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Is Krakauer’s Survival Guilt Purely a Product of Him Surviving, or a Reflection of Personal Responsibility in the Tragedy that Occurred?
In pursuit of any given goal, it can not be disputed that unity and solidarity is of paramount importance in helping the participants to attain the established goals and objectives. The concern for each other plays an important role in guiding credible decision making and ensuring that the entire participants have a chance to not only participate in the respective endeavor but they are also allowed to share in the fruits of the undertaking. Collective decision making further enhances sustainability by ensuring that each and every individual is responsible for the outcomes of the undertaking. Unity and solidarity are important values that can also enable a group to face and address challenges with ease. In his Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer underscores the events of the 1996 Mt. Everest tragedy. Notably, the outcomes of the pursuit can be attributed to the lack of unity amongst the climbers. Arguably, the survival guilt that the author suffers from results from a reflection of his personal responsibility in the respective tragedy.
A critical analysis of the text indicates that Krakauer made several mistakes that had far reaching implications on the survival of the entire team. According to Kayes, the survival guilt that he experiences after the episode can be greatly attributed to the mistakes that he made during the journey (307). The experience and skills that he had in mountain climbing could probably have been useful to the team of the inexperienced climbers that accompanied him. Initially, Krakauer had been instructed to provide an account of the commercialization that surrounded Mt. Everest. However, he managed to convince the magazine that needed his services to pay for the costs of his journey uphill. This is the first mistake that the writer makes. He places undue emphasis on the monetary reward rather than the need to collect first hand information about the expedition. From the point of view of Rosen, this clearly indicates that his motives of climbing were not genuine (149).
As an experienced mountain climber, Krakauer makes grave mistakes that undermine the safety of the other inexperienced mountain climbers. Earlier in the text, the author places great emphasis on the importance of trust amongst team mates. He cites that this is because “one climber’s actions can affect the welfare of the entire team” (Karkauer 47). Regardless of this knowledge, Krakauer maintains an air of indifference and does not make any efforts to befriend the other team mates. Instead, he considers them strangers and does not trust them. According to him, he could not trust individuals whose climbing was based on the financial reward rather than skills (Elmes 214).
During the course of the expedition, Krakauer realizes that the team members are very self reliant. This is apparent when Weathers notes, “I was in deep shit and the Calvary wasn’t coming so I better do something about it myself” (Krakauer 329). He does not take any practical measures to inform the team members about the importance of trust or try to initiate unity amongst them. In this regard, it is worth appreciating that unlike the other climbers, he was experienced and understood the importance of unity. As a ‘leader’, Fairhurst argues that he would have taken the initiative of instilling the important values such as trust in other climbers (1607). Instead of taking this step, he presumes that the other team mates would not be able to help him in case he gets in trouble. For this reason, he breaks form the team and climbs ahead of the others. He relies solely on his skills and makes efforts to avoid traffic jam and packs. If he would have unified the team mates and informed them about the importance solidarity, most of the deaths would possibly have been avoided.
In addition, Krakauer indicates that the team members were arrogant and believed that nature could be tamed accordingly. Although confidence is of paramount importance during an expedition, it is equally important to put in consideration any dangers and make efforts to address these accordingly. The arrogance of all the climbers prevented them from appreciating the various dangers as well as risks of the respective expedition. Krakauer cites that Hall for instance ‘bragged on more than one occasion that he could get almost any reasonably fit person to the summit’ (354). As a leader and an experienced climber, Krakauer could have assumed the responsibility of reminding the climbers about the dangers, risks and their relative implications.
At this point, it is certain that the survival guilt that Krakauer experienced after the expedition is greatly attributed to a reflection of the personal responsibility during the disaster. Although he had the skills, knowledge and experience of mountain climbing, he did not bother helping the inexperienced climbers. As it has come out from the study, the mistakes that he makes in various instances are wide and varied. The fact that he does this knowingly indicates a lack of responsibility. The survival guilt he faces is therefore as a result of failure to exhibit responsibility during the exhibition.
Works Cited
Elmes Michael. Into Hot Air: A Critical Perspective on Everest. Human Relations, 61.2 (008): 213-241. Print.
Fairhurst Gail. Considering Context in Discursive Leadership research. Human Relations, 62.11 (2009): 1607-1633. Print.
Kayes Christopher. Dilemma at 29,000 Feet: An Exercise in Ethical Decision Making Based on the 1996 Mt. Everest Climbing Disaster. Journal of Management Education, 26.3 (2002): 307-321. Print.
Krakauer Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster. USA: Anchor, 1998. Print.
Rosen Elizabeth. Somalis don’t Climb Mountains: The Commercialization of Mount Everest. The Journal of Popular Culture, 40.1 (2007): 147-168. Print.
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The post A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by krakauer appeared first on Grade Ninjas.
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