Intellect vs. Instinct in 'To Build a Fire' by Jack London

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.

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

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

But, we realize almost immediately, the man has only a superficial knowledge of the Arctic. As he stands on a bank of the Yukon about to plunge into an almost absolute wilderness, he has little or no understanding either of his immense isolation relative to his surroundings or of the extreme danger posed by the cold snap. But all of this, London comments at the beginning of the third paragraph, "The mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all, made no impression on the man." Thus, the man also knows, in addition to the fact the sun will reappear, that it is fifty degrees below zero, but he does not know the meaning of this fact, it portends death for anyone who makes himself vulnerable to its ability to kill. "Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head."

Story takes place in the Klondike. The main character used the landscape as a clue. He also used a faint line as his way back (Kreidler, Michele L). Since it’s snowy he leaves a trail behind him. He uses takes advantage of the landscape around him but relies on it for too long. “The man is a newcomer to the Klondike and is setting out from town to join his compatriots, referred to 'the boys' at a specified point on the Yukon River” (Kreidler, Michele L). He is new in the Klondike so this already shows that if he goes anywhere he is most likely getting lost. This foreshadows the death of the man. “London describes the traveler, "a newcomer in the land," as being unaware of "his frailty as a creature of temperature…able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold"” (Robert S. Puchalik). The man doesn’t know how frail the human body can be. The setting is important because if he knew the territory he was in he would probably have a higher chance of surviving. Klondike is where the man is currently staying. It is a safe zone for him because he has warmth. He is traveling to the Yukon River to meet his compatriots.

The man in this story has had a long and difficult journey, filled with emotional and physical pain. The only company he had was a native dog who followed him everywhere he went. The cold air of the Yukon trail presented a major problem for the man as he fought off frost bite. Throughout the story he struggled against nature a lot. With ups and downs along the way, the weather was always against him as he thought of ways to survive. In the end, nature won.

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.

As the passage begins, Carter begins to paint a picture for the audience, using emotional appeal to describe his time in the regions of the Arctic Refuge. He introduces his own personal experience regarding the topic. Through sharing his own experiences, Carter establishes a personal bond with the reader, which in turn would aid in the persuasion of his opinion. He continues on by mentioning one of the most “unforgettable and humbling” experiences of his life where him and his wife had witnessed the migration of caribou. By revealing that one of his most unforgettable experiences was also linked to the Arctic Refuge, he highlights the importance of these experiences for others to have. By establishing a personal connection with his audience, Carter is not only able to grasp their attention but also builds his credibility easily, through his use of facts and examples.

The trio regarded the future with jaded pessimism. If they made their way to the coast and followed it south they might have a chance of survival. Hearsay told them that South America wasn’t as cold. Their layer of permafrost was only a few inches in the south rather than the foot and a half in Canada. One of the men had already lost two fingers to frostbite. Another lost his child to hypothermia. The third hadn’t had anything to lose except for a drug addiction.

He had the ‘book smarts’ about walking through the Yukon but he lacked the ‘street smarts.’ He may lack experience and imagination in traveling in subzero temperatures but his calm nature allows him to stay focused, even when the fire is snuffed out by the falling snow from the tree and he thought of it as hearing his own death sentence. “It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death. For a moment he sat and stared at the spot where the fire had been. Then he grew very calm.” (London, 529) Furthermore, when he is sure he will lose his toes and fingers, he does not lose sight of his most important goal, surviving. London tells how, even when in grave danger, the man regroups without panic and strong belief in his own abilities. “Well, it was up to him to build the fire over again, and this second time there must be no failure. Even if he succeeded, he would most likely lose some toes” and “Such were his thoughts, but he did not sit and think them.” (London, 529)

Imagine wandering into arctic weather, knowing your chances of making it out alive are slim. All you have is a wolf dog, and the clothing on your body. You have 10 miles to go over rugged Alaskan terrain, and you need to follow a trail cover in a foot of know. This is where a living things natural instincts kick in. You rely on them to survive and get them of a dangerous situation. This is what happened to a man who decided he could make it to a camp along a covered trail.

The man knows the temperature is colder than 50 below; he has no experience traveling in such weather yet continues absentmindedly to meet ‘the boys’ at their camp in Henderson Creek. A dog followed at his heels, “It’s instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man’s judgement” (Anderson 28). The man was aware of the dangers of his trip, including thin ice skin hidden beneath pockets of sunken snow. Several times he avoids these traps wishing not to be delayed and even compels the dog to lead when he is unsure himself. The dog’s instinct screams no but the man shoves it forward anyway and the dog’s legs are soaked briefly before turning to ice. The dog quickly bites and licks at the ice to remove it from its fur. After a swift lunch and a small fire the dog again reminds the man of the dangers that lie ahead, “…it knew that it was not good to walk abroad in such fearful cold” (Anderson 30). Regretfully, the man saw no signs before falling through a pocket of snow and ice which left his feet wet. “He was angry and cursed his luck aloud. He had hoped to get into camp with the boys at six o’clock, and this would delay him an hour, for he would have to build a fire and dry out his footgear” (Anderson 31). Ignorant to his surroundings, the man’s fire is put out when snow falls from the boughs of the spruce above his fire. He finally acknowledged

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

Do you think you could survive the Yukon trail, a mile wide and three feet of ice, and just as many feet of snow, in weather colder than fifty below? The story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, is about a man who tried to take the Yukon trail and get to his friends with just a dog to guide him. He was told that no one has ever made the journey alone, yet he chose to take on the journey. Through the story the man faces many conflicts not only through himself in having too much pride, but also with the physical ones such as the cold which lead to his death. The main theme in the book is the man’s perseverance to try and survive. The man on the Yukon Trail has to show perseverance through the story even with the harsh weather and signs of bad events coming upon him. In his story “To Build a Fire,” Jack London discusses the theme of perseverance through two literary elements, conflict and foreshadowing.