Into Thin Air Chapter 8 & 9

Chapter 8 beings with the group heading off for their second acclimatization climb from Base Camp to Base One.  Krakauer is starting to feel that is body is becoming more comfortable with the high altitude.  Hall plans for the group to spend two nights  at Camp One, and then spend three nights and Camp Two before making their way back down to Base Camp.  Krakauer makes it to Camp One before the majority of the group does so he helps a Sherpa, Ang Dorje, set up the camp.  Krakauer looks up to Ang Dorje because he has climbed Everest three times.  I feel that Krakauer finds Ang to be a source of inspiration.  I would too if I were struggling to climb the mountain once and the man next to me had climbed it three times before.  In the morning they begin to climb again.  At 21,000 feet Krakauer sees a dead body.  Hall assumes it was a Sherpa that died a number of years ago. I cannot imagine what was going through the groups head when they saw the dead body.  I feel that it would not only make me extremely scared for my own life, but also question what I was doing and if the expedition was worth it. The next two days of climbing were extremely difficult due to the altitude.  Ngawang begins to have trouble walking and becomes very sick.  He also becomes delirious and is coughing up blood.  Caroline Mackenzie, the doctor, and Scott Fischer say he is suffering from high altitude Pulmonary Edema.  Ngawang denies treatment and keeps climbing and eventually is sent to a hospital.

In chapter 9, the group leaves camp two extremely early in the  morning in brutal weather conditions.  They begin to climb in a wind child that goes down to forty degrees below zero.  I would never be able to make it through the cold.  Understandably, Krakauer becomes too cold to climb.  His body becomes numbs and he stops to wait for a guide.  Almost all of the group members have frost bite.  Everyones spirits at the camp are low.  Can you blame them? They are stuck in terrible conditions and have no wear to turn.  No source of heat and barely any source of energy.  Low spirits must have made the trip so much more exhausting.   This also causes them to get in an argument.  Their relationship as a team is starting to crumble.  I feel that this is detrimental to their trip.  To be successful and to live through this they must work together and support each other.  I know this must be so much easier said than done.  Do you think you could go through a trip like this without getting aggravated at the people you were traveling with? (especially in these hard conditions)

                                                                                                                                                                

Into Thin Air Chapters 6-7

     As I read Into Thin Air, I keep finding myself on the edge of my seat wanting to know more and more. Jon Krakauer is a great author that uses a lot of suspense in his writing which makes this piece ten times more interesting than it already is. In chapter six we come to an understanding on how great of a team leader Hall really is. He constantly studies new information to make sure the team doesn't encounter anything that is unexpected. This to me proves how good of a relationship Hall had with his team; they had a very strong, inseparable bond. We also find out in this chapter about how the team will  set up four different camps leading to the summit of Mt. Everest. Imagine how difficult it truly was for the team. They had to carry food, oxygen, and water to each different camp. I really can't even imagine going through what they did! Its mind-blowing! The first acclimatization ascent is on April 13. As they assemble all their gear, Krakauer notices that some of his teammates are wearing new mountaineering boots. He worries about those climbers, because one of the elementary rules of climbing is not to wear boots that aren't broken in. He also worries about the fact that most of his teammates hadn't climbed in the last year or two. Krakauer points out the differences between training in a gym, and training by climbing an actual mountain. This to me also proves that Halls team had a great relationship. They worried for one another. 
     In Chapter Seven, we learn about some other climbers that tried to climb Mt. Everest. For instance, Earl Denman and Maurice Wilson. Krakauer talks about the criticism surrounding the increasing number of unqualified climbers attempting to climb Everest, but he is quick to point out that just because someone pays a large amount of money to climb the mountain doesn't necessarily mean th at he or she is unqualified. On page 104 Krakauer says, "With so many incompetent people on the mountain," Rob said with a frown one evening in late April, "I think it's pretty unlikely that we'll get through this season without something bad happening up high." Would you ever do something where you put your own life in serious danger?

Into Thin Air 1-5

In chapter 1 of Into Thin Air, Krakauer jumps right into the middle of the story which takes place on Mount Everest on the Nepal side. We later learn that Krakauer is a journalist working for Outside who decided to take on the challenge of climbing Mt. Everest to really make the story more interesting. This chapter reveals to the reader the difficulties a climber goes through when ascending a mountain this large. He writes about separated ribs and how hard it is to breathe without a good supply of oxygen. He went on explaining about his insufficient supply of oxygen left in his tank when he reached the summit. He quickly began climbing back down the mountain, but when he reached a 7000 foot abyss called the Hillary Step, a team of climbers were going up so he had to wait for a while. The next chapters started in chronological order.

            In chapter 2, Krakauer explains the discovery of Mount Everest. In 1865, Peak XV was named Mount Everest by Sikhdar. He also shares who the first people to reach the top were. On May 29, 1953, Hillary and Tenzing were the first men to reach the top of the enormous mountain. I thought it was interesting to learn how much money climbing companies would charge to climb Mount Everest. Its thousands and thousands of dollars, and you’re putting your life at risk; it just seems crazy to charge that much.

            The real story begins in chapter 3. Krakauer begins training for his climb so he is fit and experienced enough to take on the biggest mountain there is. He meets his climbing instructor, Rob Hall and a couple of the other people in his group. He debates whether or not he can trust his guide; I mean he is putting his life in the hands of Hall basically. Then in the next two chapters he tells us about the beginning stages of the climb. He goes through the acclimatization process. I’m looking forward to reading about the rest of Krakauer’s climb up to the summit.  

-April

Grizzly Man

Grizzly Man takes the audience into the world of Timothy Treadwall and his journey into surrounding his life around grizzly bears before his ultimate demise of himself and his girlfriend. Timothy spends nearly 13 summers surrounding himself around dangerous grizzlies and other wildlife animals simply for his own enjoyment. Many may view his ethnics as crazy, and sometimes disrespectful. As people began to notice what he had been doing, park rangers and other officials expressed their concern for both Timothy and, more importantly, the bears. As expressed by his ex-girlfriend, he and his girlfriend, April, simply died doing what they loved. Even though his methods seemed harmful to some, he obtained footage of these bears and animals that were never attained before from anyone else. To Timothy, being around these bears were like his own big giant family. Besides his girlfriend, he seems to feel most comfortable around these animals. But, even when around the grizzles, he tends to panic when things don’t go right. For example, there was one point in the documentary when a fox stole one of his baseball caps. He was playful to the fox at first about it, but when the fox ran away with it, Timothy’s tone immediately shifted as he cursed and reprimanded the fox for stealing the hat. His shift of emotions and tones throughout the movie could be a reason that he doesn’t socialize with many humans, but feels better speaking to animals since they cannot speak back. His relationship with these animals made him both happy and content with his life. When we think about it, isn’t that what life really is? To do what you love until the very end. Even though his actions, to some, had consequences, he never regretted once in his life his choices.  

USHER

This story written by Edgar Allan Poe is about a narrator who receives and letter from an old friend and goes to visit him upon his request. Roderick Usher is the mans old friend and they have not seen each other since childhood but the narrator feels compelled to see him anyways. Once he gets to the house which he observes is a massive mansion of a family estate he notices that it is very gloomy and the walls on the exterior are crumbling and fungi covered the mansion as well. Once inside the two men talk and the narrator notices there is something off about his old friend. He remembers him being weird in childhood but not to the extent that he is now. "He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses;the most insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and there were peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.(665)" This is when we learn that Usher is mentally ill and disturbed and he also says he must die in the house because if not he will be lost. What Usher's biggest problem is that he suffers from fear of everything and the future. To me its obvious that Usher has severe anxiety issues and well as many other physiological illnesses that would have been better had he been treated. He might even have suffered from hysteria that doctors claimed women suffered from at the time. But Usher gives reasoning as to why he might be suffering and that is because his twin sister just died and she was his life long companion. Both of the men put his sister Madeline in a coffin and bury her in a tomb under the mansion. Over the course of the story the narrator and Usher partake in many different activities such as reading books and reviewing art as well as painting together and the narrator seems to be affected by the oddness of the house. At the end of the story the narrator can't sleep and is up in the middle of the night and Usher comes into his room with a lamp. Usher also can't sleep and the narrator reads to him a story and as he is reading he keeps hearing loud screams. He doesn't want to freak Usher out so he says nothing but hears the screams again. And then the insanity of his friend bleeds over into the narrator. "...but then without those doors there did stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame.(674)"The narrator is so shocked at what he is seeing that he leaves the estate immediately. The whole story is about mental illness and i believe after staying in the house for over a week affected the narrators psyche in some way. 

-Sam

Bartleby, the Scrivener

            Bartleby, the Scrivener is an interesting short story written by Herman Melville.  The narrator, a lawyer who runs his own practice, tells his story of the strongest man he has ever known, Bartleby.  Bartleby the newest member of the narrators staff along with Nippers, Turkey, and Ginger Nut.  Nippers suffers from indigestion, Turkey is a drunk, and Ginger Nut receives his name because Nippers and Turkey often send him to get them ginger nut cakes.  While Nippers, Turkey, and Ginger Nut always do what they are told, Bartleby refuses.  One day, when Bartleby is asked to help proofread a document, he simply replied, “I would prefer not to” (295).  Shocked, the narrator asked “What do you mean? Are you moon-struck? I want you to help me compare this sheet here—take it” (295).  Bartleby once again replies “Prefer not to” (295).  This shows short narrative shows that the narrator is not used to people saying no to him and not immediately responding to his commands.  This shows strength in Bartleby’s character.  We tend to see the response “I would prefer not to” (297) quite frequently throughout the story.  The narrator says “With any other man I should have flown outright into a dreadful passion, scorned all further words, and thrust him ignominiously from my presence.  But there was something about Bartleby that not only strangely disarmed me, but in a wonderful manner touched and disconcerted me.  “I began to reason with him” (297).  The narrator would have been infuriated with anyone else for not following his demands, but for some reason the narrator found interest in Bartleby.  Perhaps Bartleby being the first one to stand up to the narrator, makes the narrator respect him even more.  Do you think if Nippers, Turkey, or Ginger Nut started to act like Bartleby, would the narrator respond the way he does to Bartleby? Bartleby continues to refuse duties, until finally he is doing no work at all and yet the narrator cannot get him to leave. As the other employers get angry, the narrator decides to take action.  The narrator moves his office but cant seem to get rid of Bartleby.  Bartleby haunts the hallways and begins to concern the narrator to the point that he takes a few days off of work.  Upon his return he learns that Bartleby is in prison.  The narrator goes to the prison to make sure Bartleby is well fed but a few days later, he died because he would not eat.  Some time afterward, the narrator hears a rumor that Bartleby worked in a Dead Letter Office.  Do you think that Bartleby’s job lead to his depression and death? Or do you think that he was just insane?

They All Just Went Away

     Throughout the essay "They All Just Went Away" Joyce Carol Oates defines the ingredients of a home, and what or who a home includes. Oates has many adventures playing in abandoned and prohibited houses when she was a little girl. Each house has a story to tell about the people and events that happen with them. The old houses are permeated with memories and lifeless remnants. Oates describes the dark history of one of the houses with an alcoholic father who tries to burn his family alive while they are sleeping. Can you imagine your father ever even thinking of doing this? I have a great relationship with my dad so this just blows my mind. I cant even picture this! The value of a home is depicted when Oats describes the livelihood of the Weidal family. Value is not only defined with dollar bills, but also by how much a person wants or needs something. A home's value is the result of how much effort the families are willing to sacrifice to make the home desirable to them. For example, Oates describes Mr. Weidel as a wife and child beater, a lousy drunk, and it is also insinuated that he is a child molester. No one desires to go over to the Weidel house because no sacrifices are being made to make their home admirable. If a person wants to go home there must be something worthwhile to bring them back.
     The Weidel family is a good example of what happens when the relationships people hold to so dearly within a home are inexistent. Mr. Weidel seems to have no feelings for his wife and children; Mrs. Weidel clings to her husband even when he beats her, and the children are either wild partiers, mentally unstable, or have outrageous tempers. Homes are important because they provide people with comfort, security, and loving relationships which makes everything else less important.
     "They All Just Went Away" relates to everyone's personal life because every person in the world has a place they call home. I know I do. This essay brings life to the meaning and value of a home. Oates uses the Weidel family as an example of how important and worthy homes are to people no matter what kind of family a person comes from. Do you have a place you can call home?

The Yellow Wallpaper

In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman explains a story of the narrator’s decline into madness. She has a husband named John who is a physician. He diagnoses the narrator with postpartum depression, which was normal for women in this time period. He then basically locks her up in a room upstairs and controls where she can travel within the house. She slowly begins to go mad from staying in this room for so long. She keeps a journal where she writes her thoughts and explains how the wallpaper in the room changes in her mind. She becomes fixated on the wallpaper. She says, “The whole thing goes horizontally, too, at least it seems so, and I exhaust myself trying to distinguish the order of its going in that direction” (pg. 281). This reveals just how obsessed the narrator becomes with the wallpaper. She has no contact with the outside world, so it’s obvious that she will go mad at some point.

            Her relationship with John seems complicated when I read it. She loves him and believes that he’s only looking out for her well-being.  She stated, “Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with him the other day” (pg. 281). She thinks that he wants to see her better, and looks over the fact that she’s locked up in this rental home. Even so, she hides things such as the journal from John because she feels that he will think it’s absurd to have.

             In the end, she truly loses her sanity when she believes a woman in stuck behind the wallpaper. She locks the door and begins peeling and ripping off the wallpaper to get the woman out. John walks in and was so shocked, he faints. Do you think anyone would go mad from being locked-up in a room for this long without contact with the outside world?

-April Cust