An Analysis Of Jack London's To Build A Fire

For the animals, living in such extreme environments is not difficult for they are naturally prepared for them. It could be argued that the men in both stories could have survived if they were well equipped, this contrasts the animals which are prepared, with out needing excess equipment to survive. Crane writes the seagulls in to the story making them comfortable in the environment which the men envy and despise. “The birds sat comfortably in groups, and they were envied by some in the dingey.” The dog in “To Build a Fire” is also contented in the extreme environment that it is in. A similar situation is when the man is beginning to freeze to death while the dog is warm and comfortable. “The warmth and security of the animal angered him. He cursed until it flattened its ears.” At any point the dog could dig a hole to shelter himself from the cold, and his thick fur, and natural instincts protect him. The stories also bring up the difference between the animals and man not only physically, but mentally in the way that the men use judgment and knowledge, but the animals have their instincts. London depicts this in his short story with the comparison between the dog and man. “The animal was worried by the great cold. It knew this was no time for traveling. Its own feeling was closer to the truth than the man’s judgment. The shark in “The Open Boat” does not need to learn to swim or need knowledge to survive.

In the story and film “To Build a Fire” written by Jack London and directed by David Cobham the man and dog have very different thoughts throughout the story but they both need each other to survive. For example in the film when the man tries to kill the dog, the dog thinks the man wants to play. Also the man is very cold and his imagination is getting the best of him and he is feeling that it is colder than it really is, but the dog knows what to do in this weather condition. The film and the story have very different parts on how the man and the dog thought.

To build a fire is a short story written by Jack London. It is a story about an individual’s choice. The main character’s self-centeredness overcomes him, as he tries to survive the wintery weather in his travel in the Yukon Trail. He made a choice of ignoring the weather warnings, which evidenced danger in his journey. There were warnings like the absence of fellow travelers due to the cold season, but his egoism made him still embark on the journey alone, despite the warnings. The protagonist’s pride and arrogance leads to a regrettable outcome, as it leads to his downfall. The protagonist made the wrong choices because of his egotism, and arrogance and they led to his downfall. He defied nature due to his lack of logical judgment, and

     To Build a Fire is a story is a perfect example of the writing genre Naturalism. It contains elements like survival depends on instinct, nature is impersonal, man lacks free choice, and heredity and environment direct and influence our lives. In the story nature is the antagonist and is very impersonal, as it is in life. The dog

If developed the right way, the setting can play an important role in a story like this. London builds his setting up quickly, within the first words of this story. The story is set in the wintertime with no sign of the sun, at the Yukon Trail. A deadly and extremely cold area in the country of Canada. In the story, the narrator states, “Day had dawned cold and gray when the man turned aside

Including both Realism and Naturalism, “To Build a Fire,” is a story of a man and a dog traveling in the Yukon to a mining camp that is nine hours of hiking away. The title of the story itself shows the readers a sense of naturalism from the start. Naturalism is focused around an ill-educated or lower class individual

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

In the story “To Build A Fire” the climate is cold. “Before the coming of winter, the old-timer from Sulphur Creek had warned him that one should always travel in winter with a partner and that one should never attempt to travel alone in temperatures colder than fifty degrees below zero. In his ignorance, the tenderfoot had laughed at the old-timer’s advice. Caught in the bitter cold, he is made to realize

Dogs and man have been coexisting for centuries in many different settings, both welcoming and harsh. To Build a Fire, written by Jack London, shows the thoughts of man while trying to survive in the bleak Alaskan cold. In the Call of the Wild, London embraces the instincts of sled dogs in a masterful depiction of the Alaskan wilderness. To Build a Fire and the Call of the Wild have many similarities in design but they do also have prominent differences.

Alternatively, the dog has a different biology make up than the human. The husky dog has a thick furry coat cuddling his warm body. Even though the dog probably never experienced such climate as the man, its biology make up allows the dog to survive and is therefore fit enough to support such extreme cold. The other difference between the man and the dog is

In 1903, Jack London wrote his best selling novel, concerning the life of a sled dog that travels throughout Alaska, the Yukon, and the Klondike. Throughout this book Jack London uses personification to illustrate the dog’s viewpoint. London describes what adventures the dog encounters after being kidnapped from his Santa Clara Valley home to be taken to Alaska as a sled dog to help men pursue gold in the gold rush of 1897. Buck, is the name of this sled dog who experiences his primitive life style for the first time after many forays through Canada and Alaska. Due to the events in Buck’s life, he transforms from a domesticated, family pet to a primordial, wild beast.

The words and phrases Jack London uses in To Build a Fire gives rich meaning to the story. The story covers a man's fatal journey through the Yukon wilderness with his dog. The further the reader goes into the story, the more the reader learns about the man's personality. The man is young and quite arrogant in his ability to survive in the extreme cold. In the end, the man's misjudgments lead to his early death.

The protagonist meets his demise because of his lack in intuition and imagination. (Short Story Criticism) The miner heads out to the miners camp after being warned to not travel at such cold temperatures. The miner displays his lack of intuition many times throughout the story. The miner proves he lacks in instinct when he says “fifty below zero is just uncomfortable and cold.” (London 1) “The protagonist travels against the advice of experienced prospects, thinking that he will make it successfully.” (Short Story Criticism) He shows his inexperience further when he thinks it is “fifty below when it’s actually seventy-five below zero.”(London 2)The recurring motif of man versus nature supports the lack of intuition theory. The secondary main character displays the instinct traits the man does not have. It shows how the wolf-dog senses the severity of the climate while the miner just views it as uncomfortable and cold. The miner further proves his lack of

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a short story about a man traveling through the Alaskan Yukon to meet up with his friends for lunch. The author keeps the character nameless and refers to him only as “The Man” which is used to show a connection between humanity and nature. The story shows the hardships the man goes through to get to his destination through the Alaskan Yukon, yet unfortunately doesn’t make it. The conflict is a man versus nature theme which contrasts strong and direct relations of the hardships in nature. Throughout this analysis, I am going to explore the conflict between the man and the merciless nature he has to go through before his death.

The first fire was a success, so I thought to myself, “This one will be no different.” I was wrong. The first time, the fire was put out by snow falling from a branch above him. The second time, the fire was almost a success but was ruined by the loss of feelings in my hand as I tried to build its flame. Now discourage, I begin to focus on my unfortunate luck and lack of company. Of course, the dog was a nice companion, but deep down I felt uneasy about its intentions. Is it simply lonely? Was it out looking for food when it stumbled across me? Wait. That thought gave me an idea. What if I killed the dog for a source of food but more so for the warm its body held? Other countries eat dogs. It wouldn 't be a completely morbid act to commit. I pondered on this thought, growing restless and uneasy at my body and its ability to withstand the cold. At the beginning of the trip, I thought nothing of the dangers enduring the harsh weather would entail, but seeing the effects it had on my body I knew that if I did not reach camp in the next hour the results