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Life or Death Question: Ethics at Mountaineering
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In the nonfiction novel Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, morality is a prominent theme of the tragedy. This novel tells of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster from the first person perspective of Krakauer, a surviving climber. Especially on the mountain, morality is often posed as a question of life or death. For example, in chapter 17, Krakauer writes, “.....he turned to see Harris - who must have been seriously debilitated, if his condition when I’d seen him on the South Summit two hours earlier was any indication - plodding slowly up the summit ridge to assist Hall and Hansen”. This line explains the death of Andy Harris, a character who sacrifices himself in a futile attempt to bring oxygen to his team’s head guide, Hall, and to another climber, …show more content…
On the other hand, in great contrast to Harris’ perception of morality, there are the ascenders from the Japanese expedition. It is written in chapter 18, “Not wanting to jeopardize their ascent by stopping to assist him, the Japanese team continued climbing toward the summit”. Such line refers to the Japanese climbers’ refusal to assist the dying alpinists from Ladakh and their decision to instead, continue the summit ascent. Believing morality should be non-existent under the harsh mountain conditions, they express selfishness and care solely for themselves. Aside from these 2 cases of morality, Krakauer also questions the actions of Anatoli Boukreev, a guide on another team, a friendly business competitor of Krakauer’s party. In chapter 15, Krauaker writes, “......he moved very rapidly down the Southeast Ridge without waiting for any clients - despite telling Fischer atop the Step that he would be going down with Martin Adams”. Through this line, Boukreev actions are criticized and indirectly, deems him as an irresponsible guide. However, Boukreev defends himself saying that his rapid descent was good for the team as he could be ready to carry oxygen up if the clients run
The moral of Lanval could be a theme of virtues consisting of loyalty and justice, but it could also be seen as a test of Lanval's loyalty to Queen Semiramis. It is likely that Lanval would have been found innocent since the attendants who arrived before Queen Semiramis were indeed superior in beauty to Queen Guinevere. Lanval, however, would rather die than betray his beloved in this way, which might be what leads her to save him. One could say that the moral of this story is loyalty and justice will always prevail over betrayal and prejudice.
“There's something about being afraid, about being small, about enforced humility that draws me to climbing.” The feeling of being challenged by nature, has brought Jon Krakauer to his passion for mountain climbing. Krakauer explains his passion for mountain climbing the best, he enjoys the rush that the danger gives him. Krakauer himself has stated that he has used nature as a form of self satisfaction, in his book Into the Wild, he briefly talks about an endeavor that nearly killed him when
While Peak and his group are climbing a steep icewall, one of the climber’s ice axe broke. Peak decides to climb down and help the fellow climber. This act could have killed Peak, yet he would risk his own life for a friend. “Got him! I shouted down to Zopa”(202). This quote reveals that Peak saved his fellow climbers life. Also, when Peak is less than 10 feet away from the summit of Everest he lets Sun-Jo reach the top. Even though Sun-Jo was having issues up the whole mountain and Peak saved his life. Peak and Sun-Jo are both 14. They both would be the youngest to make it to the Summit of Everest. Sun-Jo is poor and all Sun-Jo wants to do is go to school. Peak lets Sun-Jo reach the summit and get all the money and fame. “I don’t have a reason for being here. I’m heading back down the north side”(230). This quote shows Peak is letting Sun-Jo to the summit, and Peak just climbs down the mountain, not even reaching the summit after Sun-Jo. Too often in life, criminals do not change to kind people but, Peak’s actions show readers that 1 little thing can fix up someone's
To begin with, conventional morality moves toward the expectation of the society, like doing what the society expects them to do. For example, restaurants and companies should hire people with different skin colour, of different age etc. to create a diversified community. Super-Link can apply this by having discounts clearly listed and promise not to overcharge or unrealistic price. The second point is that it concerns over legality and the opinion of others. It sticks to the rule and sees if it is a legal thing to do. For example, the company cares about their employees and give them enough day offs a week or more money if they worked hard. Super-Link should check if the terms and conditions were clearly listed in the website to avoid confusion
The novel "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer, he writes about an experience that changes his life when Outside magazine asks him to write an article about the commercialism of Mount Everest, he knew from that moment that he needed to climb the mountain. But of course his expedition does not go as expected. On May 10th Krakauer reaches the summit after a extremely stressful and treacherous trek up, but only to have to scale down the mountain with his team in one of the most dangerous seasons in the history of Everest. Many things went wrong when they came down the mountain and throughout this book, Jon attempts to evaluate what exactly happened and how things went wrong. He researches and figures out every person actions on that mountain. He has speculations about the failures of the expedition, and blames the catastrophe due to a series of little
An essential part of Krakauer's argument rests upon convincing the reader that he has the authority to accurately interpret the facts of McCandless’s life. His attempt begins in chapter fourteen, where his main focus is explaining why he thinks McCandless did not go to Alaska seeking death. Krakauer establishes his credibility by drawing upon his own experiences and comparing them to McCandless’s. “If something captured my undisciplined imagination, I pursued it with a zeal bordering on obsession...” (134). This passion, he believes, is the same feeling McCandless felt while traveling across the country. At age 23, only a year younger than McCandless at the time he went to Alaska, Krakauer's preferred thrill was mountain climbing (135). During ...
According to what McCandless was trying to say, “It is easy, when you are young, to believe that what you desire is no less than what you deserve, to assume that if you want something badly enough, it is your God-given right to have it” (Krakauer 155). Similarly, Krakauer stated that, “When I decided to go to Alaska that April, like Chris McCandless, I was a raw youth who mistook passion for an insight and acted according to an obscure, gap-ridden logic” (155). He presumed that if he climbed the Devils Thumb, then it would fix everything that was wrong with his life. Krakauer said that, “In the end, of course, it changed almost nothing. But I came to appreciate that mountains make poor receptacles for dreams. And I lived to tell my tale” (155). However, McCandless did not come to that realization and unfortunately did not live to tell his
Everest is an unbelievable mountain that has taken the lives of a number of the greatest climbers in history. It was my job to ensure that clients make it up that treacherous mountain safely. My name is Rob Hall. I was the main guide and cofounder of a climbing company called Adventure Consultants. My friend, Gary Ball, and I used to be professional climbers. Together we succeeded in climbing to the highest summit on each of the seven continents in seven months. This was our greatest achievement. After this, we decided to start our own company guiding clients up large mountains. In May 1992, we successfully led six clients to the summit of Everest. Unfortunately, Gary died of cerebral edema in October 1993 during an attempt on the world’s sixth-tallest mountain. He died in my arms and the next day I buried him in a crevasse. Despite the pain that his death had caused me, I continued guiding for our company and eventually led thirty-nine climbers to the summit of Everest.
Jon Krakauer’s personal account of the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy in which eight climbers perished, Into Thin Air, addresses the tenacious nature of climbers and their unrelenting desire to reach their goal – the summit. This strong ambition ultimately tests the climbers’ concerns with other elements of life such as family, environmental responsibility and moral judgement, all of which are endangered by their individual desire to reach the summit. Whilst the climbers are undeniably selfishly driven to the summit, Krakauer’s retrospective account of the expedition suggests that the climbers were concerned and aware of the damaging consequences of their pursuits but acting on this concern was over-shadowed by a compulsion to explore the mystique of Everest.
...to wherever they were and make sure they were treated. He also ignores his own disease and ill condition to insure the clients have a shot at the summit. This may be viewed as foolishness but this type of self-sacrifice is something rare and admirable. In conclusion, both men have a usual connection to climbing.
The novel The Awakening, of which the author is Kate Chopin, drags its readers down into a poor mentality. The reader is shown how morals are scarcely used in common ordinance by Mrs. Pontellier. The reader is thrown from one incident of insubordination in a quarrel with Mr. Pontellier into her neglect for her children and then is heaved into Mrs. Pontellier’s obsessive nature as an adulteress.
The Catechisms, the Ten Commandments, Jesus’ Teachings and the Beatitudes all take a similar view on the subject of violence. This is also shown in the values of the church, and the teachings it offers. These teachings can be applied in this scenario to come to a fair, appropriate and moral outcome. Also, by using the Christian decision making model outlined in class, we can assess the value it has in bringing about a positive decision in regards to this scenario.
Morals, values and ethics define who we are and what we believe. Culture, religion, and many other things affect our beliefs. One uses various types off ethics when surrounded by different groups. Knowing between right and wrong is a good foundation to practicing good ethics and morals. These things make morals, ethics, and values important in society.
Morals could, in a way, be considered subjective. A certain society of people may have different morals depending on their culture, religion, or overall experiences in life. However I feel that the concept of at least basic morality is an important one in the survival of the human race. Without basic morals the world would fall into more chaos than it is already in. Morality is important for society to partake in because it sets boundaries so that we may, in theory, live in harmony with others. I say this is a theory because there are different views on morals and not everyone is willing to submit to these “rules”.
Can a human beings in society behave in a moral way at all times? Is there truly universal moral principles for everyone? Does it seem right that human beings can never be morally right when breaking a universal rule (Rosenstand, 2016)? These are some of the most problematic and most challenging questions that moralists have attempted to clarify. Obviously, something is keeping society half-way civilized and able to resolve moral value conflicts. Universal morals are like societies set of unwritten rules that are forced onto a developed society. There is a set of universal principles that applies to everyone at most times, like do not kill and do not steal, but there may be some important exceptions.