Blog Post 3- Lexie Anderson

The overriding tones portrayed in the third half of Into Thin Air include misery, sadness, depression and a little bit of suspense. Chapter fifteen begins just as many of the climbers are reaching the summit. At this point, Krakauer has already begun descending, however most have not. From this point on, the story only becomes more and more depressing. As the terrible storm begins to close in, the novel quickly becomes a sequence of gruesome deaths. Throughout these final chapters, Krakauer did a great job of making the reader fall in love with a character, and then subsequently explain the characters merciless death. For example, " Before signing off, Hall told his wife, 'I love you. Sleep well my sweetheart. Please don't worry too much.' Those were the last words anyone would hear him speak. Attempts to make radio contacts were all unanswered. Twelve days later they found hall lying on his side in a shallow ice hollow, his upper body buried beneath snow"(247). Similar stories to these also occurred for Scott Fischer as well as Lopsang, Hansen, Ngawang and Yasuko. Misery and sadness are two other very prominent tones in Krakaurs writing. This is no surprise considering the amount of pain and suffering Jon went through himself. For example, Jon explained the atmosphere at camp as "the ongoing hypoxia, completed with my profound fatigue, exacerbated the sense of chaos and despair. The batteries in our one remaining radio were nearly depleted.an atmosphere of terminal entropy pervaded the camp, heightened by the fact that out team was suddenly without leadership: rob and Andy were both gone"(259). This is only one quote of practically the entire 3rd half of he book that explains how horrible and depressing conditions were on Everest. The book never really had happy ending or sense of peace, seeing as the last line of the Everest section of the book is "beidlman paused 'But I can't help thinking about Yasuko' he said when he resumed, his voice hushed. 'She was so little. I can still feel her fingers sliding across my biceps, and then letting go. I never even turned to look back"(301). As guessed, the entire book had a depressing tone that never failed to go away. Considering the book was about a tragedy that killed the most people in one season on Mount Everest, it really isn't surprising. Overall, the book was extremely interesting and entertaining to read. I found myself not wanting to put the book down, wanting to know what was going to happen next and who was going to live or die. 

My favorite part of the book was when Beck Weathers "arose from the dead" and came back into the story. I always enjoyed becks character: a Texan who was loud with his opinions and friendly towards everyone. During his decent alongside Pittman and Yasuko, Beck faced extreme frostbite and hypoxia. Because of this, he lost all ability to make sound decisions, and ended up being blown way by a gust of wind in the extremely harsh and cold night. By this point, every expected that Beck was as good as dead, and called off all searches for him. It wasn't until chapter 20 that Burleson said, "'check it out. Somebody's coming into camp.' The person's bare right hand, naked to the frigid wind and grotesquely frost bitten, was outstretched in a kind of odd salute. Whoever it was reminded Athens of a mummy in a low budget horror film. As the mummy lurched into camp, Burleson realized that it was none other than Beck Weathers, somehow risen from the dead"(263). Beck was, in my opinion, one of the best survival stories out of everyone in the book. He explained how cold and exposed he was to the wind, and how everyone around him was dead. Even though he was blind in one eye, and had hardly and control of his body or mental state, he still made it down to camp on is own and survived.