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Karina
Miss Miller
AP Language and Composition
2 December 2014
Mountain Climbing, Football, and War
Mountain climbing, football, and war. The common characteristics of these three seem
unreal. Yet, Where Men Win Glory and Into Thin Air constitute both similarities and differences
of a distinct writing style. Krakauer has managed to write two books that entwine into each other
but also maintain certain differences. Krakauer uses diction, figurative language and symbolism
to distinguish his two pieces of literature.
In Where Men Win Glory Krakauers main focus is Pat Tillman, a football star and a war
hero, while in Into Thin Air he focuses on more of the journey and the struggles of overcoming
the climb of Mt. Everest. Despite the evident absence of similarities in the characters, Krakauer
connects both books by speaking of the characters as idols, or heros of our society. For example
in Into Thin Air Krakauer states In New Zealand, Hillary is one of the most honored figures in
the nation; and once again in Where Men Win Glory (41) he wrote Because Tillmans story
conforms in some regards to the classic narrative of the tragic hero This shows how the
characters in Krakauers book are glorified beyond human nature. These two examples lead to
the second similarity of Krakauers books. The two books are a memoir. Into Thin Air
remembers fellow climbers such as Rob Hall, Scott Fischer, Andy Harris, Doug Henson, and
Yasuko Namba, all whom perished in the expedition to the summit of Mt. Everest. The same idea
applies to Krakauers second book, in which he remembers the greatness of Pat Tillman.

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On the other hand, a strong difference that makes these books stand apart would be their
use of figurative language and the purpose behind it. In Into Thin Air Krakauer employs similes,
metaphors, and occasionally personification to establish the bleak and harsh effects the
environment had on their struggles. For example through curtains of blowing snow (Into
Thin Air 194) gives us an image of the treacherous weather up in the mountains and how difficult
it must have been to ascend the mountain. However, in Where Men Win Glory, Krakauer utilizes
his figurative language and sensory details to go into detail about the war and creating a live
situation in our minds. An example of this would be .as Pat listened to the exploding mortar
shells and the pop-pop-pop-pop-pop of rifle fire, he was hyper-aware that his little brother was
somewhere back in the confines of the canyon getting hammered.(Where Men Win Glory XXII)
In this example, repetition is used to show how dangerous it was to be in the army as well as
onomatopoeia when Krakauer writes pop-pop-pop-pop-pop to create a sound in our heads of a
gun fight . Another difference is that Into Thin Air has symbolism, while Where Men Win
Glory does not. Mt. Everest is like death. Or the door to the home of death. In the book Into Thin
Air, many have tried to ascend the Mountain, and have died. There are multiple references to
death in Into Thin Air and they are always connected to Mt. Everest. In Where Men Win Glory
word choice is a key factor in the differences between these two books. The word choice is
considerably high and meant for a more eminent level of language. It is now widely understood
that the administration presented fraudulent evidence as fact to create public. With a broad
range of words throughout the book, it is much different from Into Thin Air because Where Men
Win Glory is more factual and informational.
With each book being about two separate intentions, Into Thin Air and Where Men
Win Glory have plethora of similarities and differences. Both are memoirs and both look upon

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the societies man-made hero. Nevertheless, their differences go from imagery, to word choice, to
symbolism of death. Overall, Krakauers writing style evokes emotions of survival and
determination in the reader, making them consider and comprehend such deadly situations.

Works Cited

Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster. New York:
Villard, 1997. Print.

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Krakauer, Jon. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman. New York: Doubleday,
2009. Print.