Touching the void – practise exam

When exploring the tittle of this novel, “touching the void” a range of interpretations are possible. There were two conclusions I reached, which were the ‘void’ being a space between a goal and also the void meaning the unknown. I will explore both points in brief detail.

The first thought of the void being a space between a goal comes to my head as joe Simpson who is one of the climbers, is never impressed after completing a certain goal. So it relates to him as there is always something in the way of him completing a goal fully, he will still be disappointed in a way. We see this in the little passage when joe reaches the summit and he says ” if you succeed with one dream, you come back to square one and its not long before you re conjuring up another, slightly harder a bit more ambitious. So it seems no matter what is achieved by joe there is always that something in the way just like an empty space between a goal.

The second thought of the tittle “touching the void” I explored was the void being the unknown. This meaning they did not know what to expect at the top of the mountain as it was the unknown. The tittle touching the void is telling us they want to touch the unknown because they have no clue what could be up there or what they could encounter at the void. We see this in the passage as joe says “I didn’t like the thought of where it might be leading me” which really relates to my idea of the void.