Everest, but nature has a way of backfiring on your plans.  This journey required smart thinking and to keep everyone safe.  Krakauer had to make decisions for others to keep them safe.  Another injury occurred and since "Gau's frostbitten feet had been thawed at Camp Two, he could no longer walk or even stand, so Breashears, Athans, and I agreed that the Taiwanese climber should be the one to go"(Krakauer 275).  The injured would just slow down the journey and they needed to get him to safety and get him proper treatment.  They had to make a decision to send him home.  Krakauer and his team had to make decisions that were sometimes tough, but necessary.  They were good decisions that needed to be made.
  
]]> 2021-08-30 17:47:10 UTC https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705066351 Craft danilonis23 https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705066660 Imagery is a major part of the way Krakauer tells us his story.  He gives the reader an idea of what he saw on the mountain, how he felt, and how he survived.  The descriptions were very detailed about his account of his trip to Mount Everest.  They were struggling with strength and "With Tenzing nervously paying out rope from below, Hillary wedged himself into a cleft between the rock buttress and a fin of vertical snow at its edge, then began to inch his way up what would thereafter be known as the Hillary Step"(Krakauer 19).  Krakauer describes this scene perfectly, with the shape of the snow, how the character was feeling, and the situation they were in.  The reader can clearly picture what the author painted.  Krakauer continues to use imagery.  When he's going in an icefall he says "I nervously threaded my way through the frozen, groaning disorder"(Krakauer 108).  We can clearly picture the icey area and how nervous Krakauer must have been.  It was one of many tough situations he had encountered.  Krakauer manages to tell a story about his life while being able to make the reader visualize what's going on throughout the story.  ]]> 2021-08-30 17:47:19 UTC https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705066660 Beautiful Words danilonis23 https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705067019 Jon Krakauer uses a beautiful style of writing when he wrote his memoir entitled "Into Thin Air."  The author is able to tell such a tragic event he encountered in his life with such alluring choices of words.  He is able to achieve his goal of reaching the top of Everest but at what cost?  What did he lose on the way?  When the author reaches the top of the hill he explains that he had "been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care"(Krakauer 7).  Jon Krakaur could care less about the major milestone he just accomplished.  The amount of people he had lost was so tragic.  But it's so beautiful how he describes the moment as something he's been "fantasizing about," and the "release of emotion."  He has many feelings flowing through his mind not knowing how to feel about this beautiful but tragic moment.   At the beginning of each chapter, it begins with a quote from some other mountain climber of the past.  Continuing the idea of tragic yet beautiful, George Leigh Mallory in a letter to his wife says "Suffice it to say that [Everest] has the most steep ridges and appalling precipices that I have ever seen, and that all the talk of an easy snow slope in a myth...  My darling, this is a thrilling business altogether, I can't tell you how it possesses me, and what a prospect it is.  And the beauty of it all!"(Krakauer 182).  Mallory feels the fright of climbing such a steep and dangerous mountain, but the whole journey is so possessive and just overtakes you with how beautiful and majestic it is.  The author continues to look to other mountain climbers for inspiration as he tells his own tale of adventure.  For such a horrible experience, the author uses beautiful words and language to tell this horror story of a memoir.]]> 2021-08-30 17:47:31 UTC https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705067019 Zinssers Connection danilonis23 https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705067577 Without even writing a step-by-step tutorial, Krakauer shows the reader how to write a memoir just by telling us his own story.  He describes a moment from his life and from his own perspective.  He starts the memoir with an important date, "early in the afternoon of May 10, 1996.  I hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours.  The only food I'd been able to force down over the preceding three days was a bowl of ramen soup and a handful of peanut M&Ms.  Weeks of violent coughing had left me with two separated ribs that made ordinary breathing an excruciating trial.  At 29,028 feet up in the troposphere, so little oxygen was reaching my brain that my mental capacity was that of a slow child"(Krakauer 7-8).  He starts off with a very important date in his life.  He continues to talk about how he's feeling, the status of his health, and what he's thinking.  Krakauer makes it known that this memoir is written from his perspective and about something that happened to him.  Unlike what Zinsser suggests, he writes about him as an adult, and not a young adolescent.  A very important part of a memoir according to Zinsser is being able to feel for the author and understand what they feel.  We need to be able to understand the author.  When leaving the mountain, Krakauer says he felt "extremely anxious, but my concern had little to do with the weather: a check of the gauge on my oxygen tank had revealed that it was almost empty.  I needed to get down, fast"(Krakauer 9).  The reader is clearly able to feel the anxiety and stress Krakauer is feeling.  He describes the lack of oxygen he has and the insane conditions he was in. ]]> 2021-08-30 17:47:47 UTC https://padlet.com/danilonis23/8xbwiafo84ob2fje/wish/1705067577