Jon Krakauer‘s novel, Into Thin Air, is a true story which describes the horrific events that the author experienced while embarking Everest during the 1996 disaster. This is my final analysis of the novel in which I analyze the archetypal character of Mount Everest throughout the entire story.
After reading the novel, I realized that Everest plays the role of the deceiver, even though the mountain is not a living character. According to archetypal theory, the deceiver is one who seems innocent at first offering something of desire, but what they offer is soon exchanged with death and horrible fate. I could see Everest following this character path as at first, Everest offers the desire of climbing its beautiful heights. Krakauer was always fascinated with Mount Everest and a long forgotten dream of his is re-ignited when Jon receives an offer from Outside Magazine. The beauty and desire of climbing Mount Everest is what lures Jon in before the mountain shows its true identity. I found that the way that Jon describes the mountain throughout the book shows that he is mesmerized and distracted by the beauty of Everest causing him to overlook dangers. For example, when Jon is climbing the Khumbu Icefall, the most dangerous part of the entire ascent, which Jon describes saying “As dawn washed the darkness from the sky, the shattered glacier was revealed to be a three-dimensional landscape of phantasmal beauty (Krakauer 189). This shows how Everest distracts Jon away from its dangers.
We see the true identity of Everest, slowly being revealed at the top of the summit where Jon officially fulfills his desire of witnessing the beautiful sight at the top of the mountain. The incoming storm that Jon sees at the summit and overlooks, soon invades the mountain as Jon is descending to camp 4 (South Col) and makes the descent much harder for him. He arrives at his tent thinking to himself that everything has turned out great, but then finds out “that nineteen men and women were stranded up on the mountain by the storm, caught in a desperate struggle for their lives” (Krakauer 423).
This storm that is talked about throughout the entire story, causes the death of many climbers, some were close to Krakauer, some were not. The deaths include Bruce Herod, Scott Fischer, Rob Hall, Yosuko Namba, and his close friend, Doug Hansen, as well as a couple others. I found that at this point, Everest’s true horrific character is removing the mask of beauty and desire it wears, to reveal something that traumatizes Jon for life. “Confronted with this tally, my mind balked and retreated into a weird, almost robotic state of detachment. I felt emotionally anesthetized yet hyperaware, as if I had fled into a bunker deep inside my skull and was peering out at the wreckage around me through a narrow, armoured slit” (Krakauer 516). This horrible fate stays with Jon for the rest of his life.
I believe that the most important death was Andy Harris‘ because throughout the story Jon blames himself for his death. For example at the end of the novel Jon says “My actions – or failure to act – played a direct role in the death of Andy Harris” (Krakauer 568). This horrific fate that stays with Jon forever after climbing the mountain, which concludes the roll of the deceiver that Everest plays.
Till this day Jon Krakauer is still traumatized of the events that unfolded on Everest. I found an article about a live interview of Krakauer from 2015, in which Jon says that climbing Everest was the worst mistake of his life (Buxton). He also says that he still suffers from PTSD from the climb (Buxton). Everest deceived Jon into fulfilling his dream of climbing the mountain, which then led on to many deaths, and finally, gives him with a terrible fate of guilt and PTSD that stays with him forever.
Sources:
Buxton, Ryan. “Jon Krakauer Says Climbing Mount Everest Was The ‘Biggest Mistake’ Of His Life.” HuffPost Canada, HuffPost Canada, 15 Aug. 2015, www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/jon-krakauer-climbing-mt-everest-was-the-biggest-mistake-of-my-life_n_55ce124ce4b055a6dab0273c.
Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air /Jon Krakauer. Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Pub. Group, 1997.
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