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Into Thin Air Analysis

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Throughout their whole lives people strive to stand out, to get noticed or to be different than others in hopes to find fame, fortune or success. However, it’s questionable whether its worth knowingly risking their lives. In Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, people are willing to risk their lives to feel a sense of accomplishment. Every person, whether it is an average person, a skilled guide journalist or producer, strives for their own definition of success.
Into Thin Air has many characters easily classifiable as average people . As it is rare for someone to attempt Everest without experience, these characters have various climbing experience though not as extensive as guides or professional mountaineers. One that comes to mind is Doug Hansen, …show more content…

Instead of risking their lives for their own glory, they do it to help others reach the summit and for the benefits that follow. Besides a natural love for climbing mountains, finances push them to attempt these expeditions over and over. There are reasons guides like Andy Hall feel high pressure to succeed and as Krakauer explains,, “he was savvy enough to understand that the more attention he got from the news media, the easier it would be to coax corporations to open their checkbooks” (32). Hall uses his media attention to fund trips to Mt. Everest and would do whatever it took to help an important climber reach the top and which is essentially where he finds his sense of accomplishment and media attention. Guides like Scott Fischer have to make a name for themselves first, and initially might do so unsafely. Don Peterson speaks of Fischer with awe, proclaiming, “It didn’t matter how much pain he was in- he would ignore it and keep going,” referring to Scott Fischers six months of traveling with “an open suppurating wound” (63). It is possible that with such desperation to succeed and be well known as a climber, guides would risk their lives by ignoring injuries and health. Its evident that even the most skilled still face challenges but continue to pursue a dangerous lifestyle for

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