Into Thin Air: Hero Study

"Every time I coughed, the pain from my torn thoracic cartilage felt like someone was jabbing a knife beneath my ribs, and brought tears to my eyes. But if I wanted a crack at the summit, I knew that I had no choice but to ignore my infirmities and climb." (Jon Krakauer, 214)

Before I can answer what qualities I see in my protagonist that I might consider being heroic in nature, I first need to know what it means to be a hero. According to our work with archetypes, we learned the essence of the hero is not bravery or nobility but self-sacrifice. He will ensure separation, hardship and must pay a price to obtain his goal. Some of the qualities of the hero are a new identity which grows as the hero travels through his journey and learns from various experiences that occur in it. Finally, the hero can receive this new identity and knowledge from a variety of other characters like a mentor, love interest or the villain.

So, after identifying what a hero is and reviewing what occurred in the book's plot, I believe Jon Krakauer, the story's main character, is a hero. Mr. Krakauer displays the many qualities of the archetypal hero like self-sacrifice, the will to pay the price to obtain a goal and the receiving of a new identity due to what occurred over the course of his journey. Also, Jon has some character traits that aren't stated in the archetypal hero summary. One of these character traits is perseverance, which was vital in Jon's quest toward his goal of climbing the tallest mountain in the world.

As stated before, Jon Krakauer displayed many qualities of the archetypal hero. First of all, throughout his journey, Mr. Krakauer displayed self-sacrifice, one of the most important qualities of a hero. This quality of Jon has displayed numerous times in the story from when he gave up his life in the United States of America to climb Mt. Everest in order to write an article about his experiences to when he was willing to write a book about the events that occurred on the mountain. However, it was when he was ascending the last few hundred metres of this mighty mountain that I realized Jon was willing to sacrifice everything in order to get to the top of the world. At the time of this final ascent, Jon had an awful cold and torn thoracic cartilage that caused large amounts of pain whenever he coughed. However, Jon wouldn't let this serious injury hold him back from achieving his lifelong goal. Therefore, Jon was willing to pay the price in order to achieve his goal.

In the end, Jon's self-sacrifice and the events that occurred while on the mountain over the course of his journey resulted in a new identity for Jon. With all of the deaths and awful things that happened while Jon was on the mountain along with the positives like completing the climb and surviving, Jon received a new appreciation of life and learned if he's able to climb the world's tallest mountain; he could do anything if he put his mind to it.

Through Jon's journey, he displayed many qualities of the archetypal hero; however, he also displayed a quality that was required in order for him to be successful. That quality was perseverance. Perseverance was extremely important for Jon because it was what caused him to complete his goal of climbing the mountain. Throughout his journey, numerous conflicts and complications arose and stood in the way of his quest for the top. However, through perseverance, Jon was able to achieve his goal and survive the deadliest week in Mt. Everest history.