Essay On To Build A Fire By Jack London

’s strive for fire comes from purely realism, something know true to man due to experience. However, many such as American author Jack London see this as not only realism, but also naturalism, a natural instinct due to supernatural properties. To inform others of his perspective on fire and other thing, Jack London revised an old article of his that appeared in a Youth’s companion magazine, changing it to appeal to a wider range of readers. Today Jack london’s “To Build a Fire” is known worldwide as a prime example of naturalism.

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

Naturalism and Realism both became important writing styles in the mid- nineteenth century. Naturalist writing portrays individuality within a character allowing a person to obtain humanistic themes. Realist writing is all about portraying real life and real situations. (Thesis)- Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” both display elements of naturalism and realism.

The man is also weak in the face of nature as nature tortures him with the physical accidents the man suffers. He firstly begins when his cheekbones and nose went numb and becomes worse as he looses touch and grasp of his hands, finishing off with the freezing of his corpse and sudden stiff death. London exclaims about the accounts the man has suffered, “This man did not know cold.” (London, 487) and “He was loosing in his battle with the frost.” (London, 493) I do agree because the man is a new comer, a chechaquo, meaning that it is the man’s first contact with such freezing environment. The man constantly through out the story efforts in combating against the forces of nature that he can not control the reason being because he was inexperienced to such environment, therefore the man is bound to be with the odds and like London exclaims, loose his battle with his environment. The environment shaped him such that it proved he is not fit enough to live in the extreme cold.

Naturalism began as a literary movement in the early 1890’s all throughout 1915. Naturalism is meant to imply a philosophical position. For writers, characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. Naturalists believed that human beings are meant to be studied like they were just “products”, that are to be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures. Ethan Frome was first published in 1911.

London and Krakauer argue that one must seek nature as an inspiration to reveal one’s self identity, and not destroy it;only when there is a combination of wiseness and being deprived of basic needs is one's self identity revealed. In the text, “To build a fire”, the main character seeks nature, however he does not find his self identity until it is too late due to his ignorance, resulting in an inevitable death. The main character, also known as “The man”, walks along a path in the middle of winter, accompanied by a dog. While the man is seeking nature and choosing not to destroy it, he is also challenging mother nature by testing his limits.

In Jack London's "To Build a Fire" we see a classic story of man against nature. In this story, however, nature wins. One reason that this is such a compelling and engrossing story is the vivid descriptions of the environment the nameless main character endures. Plot and characterization are brief, and the theme is simple. Yet this story is still a very popular story, and it has a mysterious quality that makes it great.

Jack London, in his short story “To Build a Fire,” details man’s attempt to prevail against the wrath of nature. In London’s story, the man, the protagonist, embarks on a dangerous ten-mile journey on the main Yukon trail during a harsh winter. Although the man shows knowledge of his snowy surroundings, his lack of sagacity, arrogance, and disrespect of nature result in his defeat in a battle between him and nature. London describes the man as one who is “quick and ready in the things of life...and not their meanings;” thus, showing the man’s lack of sagacity. The man does not think about the repercussions of his actions so he begins his journey with the thought that “50 degrees below zero [would be] nothing more than 50 degrees below.

Naturalism arose in the late nineteenth century as a movement, however, today naturalism is literary genre known as extreme realism. Naturalism shapes the characters, settings and roles in the families. The purpose of naturalism is for the characters in the story to use nature to form who they are or what actions they make. Naturalism is useful for writers who want to make a deeper connection with the humans and the earth in their stories. Because of naturalism, readers see the relationship the characters and their surroundings in the stories. Readers also see how nature affects the characters throughout their lives. This allows the reader to understand what is taking place in the story. In Stephen Crane’s, “The Open Boat,” naturalism appears

Jack London, Stephen Crane, and Edith Wharton are all considered great Naturalist writers. The interesting thing about these writers is that while they write about similar topics surrounding the awareness of Man versus many different forces, they all lead noticeably diverse lives. One was a poor writer who traveled the continent while bracing the very same elements he wrote about, one was a journalist who obtained recognition for works in his early academic years, and another was a wealthy, divorced author who impacted the literary society of today. The primary aspects of Naturalism include humans being in a struggle with forces beyond their control, attention to the setting, and a unifying objective. Charles Darwin, although not alive during the Naturalistic writing period, was a primary influence with his contribution of the concept of survival of the fittest. “To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a great case of that notion. The main character of this work has the thought process of “All a man must do was to keep his head, and he was all right”, and it does not seem to work out well for him (London). He is traveling toward his camp, and his only other companion is a wolf dog. In this story, we have an omnipresent narrator, so we are able to understand what the man and the dog are thinking. We see the man facing a multitude of forces. Man versus nature, man versus instinct, man versus ego, all go against the man and provide conflict. On the other side, the dog only faces the opposition of loyalty. Throughout the journey, the dog always, “knew enough to do this”, whether that was to immediately lick of ice accumulated on its feet, or to find fire or dig a hole to hide from the wind, or leave the dead guy behind (London). The dog had instincts that the man did not, and when the man tried

The Naturalist work, “To Build a Fire” by Jack London excels in the Naturalist idea of determinism. This means that what could happen, most likely will happen. Through the character’s treacherous journey in the snow and frigid temperatures we can see two pieces of masculinity exemplified by our author, the fighter’s mentality, and stubbornness. The masculine fighter’s mentality and will to never give up shows men’s perseverance through a Naturalistic view. One of these views was that behavior was determined by your environment (Darwin). This environment that are character was in was critical which lead to the man having a careful outlook but still end up

Nature writing is a genre that encompasses a range of works and writers throughout many time periods. This genre is based on the study of nature and frequently discusses the interrelationships between humans, nature, and god. In the nearly 300 year span between the writings of John Smith and Walt Whitman, nature writing had evolved. During the colonialist era, as evidenced by John Smith, nature was seen as given to us by god to be utilized in its full capacity, for resources to survive and profit. By the time of Walt Whitman, nature writing was transitioning from the transcendentalist into the realist movement and nature was viewed not as an extension of god, but as a way to learn about ourselves and the world. opposition to romanticism. Three writers between these two time periods, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin and William Cullen Bryant each have a different worldview based on their background and provide a transition between the Puritan and Realism movements.

To Build a Fire is yet another one of Jack London’s works that explores the relationship between man and nature. This short story however is focused primarily on that relationship. It’s not one built on respect, as the main character initially believes he can handle whatever nature throws his way. The theme of Man’s hubris is communicated through the thoughts of the characters, their actions and events in the plot.

Nature often tests man’s limits. Sometimes man can overcome these tests and win; however, there are times just simply fails. In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,” a man faces many trials which his limits. Unfortunately, he does not succeed in doing so because he has a hard time with nature itself. The setting in “To Build a Fire” has an impact on the character, plot, and symbolism.