Touching the Void by Joe Simpson Touching the Void is an autobiography written by Joe Simpson about his adventure with his friend Simon Yates attempting to be the first to climb Siula Grande in Lima, Peru. The story retells the successful ascent to the summit and the lucky escape from death on the way down. During the descent , Joe's ice pick didn’t hold on the steep ice face. This lead to him falling, breaking his leg and having to be lowered down the mountain by Simon, which led into a situation where Joe fell into a crevasse. I found this book quite hard going because of the slow moving pace and the depth of the descriptions including mountaineering technical terms .However, I was impressed by the bravery of both climbers despite the situation they found themselves in. These two climbers were the first to conquer the Siula Grande , however the getting back down was the dangerous part . After three days of climbing they were both tied and dehydrated . Joe fell and slid off the edge of a ice shelf and broke this leg . The only way down was discussed and they choose to rope themselves together and Joe would slide down the mountain and Simon would act as a break . Unbeknown to Simon , Joe slid off a ledge leaving him hanging in mid air with No way to climb up or lower him self . Simon was trapped above unable to …show more content…
He knew if he didn’t cut it he would die of hypothermia and he though that
The Emancipation of the once enslaved African American was the first stepping stone to the America that we know of today. Emancipation did not, however automatically equate to equality, as many will read from the awe-inspiring novel Passing Strange written by the talented Martha Sandweiss. The book gives us, at first glance, a seemingly tall tale of love, deception, and social importance that color played into the lives of all Americans post-emancipation. The ambiguity that King, the protagonist, so elegantly played into his daily life is unraveled, allowing a backstage view of the very paradox that was Charles King’s life.
In the story “Listening to Ghosts” Malea Powell talks about the native Americans on challenges and educational practices. The story is about the native American living in America before the British came to ruin their lives. This effect caused the Native Americans to disappear for good and became shadows. Afterwards there were different theories about the beliefs such as white guy philosopher's theory and western culture theory.The white guy’s philosopher's theory states that the stories were special and central civilized.Western culture, people thought that they were “savages” and “civilized”.
The novel Peak is about a troubled or misunderstood boy who goes to live with his long lost father to get out of going to Juvenile Detention. While living with his father he writes what is going on in his life as a final assignment for his English class. Once moving to his fathers he finds out that his dad has a goal for him to become the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. I believe peak will succeed but not without a few hurdles along the way. I also think he will learn a lot from his experience with his father and climbing the mountain. From what I read previewing it looks like this book will be a suspense filled, high action novel based on the fictional first person setting. After previewing the novel I think this is a chance I may enjoy the book as I understand the position of being misunderstood.
The Kokoda trail is a great achievement for any man to achieve. The Kokoda trail takes 11 days of bush, mud and wild life to complete. It is 96km and runs through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea. This would have been a huge task for any man to complete, let alone someone of Fernley’s physical disability. However, Fearnley soldiered on through this jungle only using his arms to pull himself up and over rocks, rough ground and through rivers, creeks and gullies. Therefore he would have to have a lot of strength in his arms to be able to do this. Although he is very strong he still needed to have his friends and family by his side to help him. Four people died on the Kokoda trail even though they had legs so seeing that Fearnley was born without legs, this would have had to be one of his greatest achievements in his life. The Kokoda trail was also the scene of some of Australia’s bloodiest action in world war two. It also cuts through some of the world’s most difficult, rugged and treacherous terrain. Kurt Fernley’s role models that inspired him where the soldiers that fought in the war that were very heroic. Even though that Fernley had no legs and could have caught a tropical disease, such as malaria, because of the boiling hot, humid days and torrential rainfall but this man still soldiered on. Fernley is very brave because this trail is one of the most dangerous treks
far this time and knew that he had no other choice. Also he did not
“In an hour and 40 minutes they run more than 15 miles over uneven red clay, dodging small herds of cattle and donkeys laden with sacks of potatoes…The route climbs more that 3,000 feet, from and elevation of slightly more than 6,500 feet at the river to nearly 10,000 at the peak, where oxygen is precious and a cruel wind slices across the face of the hill.” (Layden, par. 2)
Union between two quarrelsome objects can be the most amazing creation in certain situations, take for instance, water. Originally, water was just hydroxide and hydrogen ions, but together these two molecules formed a crucial source of survival for most walks of life. That is how marriage can feel, it is the start of a union that without this union the world would not be the same. A Hmong mother, Foua took it upon herself to perform a marriage ceremony for the author of “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down”, Anne Fadiman. In this miniscule event, two cultures with completely conflicting ideas came together to form a union. In this union, an American was celebrating an event in a Hmong way, truly a collision of two cultures.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, uses motivation to make the protagonist feel and behave a certain way. The author uses struggles to show the theme of perseverance.
The main characters of this story are Rudi Matt, Franz Lerner, Frau Matt, John Winter, and Emil Saxo. Rudi is the son of the legendary mountain guide of the Alps, Josef Matt. He has mountain climbing in his blood and is destined to become a guide. He is the main character of the story. Franz Lerner is Rudi’s uncle. He was with Josef Matt hours before he died while trying to climb the Citadel, and now he is looking out for Rudi. Frau Matt is Rudi’s mother. She does not want Rudi to become a guide like his father because she fears that he will die the same way. John winter is a famous guide in Switzerland. Rudi saved his life and now Winter wants him to climb the Citadel with him. Emil Saxo is a famous Swiss guide form the village of Broli. Winter asks him to be the guide for the journey up the Citadel.
Imagine feeling guilty for making it out alive on a journey. In the nonfiction novel, Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer, he documents his journey to the summits of Mount Everest and ultimately accuses himself for holding acquisitiveness responsibility for the disaster on the mountain. After realizing only one-fourth of the people that climbed to the summits on May 10, 1996, made it down back to base camp alive, Krakauer theorizes about why that was so. He attributes most of the reason for the disaster to the erratic weather along with hubris, he wanted for the thought of leading a group to the mountain. Despite those reasons, there is no ultimate reason for the deaths documented in the book, but bottom line the climbers that died didn’t thoroughly comprehend the danger they were going to encounter as a consequence that contributes to the disaster.
Overall, both books were highly enjoyable and uplifting and shows one that even the people in the harshest of conditions and illnesses can overcome their illness and thrive if they take the right medication and struggle through to the end.
Award-Winning author Laura Hillenbrand writes of the invigorating survival story of Louie Zamperini in her best selling book, Unbroken. Louie Zamperini was an ambitious, record-breaking Olympic runner when he was drafted into the American army as an airman during World War II. On the mission that led him to embark on a journey of dire straits, Louie’s plain crashed into the Pacific Ocean, leaving only him and two other crewmen as survivors. Stranded on a raft in shark infested waters, without any resources or food, and drifting toward enemy Japanese territory, the men now have to face their ultimate capture by Japanese, if they survive that long. Louie responded to his desperation with dexterity, undergoing his plight with optimism and confidence, rather than losing hope. In this memorable novel, Hillenbrand uses a vivid narrative voice to divulge Louie’s tale of endurance, and proves that the resilience of the human mind can triumph through adversity.
Would you jump off a 50 ft Precipice? In the story “The Ravine”, Joe-Boy and Vinny are 15 year old, hawaiian boys. They are going to the ravine to jump off cliffs and swim.Two weeks and one day before they visit the ravine, a boy died jumping from the ravine. Vinny and Joe-Boy are different in many ways and are the similar in a few.
The Dilemma of a Ghost is a short play written by the Ghanaian writer, Ama Ata Aidoo. The story is about a young Ghanaian man, Ato, currently studying in America. Here, he meets and falls in love with Eulalie; an African-American girl who lives in America. When he returns home with his new bride, Ato is torn between his family’s traditional custom against his wife’s western culture. His marriage and his wife’s behaviour become sources of great criticism from both family members and the Ghanaian community at large. The writer uses various scenarios to point out the difference between the African traditional culture and the modern western culture.
After just two hours, our very large friend said he’d had enough for the day and was heading for the surface. We told him we’d be out in a few more minutes and to hang around so we could discuss what we’d found. As we began our ascent toward the entrance, we became acutely aware of the complete absence of light the entrance usually emanated. When our flashlights finally found the source of the unusual darkness we were horrified; the big guy was stuck in the cave’s opening again. This time Scott’s head and shoulders were outside, so instead of being able to pull him through, we would have to try to push him out of the opening. We pushed in every combination of ways possible, and needless to say it did not work this time. The paramount problem was that the cave floods from the interior out, so we would all drown if we couldn’t get Scott unstuck, and unstuck quickly.