PERSEVERANCE 

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     Perseverance is a theme in the book "Peak" because the main character, Peak, continues to give all of his effort despite failure and difficulties. Two examples of Peaks perseverance are when he is attempting to summit Mt. Everest and when he is trying to improve his relationship with his long lost father, Joshua Wood.  

     Attempting to summit Mt. Everest is an example of Peaks perseverance because of several reasons: the weather continuously held them back, Captain Shek, a chinese military officer, didn't want Sun-jo and Peak to climb, and the route they chose to climb was
EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.  The weather on Mt. Everest is changing all the time. One minute there is not a cloud in the sky, the next, there's snow, rain, and sleet all at the same time coming down without any notice. The other unfortunate thing about   Mt. Everest is that to even start your expedition up the mountain from Base Camp you have to have, at least, three days of good weather to reach ABC (the next main camp up the mountain). This is hard to achieve because there are not many clear sunny days at all.  Captain Shek did not want Peak and Sun-jo to climb because Sun-jo was carrying  a false permit, Shek found this out half way through the book.  Knowing this, Peak, Sun-jo, and the rest of their climbing team hid Sun-jo from Shek and his posse. To be extra careful, Peak and his team made sure not to talk about the whereabouts of Sun-jo on the radio. This was very good because Captain Shek searched every camp and tapped in on radio conversations, but he could never find Sun-jo.  To take another precaution so Shek didn't find Sun-jo, Peak and his team left Base Camp and climbed up a different route than the regular one. The route that they chose was RADICALLY DANGEROUS including a fifty foot sheer ice wall, a treacherous ice field, and many narrow traverses across cliffs covered in ice and snow. Peak and the rest of his team had to deal with all of these precarious situations and take the consequences, but never gave up trying to achieve their goals.

      Peak's perseverance is also exemplified his effort to improve his relationship with his father.  This is a good example because time and time again Peak would make an effort to express his affection for his father.  His father would NEVER reciprocate.  Peak found this most upsetting when he was little.  Peak used to send his father many letters hoping for one in return. That never happened.  One day at Base Camp Peak was rummaging through his father's tent looking for an ice axe when he stumbled across the letters he has sent his father more than seven years ago.  The letters were never opened, instead they were strewn across the desk in Josh's tent. This made Peak FURIOUS, all those years he thought his letters had gotten lost in the mail or just hadn't made it.  But no, his father had failed to even break the seal.  Even though Peak was upset with his father, he CONTINUED to try and improve their relationship.