Into Thin Air: The Reward

Question: After completing his climb of Everest and surviving, was the reward of climbing the world's tallest mountain important to Mr. Krakauer at the time?

“It would be many hours before I learned that everything had not in fact turned out great-later I discovered that nineteen men and women were stranded up on the mountain by the storm, caught in a desperate struggle for their lives” (page 255).

Answer: On May 13th, after a difficult climb through Camp Three, Camp Two, Camp One and the Icefall, Jon Krakauer and what was remaining of his expedition, including Beck Weathers, descended into Base Camp, completing their journey from their normal lives to the top of the world. The select few people in the world that have achieved this feat normally are very happy when they get back to Base Camp because it completes years of hard work, many weeks of suffering through injuries, altitude sickness and many other conflicts and complications and the final stage of an archetypal journey that was a dream for many of them to complete.

However, as Jon Krakauer and what was remaining of his expedition, including Beck Weathers, descended into Base Camp, they didn't celebrate or reflect on the feat they had just completed. They couldn't and wouldn't do this due to the awful events that occurred on the mountain during their climb which they did during the deadliest storm in Mt. Everest history. All told, a dozen people died on Everest that season, changing the survivors lives, including Jon Krakauer’s forever.

Due to the many friends and fellow mountaineers that were lose on the mountain by the survivors of the climb, Mr. Krakauer's completion of his childhood dream and reward of knowing that he could do anything that he wanted if he tried weren't important to him. In fact, he didn't even reflect positively about his success. Instead, he wrote about how each climber, whether in his expedition or not, would be missed by him and his fellow survivors because they all helped him and his friends along the way. Each climber on the mountain played a vital role for the other climbers as they helped each other mentality, physically or spiritually at some point during their journey to the summit.

Therefore, Jon's reward that came with the completion of his archetypal journey wasn't important to him at all as he and his fellow survivors descended into Base Camp. So, instead of celebrating his achievements with the others at Base Camp, he attended a memorial for everyone that died on the mountain while many of the surviving climbers were air lifted to area hospitals by helicopters due to various injuries. This memorial and the events that occurred on the mountain changed Jon's life forever so due to the magnitude and scale of this catastrophe, less than a year after the horrific tragedy happened; Mr. Krakauer published a book on the events that transpired on the mountain. The book’s title: Into Thin Air.

Into Thin Air: The Ordeal

Question: How was the fact the book Into Thin Air had a long ordeal significant to the plot of the story?

After reading a little bit of Roald Dahl with my siblings and basing my last few posts on some of his works, I've decided to return to blogging about Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer because the book displayed more aspects of the archetypal journey than Roald Dahl's The BFG or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory did.

Answer: The long ordeal in the book Into Thin Air was significant to the plot because it created tension in the plot, caused the reader to become interested in the story and developed the many main characters on the mountain.

First of all, the long ordeal caused definite tension in the plot. After Jon crossed the threshold by finally committing to Outside Magazine's offer to have him climb to mountain and write an article about his experiences, he jumped on a plane to travel to Kathmandu. Here, he met his mentor Rob Hall, the guide of Krakauer's Adventure Consultants climbing group and began learning his way around the Special World through numerous tests, enemies and allies. Some of these tests were difficult acclimatization climbs up and down the mountain to adjust to the high altitudes found on the mountain. Then, after many weeks of these climbs and numerous conflicts and complications, the expedition's assault of the summit began as well as the story's ordeal.

Due to this climb begin so long and filled with details, the ordeal became very long. This resulted in the reader feeling like they were on the mountain and travelling with the mountaineers every step of the way. However, as the life changing storm began to roll in and numerous awful events occurred like Andy Harris falling off of the mountain due to the blizzard and many climbers freezing to death, tension began to build as we followed every climber's struggle to survive on the world's tallest mountain.

Every little event that happened during this storm, the deadliest in Everest history, caused another larger event to happen and the reader to become more intrigued in the story. Therefore, due to the length of the ordeal, the reader became more and more interested in the plot as they felt they were in the shoes of each climber, began wondering what will happen next to each character and thinking about what they would do in each climber's situation. All of this thought and interest in the plot by the reader resulted in the story to be better understood and caused the book to become impossible to put down.

The length of this book's ordeal also caused the development of the story's character to occur. Since the book was written by Jon Krakauer himself, I got to see him evolve from a confident, well-trained and experienced mountaineer at the beginning of the story to a tired, suffering and unmotivated one during the ordeal as he attempted to find Camp Four, the place Rob Hall's expedition was to return to after their assault of the summit from the South Col. This transformation displayed a whole new side of Jon that we hadn't seen so far in the book while showing the power of nature and what it can do to man.

In the end, the long ordeal and its significance to the story resulted in an exciting plot line filled with twists and turns that caused tension in the story, an intrigued reader as they travel with each climber (but many Jon) and feel their highs and lows over the course of the ordeal and the development of each character as they displayed many different character traits and feelings due to the awful situation they were in.

The BFG: Approach Of The Inmost Cave

Question: How is the approach of the inmost cave by the BFG and Sophie significant to the rest of their journey and the plot of the story?

" ' If we can't save tonight's children, we can anyway save tomorrow's, ' Sophie said (Dahl, 124).

Answer: After many weeks of living in the cave in Giant Country with the BFG and seeing the giants leave every night to travel to other parts of the Earth to eat "human beans" or children, one night Sophie and the BFG agreed that enough was enough and something had to be done about the children-eating giants. So, the two devised a plan to have The BFG mix a dream using the ideas from Sophie which will show the Queen what the giants do each night; creating an awful nightmare for the Queen. The two will then set off for the Buckingham Palace and blow the dream into the Queen's bedroom. The BFG will then leave Sophie on the Queen's windowsill and retreat into the palace gardens to hide. When the Queen awakens, Sophie will tell her that all of her dream was true. Since the dream includes the knowledge that Sophie would be there when she woke up, the Queen will believes her and speak with the Big Friendly Giant. In doing so, and with the assistance of many others, the Queen will create a plan with the BFG, Sophie and some of the other powerful people in Europe like the King Of Sweden.

The next night, while the giants were gone eating children and everyone in the world was asleep, the BFG and Sophie left with the nightmare they had created that afternoon and travelled to Buckingham Palace. Here, their plan sprung into action and everything went as planned.

This section of the story was the approach of the inmost cave because it prepared Sophie and the BFG for the ordeal of attempting to capture the giants. Therefore, it was extremely significant to the story's plot and to Sophie's and the BFG's journey because it added tension to the story as it built up toward the ordeal or crisis and will help the Big Friendly Giant and Sophie complete their journeys.

The approach of the inmost cave in this story was significant to the story because it added tension to the plot by causing the reader to doubt the revolution of the crisis by the two heroes.Since their plan was so crazy and complex but vital toward the completion of their journey, I was unsure it would be successful. This caused me to predict what might occur in the future whether the plan is successful or not. In the end, this stage of the archetypal journey caused me to become more interested in the development of the plot and the characters because the importance of success but the chance that success might not happen.

Second and finally, the approach of the inmost cave was significant to Sophie and the BFG's journey and completion of their goal of getting rid of the giants. Without the assistance of the Queen and the other leaders of the world, there would have been no way the 25 foot Big Friendly Giant and 4 foot Sophie would have been able to seize the nine 50 foot giants' eating of children every night. Therefore, the approach of the inmost cave was extremely important to their journey because it will provide the two with others that will be able to help them make the world a safer place by increasing their chances of success with a good plan and teamwork among everyone that will help transport the giants from Giant Country (which the BFG will lead them to) to a large pit in England by helicopter.

The BFG: Tests, Enemies And Allies

Question: How did the tests and enemies of the Giant Country, the Special World in Sophie's journey, cause the friendship between Sophie and the BFG to become stronger?

Answer: After Sophie arrived in Giant Country following the BFG's snatching of her, she learned she had been caught by the only benevolent giant in the world and had to be kidnapped by the BFG when he saw her because if she would have told the world she saw a giant, the safety of him and the evil giants in Giant Country would be at risk. Also, he wouldn't be able to complete his job of catching dreams while in Dream World and, by putting them into the end of his magical trumpet, blow them into children's ears for a pleasant dream every night. Both are very different, the BFG standing 25 feet while Sophie stands about four, but it is their similarities that cause them to become friends. Sophie and the BFG have both lived very lonely lives, Sophie in the orphanage and the BFG in his cave in Giant Country, but have always wanted a friend to be there for them. This common desire causes the two to quickly become friends shortly after they arrive in Giant Country after returning from Sophie orphanage in England. However, in my opinion, it is the numerous tests and enemies that the two face together in this strange Special World that cause the friendship between them to grow.

Early in the story, the Bloodbottler, one of the meanest of the giants in Giant Country decides to go into the BFG's cave to stir up some trouble while the BFG was showing Sophie a snozzecumber, the only food that grows in Giant Country. When the Bloodbottler enters, the BFG distracts the giant long enough to give Sophie enough time to hid. When Sophie was hidden, the BFG then decided to attempt to get rid of the giant by offering a bite of the disgusting snoozecumber he was eating in hopes the awful taste of the vegetable would cause him to leave. However, the snoozecumber was the location that Sophie chose to hide in so when the Bloodbottler decided to take a bite of the snoozecumber, he also ate Sophie. Luckily, the giant spat the vegetable out right away and ran out of the cave immediately while Sophie was able to survive the near death experience. This part of the plot, obviously, was very serious, but it resulted in the BFG showing his love for Sophie as he ensured she was okay, apologized and helped clean her off.

Another test that brought the two closer together as friends was when the BFG invited Sophie to travel to Dream World with him because he had enough trust in her to bring her to this special place. Here, Sophie helped the BFG catch dreams that would be used to help the children of the world to sleep well while learning about the many tricks the BFG uses to catch these small and silent balls of light. This test displayed the BFG's trust in Sophie because it was the first time he had ever allowed anyone to come here with him.

One of the last large tests that would build the relationship between the two was when the BFG found a nightmare or "trugglehumper" while in Dream World and decided to use his trumpet and some assistance from Sophie to blow the dream into the Fleshlumpeater's ear while the giants were sleeping. The bad dream caused the Fleshlumpeater to kick another giant and start a large melee between the giants as they woke up. This test proved to the two that, with some hard work, good ideas, assistance from others and luck, the two would be able to defeat the giants and save the children of the world.

In the end, these tests and enemies that were found in the Special World, as well as their similar characteristics, caused the BFG and Sophie to become very good friends. This friendship, common hate for the giants and desire for a safe world where giants don't eat children, caused the two to create a plan that would hopefully rid the Earth of giants forever.