How can an author properly describe
his/her emotions in an event that changes his/her life dramatically? Jon Krakauer, the author of Into Thin Air dealt with this difficulty
when writing about his experience during his Mt. Everest expedition. Because of
the strong emotions that his experience created, Krakauer writes a letter and
provides pictures for the reader in order for the reader to understand his
emotional difficulty when writing the book.
Krakauer felt so passionate about
the events that he experienced during his expedition that he went against what
many other authors advised him, and wrote this book shortly after his
experience. Krakauer knows that this may have caused him to not have had the
time to completely accept what had happened to him, so he wrote a letter
warning the reader. By informing the reader his need to have written the book
so shortly after the disaster on Everest, allows the reader to understand his
emotional connection that made the rest of the story so difficult to write.
Also by providing a letter to the reader before the book, Krakauer is able to
warn the reader about what the story entails. Krakauer’s choice to include a
letter allows the reader to understand how difficult it was for him to write
the story because of the emotional impact the disaster caused him and may cause
the reader.
Krakauer also provides pictures and
maps before the story begins. He does this for the reader to understand the
significance of the book. The impactful images that are labeled with events
that occurred at the locations, such as the sight of where his fellow hikers’
bodies were found, allows the reader to see that the truth of the story does
not necessarily have a happy ending. Because the reader is able to see that the
story will involve death of the author’s companions, they can understand that
the expedition did not end well for him, and understand why he may have had
difficulty conveying his emotions in the story.
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