Jack London 's Observation Of Man 's Foolish Confidence

He constantly decided how cold it was and how he didn’t like to be as cold as he was. Inevitably, the psychological factors wore his mind and soul down to make him only think how cold he was. By the end of his situation, any warmth, whether by the sleep of death or fire, was all the man could think about. Without any imagination to focus his thoughts elsewhere, the man helped himself collapse into his final doom.

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 a Far Country is a short story about two men, left in the middle of the Wild, in a cabin, who are faced with the problem of surviving and living with each other. On top of that, there is the Fear of the North. ” This Fear was the joint child of the Great Cold and the Great Silence, and was born in the darkness of December, when the sun dipped below the horizon for good. It affected them according to their natures.” (London)

“In the end we only regret the chances we didn’t take.” - Lewis Carroll. The quote discussed is Jack London “The proper function of man is to live, not exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” In order to support this I will use evidence from articles and studies. I agree with Jack London’s claim that people should live not exist, and use their time wisely. I agree because risk taking actually has health benefits, people often take risks and then love the outcome and research has found risk taking can actually be eye-opening.

In the story “To Build A Fire” the climate is cold. “Before the coming of winter, the old-timer from Sulphur Creek had warned him that one should always travel in winter with a partner and that one should never attempt to travel alone in temperatures colder than fifty degrees below zero. In his ignorance, the tenderfoot had laughed at the old-timer’s advice. Caught in the bitter cold, he is made to realize

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.

This man who we do not know from the start got lost in the Yukon Trail. From the start we could see he wasn’t sure where he was and that brings me to number one in the Principle of Survival his perception was not clear he wasn’t sure what was going on at the beginning all he knew was the it was nine o’clock and the sky was starting to get a subtle gloom. His awareness was not in the best place either in this situation, “ But all this-this mysterious, far reaching hairline trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and the strangeness of it was- made no impression on the man.” He wasn't aware of the symptoms that he was already experiencing like the frost forming on his beard. He didn't have that awareness that he needed in the type of climate he was in.

Trapped in the depths of an arctic winter, there’s more to fear than just the cold.

The man learns his lesson the hard way.The man encountered many internal warnings that it was too cold to be outside. First, his nose and cheeks went numb. His face, feet, and hands followed. His beard and mustache grew icy from his breath.

His lack of knowledge led him to his demise, because he possesses self-awareness, leads him to the action of free will which could have protected him from a defined fate.

The man never realized how cold it was outside because it was his “first winter”, but the dog knew it was below 50 degrees Fahrenheit and wanted to stay by the fire. The man should’ve stayed there and listened to the dog instead of putting himself in dangerous situations. At the end of the story the man dies from freezing to death. Now that the man is dead I realized

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

     During his fateful journey, the Man is given warnings first-hand of the extreme cold and of the consequences of his actions. The first is when he spits on the snow:

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.

Jack London is considered one of Americans best writers in time. London is considered a naturalist, which is one of the movements during the time of 1865-1915. A naturalist is where a writer portrays the characters as victims of the environment. One famous short-story that Jack London wrote is “To Build a Fire”. This short-story shows the main conflict of nature versus man. It is set in the Yukon Trail during the winter time. London took part in the Klondike Gold Rush which gave him the inspiration to write “To Build a Fire”. The one major character that the story focuses on is the unnamed man. The unnamed man is a protagonist in the story. The man’s character is revealed through his looks, thoughts, and actions.