touching the void - characters

touching the void - characters

1. Joe

   • experienced climber
   • driven by an ambition to push boundaries.
   • more cautious than Simon about the choices he needs to take.
   • closest companion is Simon
   • very rational and methodical
     • focuses on the tasks and works out how to get there
   • has a superstitious side.
   • very ambitious
   • jealous of Simon’s relaxed approach to life.

2. Simon

   • contrasts with Joe
   • younger than Joe
   • relaxed, open and fairly uncomplicate
   • doesn't share Joes sense of worry
   • clear-thinking
   • deeply troubled but convinced he has done the right thing by cutting the rope
   • kept joe alive

3. Richard

   • travelling companion
   • contrasts both Joe and Simon
   • relishes adventures
   • physically different to Joe and Simon
   • does not climb mountains.
   • performs an important function in the story
     • he's the link with the ‘real’ world,
   • provides a kind of wise, moral weight
   • He is the essential human spirit
     • able to understand the extreme experiences that Simon went through.
       • does not judge Simon

4. the mountain

   • Siula Grande
   • central image of the whole book
   • looms like a huge adversary
   • neither a 'goodie' nor a 'baddie'
   • has two faces and changeable moods.
   • has great beauty but also a darkness beneath it
     • Simon and Joe survive it, both are changed deeply by their encounter with it