To Build A Fire Essay

For this essay, I am going to be discussing the short story “Swimming” found on the New Yorker, and written by T. Cooper. I have chosen this story for many reasons, and among those reasons is the personal sadness I felt when I first read the story, almost as if the universe was placing a certain theme in my life, that only the main character could possibly understand. I am talking about running, the god given instinct felt by all men, inherent in the nature of fear, and brought out in all who feel sadness in its full intensity. Though in my short life I can not compare the sadness I have felt with that of losing a child at my own hand, but if I had been placed in that situation, if fate had tempted my soul with such a sequence of events, I would like to think I could find the strength to endure and the courage to not abandon all I had previously known. Yet I am able to reconcile the themes of grief, the mode of recovery, and the longing to escape such a terrible tale. I think in this piece, as I will discuss in later parts, the author was able to put into words a transformation we rarely get to observe in closeness, the kind of transformation that turns a kind man into a “just man” the kind of death that turns this world from a beautiful and happy place into a world that is closing in on our main character, that is forcing him to surface temporarily and gasp for air, much like he does when he finds peace in the water, wading breath after air, after sea. I firmly believe that

“It was not death or dying that frightened him, but the unexpectedness of both” (14).

The narrator negated the advice given to him that, "no man should travel alone in the Yukon when the temperature is sixty degrees below zero." He failed to heed to the advice because he thought of how he had saved himself from the accident, and had built the fire alone. This was pride ruling him not knowing that, he was risking his life. His arrogance made him believe that he can make it all alone, and alive. The main character’s poor decisions led to his death. He was not compatible with the cold weather, and thus could not make it alone as his pride, and arrogance made him believe. His arrogance caused his death, because he imagined that he had the ability to travel alone in the harsh cold weather, and ignored the advice given to him. This instance of the narrator dying, because he thought

In the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the protagonist foremost values his pride, which leads to his demise. The story starts off with the protagonist taking a detour in the Yukon so that he could survey the trees in the area (he was doing this so that he could send logs down the river to the gold prospecting camp, where he would sell the wood to the prospectors for money). But, the protagonist’s pride blinds him from what could have and should have done to ensure his survival in the Yukon. About halfway through his journey, he accidentally breaks through the ice on the spring and his foot falls into the water. At the temperatures mentioned in the story (seventy below zero), if he did not dry himself properly, it could lead to serious frostbite and/or death. So, he was forced to build a fire, and the “fire was a success. He was safe. He remembered the advice of the old timer on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The old-timer had been very serious in laying down that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. Well, here he was; he had had an accident: he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old-timers were rather womanish” (London 8). The man keeps feeding the fire and gets ready to take his (frozen and potentially dangerous) footwear off, and feels content and a sense of satisfaction of disproving the old-timers. But, just as it seemed to be that the fire was stable and strong, snow that was on the branches of the spruce tree he was under fell

He felt good and he got all of his stuff ready. He ate brunch with his family and on his way out of the door, he said goodbye to his loved ones, they thought he was going on a hunting trip. He had a long way to the bridge on foot, around thirty miles. As he was walking a thousand thoughts flooded his brain. He could not stop thinking about his wife and his son and daughter. He felt awful about leaving them and he began to feel sick to his stomach the farther away he got from his home. He knew the feeling would go away right when he began to return

In Robert Enrico’s short film, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the audience is manipulated into believing a man on the brink of death gets a second chance at life. However, in the last scene of the short film, the man is literally snapped back to reality. The escape was merely an illusion and the man falls vertically to his death. Robert Enrico’s film ultimately shows the true meaning behind one’s life flashing before their eyes.

Roger Rosenblatt’s essay, “ The Man in the Water,” details the heroic actions of a man who risked his life in the elements following the crash Air Florida Flight 90 to save as many people as he could. Consistently, Emerson had to fight the treacherous blistering cold water. Moreover, the horrible weather was what caused the plane to crash. Further, the man had to push past the mental state of dying to save the other passengers.

“It grew like an avalanche, and it descended upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out!” (London 85). The fire’s light like a beacon hope, suddenly vanished along with his life. “It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death” (London 85). The man knew that his foolish mistake could possibly cost him

Along with ignoring the dog, the man towards the end of his unsuccessful journey thinks of using the dog as warmth in a harmful way. The traveller in his head thinks to “kill the dog and bury his hands in the warm body until the numbness went out of them”(London

Imagine being in -75 degrees celsius or lower weather, with only a few layers of clothing on your body. Also in an isolated area with no people for many miles and freezing to death. This is exactly what happened in the story “How to build a fire” by Jack London. But what actually kills the man is not how cold it is, what leads the man to his death is his arrogance, his attitude, and him being simply foolish.

The unnamed protagonist, “the man,” in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,” illustrates a character who, despites what he believes, is not fit to survive in an environment with extreme and excruciating conditions. Throughout the story, there are many contexts clues from the man’s thoughts and actions that foreshadow the end and lead the readers to believe that he might not be capable of surviving. To me, the most noteworthy contexts clues that foreshadow the end are the man’s ability to ignore all of his instincts and the advice from the “old-timer on Sulphur Creek.” From the very beginning of the story, the narrator shows the reader signs that the main character ignores his instincts instead of actually listening to them. In the first few sentences, we learn that after the man hikes up a steep hill, “he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch” (London 1047).

In “To Build a Fire,” the man seems naïve to a fault. He is described by the narrator as a “newcomer,” and one should not travel alone in the freezing cold winters when it’s “fifty degrees below zero” (1048). He was too confident in his abilities as a human to survive in the freezing temperatures. “[The temperature] did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature,” (1048). This insight in the story leads the reader to believe that he will not outlast the cold due to his insignificant amount of thought put forth in the matter.

Since the man could not get a fire started, he began to run. The dog was close beside him every step. When he fell he became upset with the dog, “The warmth and security of the animal angered him, and he cursed it till it flattened down its ears appeasingly (page 1067).” The cold started to overcome the man and he lost the battle with the cold. He told himself that he should have listened to the old man at Sulphur Creek right before he died; but he should have also paid attention to the

Now he can only think of killing it to put his hands inside the warmth of the carcass. Realizing that he cannot operate his hands, know that death is on it’s way. Knowing that nothing he will do now can save him, he decides to try and again go against what the old man had said and run to his campsite. The man crumples after running a few yards however for he does not have the strength to continue. Deciding to accept death peacefully, he admits to himself that the old man at Sulphur Creek had been right.

The main character of the story was already freezing to death: arms, feet, body and face. It was below fifty degree. The way the author described the character’s situation in a snowy place, where no one else with him aside from his dog, it made the readers think that it was really freezing. In this state, we can consider the life and death situation. There were no use in making fire, aside from the fact that it was all wet and cold, your hands are frozen and cannot do anything. Landon, author, narrated the scenario of the story, where all you can think is to give up and die. For instance, he stated that a thought of giving up came to the character’s mind that he could not reach the camp and find his fellows. However, he refused to follow