Jack London 's Build A Fire

There were actually various signs of the temperature was dropping to a dangerous level before a stroke of misfortune hit the man. While he was chewing tobacco, the moisture around his lips froze, “... and the muzzle of ice held his lips so rigidly that he was unable to clear his chin when he expelled the juice” (London 3). Though this was an indicator of the frighteningly low temperature, he dismisses it as “the penalty all tobacco-chewers paid in that country” (London 3). Also, while trekking through the barren trail, “... his cheek-bones went numb, and the following instant the end of his nose went numb…” (London 4). Although these signs of frostbite would normally frighten someone less confident, the protagonist states in his thoughts that “...it didn’t matter much, after all. What were frosted cheeks? A bit painful, that was all; they were never serious” (London 4). This shows that he does not have a proper sense of how severe the consequences of frostbite really are. He has obtained the basic logical knowledge about it, but fails to comprehend the actual danger that is threatening him. His egotistical personality has him thinking that he can easily overcome any obstacle, whether it is set by man or nature. Ordinarily, in the viewpoint of the man, the most practical thing to do in that situation would probably be to stop and warm his frosted cheeks and nose by a fire. But that would be admitting weakness, which would be a blow to his pride. Consequently,

In Jack London's “To Build A Fire” the story follows a man and his dog in the Klondike and their obstacles of trying to get to the boys which are his compatriots. The story revolves around the winter and how mankind reacts to the wild. The author uses nature to illustrate the poem’s tone by vilifying nature and using it as an obstacle.

In her passage, Ms. Vollmer argues about McCandless failing to hear the warnings provided by Jack London through his stories which McCandless had read and reread many times. In his story 'To Build a Fire' Jack London has shown the difference between a person who did not care about the risks and a dog with pure instincts. The similarity between this man and McCandless was that both were inexperienced to the adverse events of nature and both failed to see the dangers. The main purpose of London's story was to warn the adventurers about the risks to the wilderness. As an enthusiast of Jack London, McCandless had read these stories many stories many times and yet failed to understand London's warnings. Shreds of evidence lie in every mistake he had made as he continued his journeys making Vollmer's argument agreeable.

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.

Imperative: urgently necessary. In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” building a fire is imperative for the man’s survival. While he was in the harsh Yukon environment, he falls into an ice trap, and his foot is frozen solid. Him not building a lasting fire ultimately led to his death, among him not listening to the old man’s advice to bring a partner, and him building a fire under a tree.

Naturalism was a literary movement or tendency from the 1880s to 1930s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. Basically characters can be studied through their relationship with their environment. A lot of jack London’s work was based on naturalism, and “To build a fire” was no different. The story starts off with an unnamed man in Yukon (where he is foreign) where it is more than 50 degrees below zero. "The man's red beard and moustache were likewise frosted, but more solidly, the deposit taking the form of ice and increasing with every warm, moist breath he exhaled. Also, the man was chewing tobacco, and the muzzle of ice held his lips so rigidly

To Build a Fire Jack London expresses the unforgiving conditions of nature by writing of a man who is roaming through the Yukon, with no company but a dog, and how in the end his stubbornness and Mother Nature’s brute weather conditions and nature’s inability to care for the man ultimately lead to his demise.

Character development in the story "To Build a Fire" by Jack London One of the most famous and favorite writers of American and world readers is Jack London. His unusual ability to combine adventures with narration and tell the stories of the personal growth of people, developed in severe circumstances, attracts readers' attention worldwide. The present paper is devoted to the discussion of the work To Build a Fire, written by London in 1902, and the way London develops the personality of the principal character during his adventures. Jack London spent a considerable amount of time in the Yukon searching for gold, so this was the period when London was inspired to write his classic story To Build a Fire.

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

Jack London's To Build a fire begins with a hiker in the Yukon, setting out to test his abilities with his large loyal dog at his side. At the start of the story there is a hint that things will not go as planned because it mentions how clear the day was, and the lack of sun and lack of worry on the man's part seems to be a foreshadowing of events to come, the man was experienced and should have known better to take nature for granted like he was doing. The hiker also had been warned by an old native man that hiking in negative 50 degree weather could have dangerous consequences and yet the man chose to ignore the old man's warning. In the whole story the man brushes off the cold temperatures even when he begins to feel symptoms of frostbite, like his face becoming numb, his fingers and toes start to freeze and he even doesn't have anything to protect his face from the harshness of the arctic temperatures.

When one decides to look past the flowery language and romanticized ideas present in literature and society, it becomes apparent that nature is a cold, brutal, and unforgiving place. The comfort that comes from believing each individual holds a special place in life is belittled by the sad truth that the universe is not too concerned with whether or not each person on the planet lives or dies. The trend of naturalism that appears in American literature during the post Civil War era capitalizes on this way of thought, and brings out themes of the cruelty of the world in a matter-of-a-fact way. Ultimately, Jack London’s To Build a Fire is a stark but realistic presentation of man and the natural world that displays the characteristics of naturalist writing.

In 1896, the last major gold rush happened, over 100,000 people migrated to Alaska searching for gold at the Klondike River. Out of the 100,000 people, only about 4,000 people actually found gold. It was challenging for the miners to find gold because of the harsh weather. In the short story by Jack London called “ To Build a Fire,” two characters are trying to get to the mining camp in the serve cold of Alaska. The two main characters are a man and his dog. The man is a miner in the Klondike Gold Rush who brings his dog along with him. They are on their way to meet up with the miners at a miner camp. On the way there, they have to face the freezing cold of the Klondike. A powerful theme that Jack London uses is how arrogance can be a bad trait and effect somebody life. This is easily shown in the story since the beginning. Throughout the short story, “To Build a Fire,” Jack London uses literary elements of setting and conflict to develop his theme of arrogance.

“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.

Jack London was one of the great writers in the Naturalism Period, his pieces came from a unique experience during a winter spent in the Yukon. His stories are truly special pieces to read. London, who was born 1876 in San Francisco, ventured to the Yukon in the winter of 1897 which provided inspiration for his literary art (“Jack London: Biography”). Author of many other stories, he published “To Build a Fire” in 1902; he later died in 1916 (“Jack London: Biography”). In this story, a man and a dog venture onto the cold Yukon Trail during the winter, a brutal setting for anyone. With the combination of foolish mistakes and a lack of good luck, he passes away before he can reach camp to have dinner (London, “To Build A Fire”). London, through his brilliant writing, conveys that a person should never underestimate the forces of nature. In “To Build a Fire,” Jack London builds this theme through his use of conflict, foreshadowing, and figurative language.

To Build a Fireisa short story that is anchored on naturalist movement that was largely developed towards the end of the 19th century. Some of the pioneers of this movement include; Edith Wharton, Theodore Dreiser and Jack London. Themes encompasses under the movement are determinism instead of free will; absence of morality, catapulted with survival and indifference in the environment; instinct as opposed to intellectualism, and lower classes are depicted as equal characters. As such, the narrative is anchored on settings and character of the language used to gauge an individual.