Touching the void

In the touching of the void there are a lot of language features in use to expand on the text making the
Book more interesting and intense. One feature that is shown in the text is personification. This means it is making a reference to something being no human. For example,
‘Then what I had waited for pounced on me.’
This is showing something which is just a simple object or something around him and making it into a living thing. This is also shown where he says,
‘Like something come alive, the rope lashed violently against my face and I fell silently.’
Here he is talking about a rope, and saying it has a mind of its own and attacking him. Because this is in extreme conditions in the book, these would be either imagination of the mind, thinking the rope is not following the properties of a rope, or by giving it more life like properties it makes the mountin a reason why people should not climb up the west face.

Earlier in the book we see why joe wants to climb up the west face of the mountain and why he wants to. He talks about doing more and more things each a little hard then the last. He could be climbing up this mountain as it is the unknown because he wants to climb the west face, this being the part that had never successfully been climbed before. This makes it the unknown and possibly dangerous. Also because he keeps on going for more and keeps wanting to do more it is like an addiction. Like drugs can be an addiction, but what happens when you over dose, you DIE. This is like what he is ding,- he is temping death, keeps on going in to more challenging obstacles to overcome. Until he finds one he can’t over come where all his tempting fate and death all his over dossing could come to its end.
This is shown when he reaches the summit, now he has completed it he is not satisfied and wants more. He resides to climb up the ridge going higher then he had planned. This goes wrong and the nearly die.
Also when they are on there way down they want to get down quickly but this ends badly as joe breakes his leg and gets stuck down a cravas because Simon wanted to get off the mountin but he was going fast and not paying full attention to where they where lowering down.
He therefore puts himself in these situatations because he wants the rush of tempting fate and the rush of overcoming anything that gets in his way.


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One response to “Touching the void”

  1. Christopher Waugh Avatar

    This is a good explanation of the reasons behind the use of personification in this case. I would suggest that you take it even further at the end. It would be worth exploring a number of reasons why Joe Simpson might choose to give elements in the story like the mountains, the crevasse and the rope this ‘intention’.

    My thoughts on this suggest that Simpson may be trying to make sense of his own powerlessness by imagining that something is controlling him. This way he can avoid the idea that the consequences were due to his own actions or those of Simon Yates.

    Why do you think personification is so effective? Perhaps he his trying to tap into our primal fears or perhaps he is referring to mythical creatures or forces.

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