Jack London 's Build A Fire

The Short story, ‘To Build a Fire’ by Jack London, published in 1908, is an archetypal naturalist tale regarding a man who travels alone through the unforgiving Yukon in Winter, before ultimately falling victim to the harsh environment. The story portrays the issues in being unaware of the power of nature and portrays a strong naturalist, In the very beginning of the story, his indifference to the forces of nature is evident through London’s vivid imagery of the uninhabited environment and the man’s nonchalant tone imitated through the neutral diction present. Furthermore, the quote “The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances,” explicitly foreshadows that an issue will come of his indifference

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

Readers of all ages, literature lovers, and book fanatics often find conflicts within their own lives just as the characters of the stories they read do. Some are able to find a way to overcome and conquer, while others get stuck behind or can not find a way to beat them. In Jack London’s short story called “To Build a Fire,” the main character conflicts with mother nature, who keeps tearing him down at every possible point. The main character, who is only referred to as the Man, is battling his way alone through the harsh temperatures of the Yukon. On this journey he runs into many obstacles and challenges. The Man does not listen to the advice he is given, leading to his inevitable death at the end. The most notable theme London builds

In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” the main theme of the story is to listen to old timer’s advice. Although, this is not the only theme of the story. There are many sub-themes that help support the key point such as nature overpowering man, pride leading to disaster, and failure of imagination. These sub-themes help strengthen the major theme of the story to help the reader understand that listening to old timer’s advice is important.

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.

The story “To Build a Fire” written by Jack London has two nearly identical versions published in 1902 and 1908 respectively. The latter is better-known and more thought-provoking because of the protagonist’s death. To begin with, the journey takes place on a cold winter day in Klondike, consists of a man and his dog. The man is ignorant of the extreme coldness and feels confident about travelling alone at fifty degrees below zero. However, he breaks through a thin skin of ice unexpectedly and wets himself halfway to the knees. In order to dry his feet, the man builds a fire, only to have it extinguished by a pile of snow unloaded from a tree. He tries to set up another fire, yet all attempts has failed. The man panics and strives to unfreeze his body by running. Not surprisingly, his efforts are useless, and the man dies of hypothermia at last. The author effectively supports the central conflict of man versus nature and gives hints about the man’s death as resolution by using appropriate title, descriptive setting, and a large amount of foreshadowing.

Normally when we think of conflict we think of man vs. man, but we fail to realize that the biggest conflict humans can have is man vs. nature. A story about man vs. nature is when the character in the story has a conflict with something of nature. Jack London uses the conflict of man vs. nature in “To Build a Fire” to show that humans lack thought, trust, and humility. First of all humans tend to think they know a lot and go straight to actions instead of thinking in depth about what they are really getting themselves into. For example, the narrator states “The trouble with him was that he was without imagination.

“To Build a Fire” Jack London In Jack London’s story “To Build a Fire”, it teaches young adult’s the importance of observing your surroundings in a new environment, as well as listening to people who know the area and what not and what to do. In this story, it will show the reader why they must observe and listen. The first reason in London’s story is focusing on what you must do is if you’re told something very important, you must follow that person’s warning. In paragraph 6 on page 30 it states, “It was seventy-five below zero.”

Blowback in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” When you hear the term “Blowback” what would you think it means when you read “To Build a Fire”. It clearly means unintended consequences or unfortunate circumstances that befalls the main character of the story and might end tragically with the main character dying or ending up sad and alone with nothing at the end of the story. In the story “To Build a Fire”, Anthony Channell Hilfer used the term to define Jack London’s main character who was foolish and stubborn to think that he alone was tough enough to travel through rough snow and freezing temperatures of the Klondike to his destination without worrying about the dangers he may encounter. It was his ambition to express his ideology about man’s

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London, is a story based on a human’s inability to overcome the forces of nature. The story’s theme surrounds perseverance, even in the presence of a foolish decision. The character’s determination to face freezing weather, no matter how hard things get, shows that no matter how hard things got for him, he wasn’t going to give up. As the story goes on, the story depicts the characters ultimate decision to give himself a meaningful death. When faced with the forces of nature, the character decides to face his death with dignity and lay down next to a warm fire until death overcomes him.

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

Jack London was born in San Francisco, California in 1876 and died in 1916. Through the years of his life, he was not only a writer. He pirated for oysters, sailed in the Pacific, traveled around the country during his life, and worked in factories. He let his mind escape from being a factory worker by writing. He explored the Yukon in the winter of 1897, and began publishing Overland Monthly in 1899. Many of London's short stories became classics. Some of his stories include The Call of the Wild (1903), The People of the Abyss (1903), and John Barleycorn (1913) (Stasz). One of London's most famous short stories is To Build a Fire. In the short story, "To Build a Fire," Jack London has a certain setting, imagery, repetition, irony, and symbolism he uses to expose the harsh realities of nature in order to caution the reader.

Throughout the many years of mankind’s existence, there has been one common enemy, no matter the age or location. That enemy brings about destruction and death, yet provides sustenance and life. This contradiction is result of mankind’s first enemy, nature. It may be seen as cruel one moment, and then the next kind; but nature is neither, nature is something even more unsettling, indifferent. Nature’s indifference to humanity captures naturalism in literature, and is the theme of the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, that of man vs. nature. To convey this theme throughout the story, London uses elements of fiction to support this theme through the use of setting and symbolism. Through these elements we, as the readers, can begin fully grasping the theme.

“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.