Jack London To Build A Fire Analysis

He thinks of several irrational solutions to his predicament, all of which fail and he eventually freezes to death. The story shows the complete indifference nature has to human life. The hiker in “To Build a Fire” thinks of himself as experienced and refuses to heed the warnings about the extreme cold he is heading into. When he is first starting out, things seem to be going well until he falls into some water.

The short story "To build a Fire" by Jack London, tells about the relationship between man and nature. The story takes place in the Yukon during one of the long night. The main character who is unnamed travels with a dog along a small trail to a mining camp. The man leaves against the advice of a local and after a short time realizes that he should have waited. The temperature is extremely cold because the mans spit freezes before it hits the ground. The main obstacle of his journey is the many covered springs that mean death to whoever falls into them. The man sends his dog in front of him to make sure that the trail is safe. Eventually the dog falls into one of the springs and gets his paws wet.

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

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.

In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire,” a man freezes to death in the Yukon. His unfortunate fate could have been avoided if he simply would have respected the power of nature and recognized the warning signs. It is easy to identify three signs that he shouldn’t have ventured into the Yukon off the trail fifty below zero and to never mess around with nature or you might just find out, you will not make it out alive. “His spit froze before it had even hit the ground.” (232) this indicated that it was below 70¬¬¬¬¬ below zero.

His hubris attitude made it troublesome for the man to envision the potential outcomes that could happen when he does not consider nature's warning signs. The man neglects to consider the conceivable outcomes of what may turn out badly. He neglects to form an association with nature or even with his husky who knows the conditions are dangerous. The man essentially observes his goal of making his journey to the mining camp and is determined to arrive. The man's absence of imagination puts him in danger with the force of nature around him.

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

Do you love a good furtive? In To Build a Fire, Jack London gives students a short-term look inside the strong external view. Man and the Natural World, Foolishness, and Pride is a big take in this short story. In the third paragraph of this story, the speaker tells us all about the suffering with the man that he is disadvantaged of the mind. The absence of his imagination is an important fragility that will lead the man to create silly choices. The speaker marks a huge deal out of the point that the man has no imagination. The Yukon desert couldn’t care less. He’s just another kindly figure it can freeze. Some individuals may debate that each person has imagination. That everyone holds an assured mark of imagination capability. Out in the cold Yukon, you probably don’t think that having an imagination is going to help you much, but it will. As a reader, we must think about what good it would do the man to think enormously about the huge wilderness around the man. After all he is not a writer or a storyteller. He just want to go get some bacon. LOL. So why recommend he’s foolish for not having imagination?

Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire” is about a man’s battle to survive during a Yukon winter. The unnamed man has to accept that he isn’t greater than nature, and the setting Jack London created was the perfect example. Nature’s power is immense and will not be overpowered by men. Jack London used nature as the foreshadowing force to predict the man’s future.

He ignored the warnings of the old timer on Sulphur Creek and the feelings of the dog. This man had stated having been able to remember, on line 64, the old timer saying “No man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below zero” (Jesus, it is 75 below zero!) This man was stupid not to listen and head out.

He isn’t concerned about the cold or the darkness, not because he is used to it but because he is just a newcomer to Yukon (that is near the border of current day Alaska). He was also traveling with a husky wolf dog. He started his travel on an extremely cold morning, so he could meet up with his friends by six o'clock. As the temperature dropped to colder degree he realized that not all of him was covered and that his cheek bones would freeze up. He walks along a creek and his feet get wet, so he stops to build a fire and to eat some lunch.

As he falls, he quickly realizes the danger he is in. Being wet and in below fifty degree weather meant that he was on the verge of freezing if he could not find a place of warmth. The fires that he tries to create goes out due to snow hanging above him. “But the man remained silent. Later, the dog whined loudly … and caught a scent of death… Then it turned and trotted up the trail in the direction of the camp it knew, where were the other food-providers and fire-providers” (Norton 639). This shows that nature treats everyone equally and that no one person is stronger than nature itself. This man believed that he was smarter the locals, who had experience with the cold in the area, and nature itself, believing that he had all the right knowledge and tools to survive his trek. London uses his naturalism to create this image of nature still holding power over man as the dog was able to quickly find a place to survive using its instincts. London’s choice of not giving a name to the character allows the reader to not get too attached to the character. It also creates the illusion that this person can be anyone and that anyone could be in danger out in nature if they are not cautious. This connects back to naturalist literature as the environment is indifferent to man, it will not aid him or hurt him on purpose, it just lives. Throughout this story, London does

The old man at Sulphur Creek provides a supporting role in the story. He is repeatedly brought up throughout the story when the traveler recalls the advice he was given. “The man was extremely serious when he said that no man should travel alone”(Jackson ). His advice and warning are what creates tension to the story. The traveler brushes off the old man’s advice and says the old man probably couldn’t do handle it because old men are “womanish” (Jackson ). As the traveler continues his journey he realizes that being alone and traveling in such cold weather is dangerous. When he makes the fire the first time he makes it under a pine tree. The snow from the tree falls on the fire taking away the warmth he needed to reheat his body. The second time he tries to make the fire he couldn’t hold on to the matches. The matches fell on the floor and he says how if “he had a companion on the trail he would be in no danger” (Jackson ). He recalls how if he was traveling with someone the companion could have built the fire. “Now, he must build the fire again, and this second time he must not fail” (Jackson). Later, he says “perhaps the old man on Sulphur Creek was right. If he had a companion on the trail he would be in no danger now” (Jackson ). He also understands how the world is more instinctual instead of intellectual. He doesn’t realize until later that there might be a situation which he cannot

One of the most prominent facets of the man’s personality is his overwhelming arrogance. The man is a newcomer to the Yukon territory or “chechaquo”, and is inexperienced in the customs of the land. The man believes that he will be unaffected by the harsh conditions and does not seem to grasp the grave reality of the situation. This characteristic is displayed early in the story, when the man rebuffs the old timer’s warning advice and later mocks the old man and his caution of the danger of traveling in the freezing temperatures, especially without a partner. “Those old-timers are rather womanish, some of them, he thought” (1210). Despite the likelihood that the old-timer has spent his lifetime in the area, the man considers his advice to be weak and believes, arrogantly, that he is superior in his masculinity and abilities. Eventually, the man realizes that he should have listened to the words of the old man in Sulphur Creek. Further, the man’s arrogance is displayed again when he ignores the warning signs that the environment is not suitable for such a long solo trek. Despite the incredible cold, the man fails to comprehend just how miniscule he is compared to nature. “…the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all made no impression on the man” (1205). It is this arrogance that limits the man’s ability to grasp how insignificant his life is compared to the great power of

The relationship between man and nature is at times harmonious, and at other times, proves perilous. This explanation behind these varied results, is entirely due to the preparedness of the individual entering the wilderness. After all, there is no other explanation as to why some men emerge from the wild triumphant, and others such as the protagonist in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London perish. Therefore, in the case of “To Build a Fire”, the antagonist is not the wilderness, but instead is the man himself.