English Touching the Void Passage Analysis of Setting

In chapter 1 page 21 of Touching the Void by Joe Simpson, the last paragraph of this passage describes the surroundings of Joe and Simon’s view as they sit down for a brew. The paragraph describes the vastness of their position on the mountain as well as the isolation of their surroundings and the tranquil feel of it all. We see this in phrases such as ‘huge sweep over two shoulders of rock’, ‘by far the highest mountain to be seen and dominated our view...glistening with ice and fresh snow’ and ‘corniced and rocky, arched up from the col below Seria Norte’. These phrases all describe the enormous view that they see from their position as well as the brightness of snow all sound them. The paragraph also has a euphoric feeling of mountain climbing of them being so small surrounded by such big creations, but it also touches on the more dangerous parts of mountain climbing to come as said for example in the phrase ‘corniced and rocky’. It describes the mountain shape and textures in beautiful light but foreshadows the trouble of climbing those paths will be in the near future of the story as it reaches the climax. The exposition of this paragraph is rising action leading to climax with the mood being shown in a good light through description but also foreshadowing that the same description will be shown in a more terrifying mood as they move on to climbing what they just described which will be the climax of the story.