Character Analysis: To Build A Fire

He constantly decided how cold it was and how he didn’t like to be as cold as he was. Inevitably, the psychological factors wore his mind and soul down to make him only think how cold he was. By the end of his situation, any warmth, whether by the sleep of death or fire, was all the man could think about. Without any imagination to focus his thoughts elsewhere, the man helped himself collapse into his final doom.

The man represents the fraction of society that doesn't respect nature. He doesn't understand the power of nature because he is oblivious to it. On the other hand the dog was "told a truer tale than that was told to the man by the man's judgement." The man "did not know cold. Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold." "The was no keen intimacy between the dog and the man." The man and the dog are together because the man needs the dog, and the dog has no choice. They have no emotional connection between them because the dog is used as a slave. In one part of the story the man uses the dog to test the trail and make sure that it is safe. The dog has more inherent knowledge about the area, all of his "ancestry knew" about the cold and the dangers of extreme cold. He also had a warm "natural covering" to keep him safe from the weather. The man was not used to the cold. He "was without imagination. He was quick and alert to the things of life, but only the things, and not the significances." He also was stubborn for his neglect to take advice.

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

A good writer’s depiction of setting positions the reader right into the story. In "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, the setting plays a significant role throughout the entire short story.  London uses certain techniques to establish the atmosphere of the story.  By introducing his readers to the setting, prepares them for a tone that is depressed and frightening.  Isolated by the hostile environment of the Yukon in sub-freeing temperatures, a man falls victim to the unrelenting and unforgiving power of nature, London shows us how the main character of the story is completely unaware of his surroundings. The only world the man is truly accustomed to is his own. Never being exposed to such a harsh climate draws one to conclude that the

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

The freezing Alaskan wilderness is one in the stars of both To Build a Fire and the Call of the Wild. “The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice,” quoted Jack London in his short story, To Build a Fire. The Yukon mention in the previous quote is a river that is located

The temperature kept getting colder and the man could not feel parts of his body. He had tobacco in his mouth but the temperature was so cold that his mouth was iced shut and his saliva could not fall. “The result was a long piece of yellow ice hanging from his lips.” this shows how cold it is and that the temperature of frost was even worse. Everything was covered with multiple inches of snow and most of the lakes were frozen solid. However not all of the streams were solid. The man almost fell through several times and the dog did fall through once when it was forced to cross. The man successfully made a fire to warm them both up. However, when the man fell to his knees in a lake and he tried to make a fire; he failed. He tried twice to warm his frostbitten body, but did not

In 'To Build a Fire,' the man's antagonist is nature: London displays the man's journey as restricted by external forces. First, the temperature of the tundra is seventy-five-below zero

The nights wind swirled as it carried ice to claw at their skin. With a sigh of exasperation the tallest of the three stood and went inside their shared tent. The other two followed him. He had a knack for knowing when the wind would freeze anyone outside and when the snow would begin to fall. It was best to be huddled for warmth, sleeping, or both when he entered the tent. The tarps over the tent held out the snow and broke the wind while their sleeping bags were filled with down and layered in fleece and wool with a waterproof canvas outer layer. They slept in their clothes.” Said the wise woman to her students.

The farther the man got along the trail the more he understood he was in trouble. He was a chechaquo, a newcomer who was on his first Alaskan winter. An old man on Sulphur Creek had told him that no man should travel alone in country after 50 below zero. It was far below as the man spit his tobacco, it cracked in the air and

The man had no imagination and only understood facts. He knew it was very cold and his body was numb, but he failed to realize the danger. A newcomer with no experience, he thought he was invincible. Neither the "absence of sun from the

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

First, I am going to analyze the dog’s relationship with the man. the man is on his way to meet the boys with his only companion, a wolf dog which represents the bond we have with nature. The dog relies on the man to provide warmth by fire and the man needs the dog for his instincts. I believe the that since it is a wolf dog it has both traits as a wild wolf and a domesticated dog. It is like a gateway between humanity and nature which allows us to be a part of it. The dog never left the man’s side because he needed him. The man however, the attempted to kill the dog to spare his life. The man also sent the dog across the lake knowing that the dog’s instincts could get him across. The man heavily relied on the dog for his survival and was willing to sacrifice him for the man’s

     But as aforementioned, the Man thinks almost nothing of the extreme temperature. Also, the man was given advice by an old-timer at Sulphur Creek, who warned him to never venture out in the Yukon when the temperature dropped below fifty degrees. Nevertheless, he goes anyways. A warning that should have shocked the Man back into reality is when he first fell into one of the many springs that never froze:

I picked To Build a Fire because I like adventure stories. It seemed that's the man was a newcomer to Yukon territory in Canada, and he didn't expect this severe frost. So he wasn't prepared for the terrible drop in colds, which was more than 75 degrees below zero, and also had no experience in the country climate. At last, he succeeded to reached his destination with his dog.