Compare Disasters

Think about the Krakauer story and the story of the Titanic. How are they similar? How are they different? What about the way they are told? Are there similarities and differences in the narrative accounts?

Both disasters occurred in an environment where here was already known danger - the Titanic in the Atlantic and Krakauer on the tallest mountain in the world. Both disasters took place in circumstances that could have been foreseen and prevented, but weren't, and both disasters were foreshadowed in the story.

The differences are obvious - the settings are different, the numbers of casualties are far from being similar. The Titanic incident also occurred due to human error (the Titanic refused to heed to iceberg warnings; the pride of its occupants and the laziness of the ship's designers and crew caused the deaths of many; social class prejudice allowed more lower-class men to die; the Californian did not respond to any of the conspicuous signs radiating from the Titanic). Krakauer was caught in a violent storm that was not predicted, and people perished because they were not aware of the impending danger. This was not an incident that directly occurred as a result of their actions.

The styles are similar in that the story is told in strict chronological order, giving exact times, specifying exact locations, mentioning specific people. The Titanic story does not use dialogue, however, and the perspectives from which the stories are told are also different; one is third person limited and is a secondary source, whereas the other is a first-person narrative and is a primary source.