Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
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Portfolio
I chose to read and analyze the non-fiction novel, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, for my portfolio. The story follows the main protagonist and author, Jon Krakauer, and his death defying expedition of climbing Everest during the 1996 disaster, that changes him forever. My focus on the novel was analyzing the archetypal character, the deceiver, that Mount Everest portrays in the story. I expressed this in my thesis for my essay which I chose to be narrative so that the story-telling elements of a narrative essay help in analyzing the significance of my thesis. The three media texts that I chose were the blog, website, and concept map. I chose the concept map to help connect my ideas for my topic together in a clear, informal way. I also feel that the concept map should be viewed first before looking at any of the other texts as it provides a background for them. My blog and website are almost the same, except one is written in an informal tone and one is written in a formal tone. I wrote both of these based off the points that I had collected on my concept map. I did this because I felt that someone would want something visually appealing and formal (the website), and someone else would something visually appealing and informal (the blog). the links to all of these are provided below.
Underneath the Beautiful Mask of Everest: Final Analysis of Into Thin Air
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.
The Heroic Journey of Jon Krakauer: Analysis of Into Thin Air (pt.2)
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:
Wrongfully Convicted
The story of Adnan Syed from the podcast, Serial, was a topic I have covered recently in a previous blog, but for those who don’t know, Serial is a podcast narrated by Sarah Koenig, about Adnan Syed, who was accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend in 1999, Hae Min Lee, at the age of 17. He has been held at the Maryland Correctional Facility ever since.
On February 28, 1999, Adnan Syed was sleeping at home when detectives showed up and arrested him for the murder of Hae Min Lee. But before all this happened, we have to look at a couple weeks back. Adnan and Hae had recently broken up and according to Adnan, it was a healthy break-up in which they remained friends. Then, on January 13, 1999, Hae was suppose to pick up her cousin from school but never arrived. She was then reported missing later. Then after weeks of searching, her body was found on February 9, 1999 in Leakin Park in a small grave. This all then lead up to Adnan’s arrest.
The funny thing about all this, is that Adnan’s conviction was solely based off of one man’s story, that man was Jay Wilds. There was no solid evidence or anything as Sarah states “There was nothing linking him to the crime, no DNA, no fibers, no hair, no matching soil from the bottom of his boots.” (Koenig). Jay was interrogated by police and the story he told them starts off with Jay addressing Adnan’s hate for Hae. Jay mentions that it was his girlfriend, Stephanie McPherson’s, birthday and that Adnan bought Stephanie a gift before Jay could. He then goes on to talk about how they went shopping at the mall and then Jay drove Adnan to school. Jay says Adnan gave him his car and phone and tells Jay to pick him up when he calls him. Jay explains that Adnan calls back saying that Hae is dead. Jay comes and picks up Adnan and they drive around and then Adnan says to take him back to school so he can be seen at practice. Jay finally finishes by saying they go get some shovels later on and go to Leakin Park and bury Hae in a grave that Jay describes as a small 6 inch hole.
I truly believe that Adnan Syed is innocent and was wrongfully convicted for Hae’s murder because there was no hard evidence to properly convict him and going off of one person’s story seems unjust. During the podcast Sarah mentions “The story Jay told police had problems because it kept changing from telling to telling.” (Koenig) making Jay’s story inconsistent and creates speculations. Some believe that Jay was coached by police to say what he said and Jay changed the story to match Adnan’s cell phone records. I don’t find this idea too far fetched as in the Netflix series When They See Us (A true story), follows a group of young African-American kids being forced to say things by police which ends in them all being arrested and put into prison. In Adnan’s side of the story, he said that he would have probably been in the library around the time Hae was presumably murdered (Note: this was said when Sarah called Adnan over the phone). Asia McClain, a student who knew Adnan, wrote him a letter not too long after his imprisonment which said that she had saw him in the library at 2:30 pm around the time of Hae’s death, and explained why she remembered that part of the day (Note: this letter was sent years before Sarah talked to Adnan). The problem was that this was revealed too late to benefit Adnan. One thing I found really sketchy was that no one could remember that day 100% clearly except for Jay, who remembered the day perfectly to the point that he knew how deep the hole was. This is all to perfect and makes me believe that either Jay murdered Hae or Jay was forced to lie.
Find more letters here: https://serialpodcast.org/season-one/1/the-alibi
There are a lot more questions that could arise but some of them are pretty far fetched. For example, some believe that Jay murdered Hae out of revenge for Adnan buying Stephanie a gift before him. Although Jay’s story may be really convincing there is a lot of open and hidden evidence that prove Adnan’s innocence. I hope that one day Adnan will get the freedom he deserves and is proven not guilty.
Sources:
Koenig, Sarah. “Episode 01: The Alibi.” Serial, Sarah Koenig, serialpodcast.org/season-one/1/the-alibi. Sources:
Disaster at The Top of The World: Analysis of Into Thin Air
On May 10, 1996, Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mount Everest, 29,028 feet above sea level. The novel that I chose to read titled “Into Thin Air” is a non-fiction novel about the author, Jon Krakauer, climbing Mount Everest and his experience with the 1996 Everest disaster.
The novel begins in the middle of the story in May of 1996 at the summit of Everest where Jon Krakauer is describing the top of the mountain and the rough journey to the summit. He mentions that he was taking photos and something caught his attention. “To the south. where the sky had been perfectly clear just an hour earlier, a blanket of clouds now hid Pumori, Ama Dablam, and the other lesser peaks surrounding Everest.” (Krakauer 43) foreshadowing the disaster that is later to occur. I found that this method of starting the novel near the climax of the story is very effective as it hooks the reader and right from the start and allows the reader to inference what is about to occur for the rest of the story. This style of starting the story from the middle or end is used often and reminded me of other books I’ve read such as, Life of Pi, which starts the novel from the end of the story.
While reading, I found myself inferring future events that could occur very soon and later on in the story, the quote I stated earlier shows this. Another example of this is in chapter 2 when Krakauer is talking about his childhood of climbing and mentions “Secretly I dreamed of ascending Everest myself one day; for more than a decade it remained a burning ambition.” (Krakauer 68). From this I inferred that soon, Krakauer will be given the chance to climb Everest, which occurs later in chapter 2 when he gets an offer for a magazine named Outside, and inferred that later on in the story, Krakauer will venture to the summit where the situation is about to climax, which is only possible to inference due to how Krakauer started the novel, which again, shows the efficiency of starting like that.
In some parts of the story, I noticed some text foreshadowed that a possible problem may occur later on. When reading these parts of the story I asked my self questions about what is to come or if a problem could occur. For example in chapter 3 Krakauer talks about climbing with a guide and says that he has only climbed with trusted friends as you need to have confidence in your partners. Krakauer then says “But trust in one’s partners is a luxury denied those who sign on as clients on a guided ascent; one must put one’s faith in the guide instead.” (Krakauer 105). Right away, I saw a problem with this as climbing with a bunch of random people all putting their trust into one person rather than each other didn’t sound safe at all. I started to ask questions like “What if one climber is weaker than the others?” “Can they really be trusted?” “How can someone trust a random person with their lives?” “Will someones death be caused by this later on?”.
I tried to form images while reading to get a feel of what a place may feel like and what a character may look like. An example of this is in chapter 7 when Krakauer describes himself waiting for his teammates at Camp One and sees a person named, Pete Schoening. Krakauer then describes him “Dressed in faded, threadbare GoreTex, a couple months shy from his sixty-ninth birthday, Pete was a gangly, slightly stooped man…” (Krakauer 212). This put an image of a man in a big jacket with graying hair and wrinkly skin and head bent a little forward all the time. I find myself looking at characters in a more “what do they look like” way and looking at places in a “what does that place look and feel like” way.
So far I found this novel interesting and my reflection has showed me that I have an interest for novels similar to Into Thin Air. As a reader, I believe that I am a strong reader but do have trouble staying focused sometimes, especially if I find one part boring. Usually this happens when the author decides to give some background information. I am excited to finish off the rest of this novel.
Sources: Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air /Jon Krakauer. Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Pub. Group, 1997. Sources:
Golden Boy to Murderer The Story Of Adnan Syed
“Serial” is a podcast about a teenager named Adnan Syed who was convicted of first degree murder at the age of 17. Adnan Syed who was known as the golden child of his community was arrested on February 28, 1999 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. I listened to the first episode which talked about evidences and stories that lead up to his conviction. A variety of different stories were said from different people and most of them made Adnan seem innocent. All except for one story, his friend Jay was interrogated by the police and he provided a story that could not be proven wrong by any of the other stories. The funny thing about all of this was that there was no hard evidence to prove Adnan committed the murder.
I found the podcast really interesting and felt that a podcast was the best way to communicate Adnan’s story. I felt engaged in the story the entire time and felt as if I was having a conversation with the narrator, Sarah Koenig. The podcast hooked me into its story through its tone that the narrator provided and I didn’t want to stop listening and it made me want to check out more episodes. I found that the podcast really put the listener in the narrators perspective at times and made the listener feel engaged with the narrator. A podcast was definitely the right choice for Adnan’s story.
I feel that it is more efficient to listen to a text rather than read a text and think that people, especially today, will understand and remember what they hear rather than what they read. Adam from Bookstr states “How can we justify spending months reading the epic series Game of Thrones when we could just binge watch it over the weekend like everybody else?” (Spera) which shows the efficiency of listening. Benefits to reading include increasing vocabulary and having physical copies of information. A drawback to reading however, is that it consumes a lot of time. On the other hand a benefit to listening is that information can be obtained in a shorter period of time and a drawback to listening is that you don’t have a physical piece of the information. Even The Dinner Table says “Getting your content—whether it be news, entertainment, or learning something—over audio makes so much sense.” (The Dinner Table). Since the podcasts release the story of Adnan Syed has become very popular. I respect how hard Sarah Koenig has worked to prove Adnan’s innocence and help out Adnan’s family and I believe that she can prove him innocent. Adnan’s Family is probably very happy that Sarah is helping towards the freedom of their son after all these years.
The podcast is opened with Sarah Koenig talking about how well teenagers can remember days from before. She starts by asking “How did you get to work last Wednesday.” (Koenig) and continues to ask similar questions to give the listener a perspective. She then plays audio of her asking teenagers if they remember what they did 6 weeks ago in which they all can’t give a clear answer. Personally I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday. This makes the listener concerned about Adnan’s case for the rest of the podcast. Adnan as well as other people that were asked could hardly remember what they did the day of the murder. All except for Jay who remembers that day perfectly. This raises the concern that Jay could be lying or maybe hiding something.
“Serial” was an amazing podcast and it has interested me into the rest of the podcast as well as other podcasts. Personally I feel that Adnan is innocent and I hope that Sarah and whoever else involved in the case gets enough proof to prove it.
Sources: “Thoughts on Serial?” Wait But Why, The Dinner Table, waitbutwhy.com/table/thoughts-on-serial. Spera, Adam. “Is Reading Better Than Listening?” Bookstr, Adam Spera, 20 Nov. 2018, bookstr.com/article/is-reading-better-than-listening/. Koenig, Sarah. “Episode 01: The Alibi.” Serial, Sarah Koenig, serialpodcast.org/season-one/1/the-alibi.
Why is ENG4U required for university?
All university programs have one thing in common, they all require grade 12 university level English. The English course gives you certain skills (writing, reading, etc.) that are very helpful to have for writing essays. These skills can also apply your own life in writing resumes and make your writing look more presentable and proper, but why should it be required at the university level for all university programs?
I do agree that ENG4U should be a requirement for all programs in university even if your program has basically no relation to English. I believe the skills that you achieve from four years of high school English are really helpful for other courses as well as all of university moving forward. These skills include writing, grammar, reading, etc. and all of these are applicable to every program in some way
Lets say you were in a science program. You will probably write a couple lab reports throughout your semesters. The skills you have achieved from ENG4U can be applied in writing this report. Your writing and grammar skills can help you to write up an excellent report and achieve the grade you want. This is just one example of how English caries on throughout university and is basically mandatory in order to do well which is why it is required.
” The college admissions officers will expect you to have strong writing and reading skills since these are at the heart of college success whether you’re an engineer or a history major.” (Cody). “English has taught me to think critically in ways I never even thought about.” (jfmmu46). “By understanding symbolism, it expands your critical thinking ability.” (Thedarkalley). These are all opinions from others about if English should be required for university. All three agree that it is very beneficial to have and is the heart of success for university.
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English should definitely be required for all university programs as it provides you with the knowledge and skill to have enhanced skills in writing and reading that can be applied to different areas that can be helpful for any program in university. Even things like Shakespeare that may seem pointless benefit you as it teaches you how to analyze texts. English is not as pointless as people think and it should stay mandatory for university for years to come.
Sources: Cody, Eileen. “How Much High School English Do You Need for College Admissions?” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 27 Jan. 2019, www.thoughtco.com/how-many-years-of-english-needed-788857. jfmmu46. “Why Is English Mandatory?” UThink, jfmmu46, 21 Apr. 2014, uthink.com/question/why-is-english-mandatory/. Thedarkalley. “Is Mandatory English Class Really Necessary?” Debate.org, Ramramgeorge, www.debate.org/opinions/is-mandatory-english-class-really-necessary.
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
- Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
- Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
- Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
- What topics do you think you’ll write about?
- Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
- If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
Billal's Blog 