Into Thin Air is a non-fiction novel that describes the experiences of the author, Jon Krakauer as he reached the summit of Mount Everest during the 1996 Disaster. This is my second analysis of the novel in which I will be analyzing the text from an archetypal perspective following the next couple chapters of the book.
There are a variety of different imagery and themes in Into Thin Air, as well as many character types. Looking at the protagonist of the story, Jon Krakauer, we can see that his character is the hero of the story. The archetypal hero’s journey follows the hero’s change from innocence to experienced. Then the hero enters a familiar environment which then descents into danger. The hero must face tough tasks after this before returning home. I believe that Jon Krakauer follows the hero’s journey, as right from the beginning of the novel we see him go from innocence to experienced during his childhood as he started climbing when he was only nine years old. He then enters a familiar environment after being invited to climb Everest by Outside magazine. The climb to the summit of Everest is not a safe task. As they ascend the mountain they lose a couple of people, however this is not the descent into danger.
In chapter 14 Jon finally reaches the summit, which is where the novel began. This is when the descent into danger starts to occur. “…Then asked Andy to return the favor by turning off my regulator in order to conserve my gas until the step cleared. He mistakenly opened the valve instead of closing it, however, and ten minutes later all my oxygen was gone.” (Krakauer 401). Jon begins to descend the mountain to get more oxygen, but when he finds the extra canisters, he asks Andy Harris to get him one and Andy says that they are all empty. The canisters were not empty however and Jon realizes that Andy is suffering from hypoxia. Krakauer continues to descend when he gets stuck in a blizzard and he is almost out of oxygen again. He then goes into his tent thinking to himself that everyone is safe and everything turned out great, but in reality none of that was true. “It would be many hours before I learned that everything had not in fact turned out great – that nineteen men and women were stranded up on the mountain by the storm…” (Krakauer 423). So far in the novel, Jon has followed the archetypal hero’s journey and has descended into a lot of danger and is starting to face very difficult tasks. I expect Jon to face even more tasks before finally reaching the bottom of the mountain ready to return home.
As I said in my first analysis, Into Thin Air is similar to Life of Pi. Not only in story but, I find that Pi Patel’s journey is a lot like Jon Krakauer’s, since they both follow the archetypal hero’s journey. For example, Pi begins talking about how his uncle taught him to swim, moving from innocence to experienced. Later, the boat Pi and his family are on, sinks and Pi is left stranded in a familiar environment (the ocean/water). The story descends into danger when Pi finds the tiger as well as many other animals on his life boat, and faces a variety of difficult tasks all the way until he finally reaches land at the end of the novel. This is very similar to Krakauer’s story. The theme of fear and anxiety is constantly present throughout Into Thin Air, but is never explicitly shown and is more present in what the reader is feeling while reading, than in the actual text. For example, when Chen Yu-Nan left his tent to use the washroom, he only had his liners for his boots on. I felt a sense of anxiety for what was about to happen while reading this. “As he squatted, he lost footing on the ice and went hurtling down the Lhotse Face.” (Krakauer 343). This feel of anxiety is present all over the novel since the start of the book.
I really enjoyed reading this novel and found it very interesting. There a ton of different characters in the novel and mentioning all of their archetypes would take a lot of time. I love how the author tells his story from a first person perspective and starts off the story in the middle before giving some background information and how Jon Krakauer gives the reader a feel for the harsh environment that he is in. This novel was an exciting journey to read.
Sources:
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air /Jon Krakauer. Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Pub. Group, 1997. Sources:
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