Sheehy English 9

I am obsessed with Mt. Everest. Well, maybe not Everest itself, but with the outdoors, and with climbing and hiking.

Not that I ever do any of it, however. I can’t afford the equipment needed to climb and I am not interested in doing something so dangerous that I’d risk my chance at being with my girls as they grow up. But I love hiking and I love camping and I love winter – and I love reading about it. Thus, the book on display in the back of the room, Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. Krakauer’s book chronicles his disastrous trip to the world’s rooftop, where 8 people died on a single day (May 10, 1996) and a great number of others escaped narrowly.

As an interim assignment, I have had you watch a documentary made about an ascent of Mt. Everest. Coincidentally, the team making the documentary climbed Everest in 1996 – the same year that Krakauer attempted the mountain on a fatal expedition. You’ll hear the fatal attempts mentioned in the film.

I’d like to give you the chance to respond to the film in writing, on your blogs, but I do not want to push your writing into a particular box by listing a series of questions. Instead, I’d simply like to ask you to respond to what you saw in this film by writing a blog article of at least 200 words. If you are having trouble finding enough, feel free to augment your exploration by reading online about the mountain or about other events concerning it. I’ve listed a few below.

If you’re stuck, however, I will list a series of themes that I think are pertinent when discussing Mt. Everest and attempts to climb it. Considering themes makes it simple for us to connect what is happening as far away as Mt. Everest to our own lives.

• Dreams
• Ambition
• Challenge
• Physical exertion
• Adventure

Looking for more? You can read Jon Krakauer’s original article about his experience on Mt. Everest, which was published in Outside magazine. Or you could read a rebuttal to Krakauer’s article, written by another climber on the expedition, Anatoli Boukreev. There is a response from Krakauer to Boukreev’s claims, though Boukreev’s claims were later turned into a book of their own -The Climb.

If you’re a picture kind of person (like me) you might enjoy a series of shots of a 2001 ascent of Mt. Everest. Or, you surely could find something interesting in National Geographic’s special Mt. Everest website, which includes a virtual climb video where a cameraman almost falls off a ladder and a host of other great photos (and I’m sorry, but this is just plain nuts). Other virtual climbs are on the Discovery Channel website and a panorama view from the top of the world.

Respond! You’ve got at least 200 words.

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Click on the photos for source.

After attempting your poem and trying to make it carry a depth of meaning, I’d like you to write in your blog a description of how things went. Make your blog article a hearty paragraph (at least 10 sentences) and use the following series of questions to guide your thinking.

1. Describe how the writing process went. Did you write a lot? Did you have trouble getting going? If you had trouble, what was the source? Was it fun?
2. Describe what you were trying to accomplish with your poem and whether or not you did accomplish it. What kind of thought or feeling are you trying to convey?
3. Explain whether you used any of the poetic devices we have discussed in class. If so, explain why you used the one(s) you did. If not, explain whether your poem would be stronger if you did use one of them.
   • When discussing these devices, mention them specifically – use the words “metaphor” and “personification,” etc.
   • If you’ve forgotten, these are the devices we’ve discussed: metaphor, simile, personification, imagery, assonance, consonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, stanza, rhyme, meter, free verse, repetition.
4. Finish your reflection/report by telling your opinion on the day’s work and describing what you would like to do next time you get the chance to write.

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Original image: ‘Afraid of the Dark‘