Jack London's To 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

James E. Faust once said, “Unfortunately, some of our greatest tribulations are the result of our own foolishness and weakness and occur because of our own carelessness or transgression.” In To Build a Fire by Jack London, a man is on a journey to get to his camp but the problem is that it is seventy degrees below zero, and he is travelling only with a dog to help him. The man, unfortunately, dies at the end of the story from frostbite after falling into an almost frozen creek and not being able to make a fire in order to warm himself up. One cause of his death is the man’s arrogance. The second cause of his death is his carelessness and hasty decisions. The man makes terrible decisions leading to his death, it is not nature’s fault.

Jack London in his story “To Build a Fire” develops the relationship between man and dog, furthering the plot and developing the theme of the story. London makes it clear in the story that the man needs the dog, even if he does not like the animal. The man used the dog to go over dangerous areas and see what was up ahead. “Usually the snow above the

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

McClintock states, “Indeed, the cold itself functions as an invisible antagonist in ‘To Build a Fire’ It meets the man as soon as he goes outside into the brutal Klondike winter” (McClintock 347). McClintock really explains the idea of conflict of the cold within the short story. Telling on how much it really is an enemy and the factor it plays. The Man also faces himself as an enemy, being he is too foolish to learn when he is wrong. He constantly fights his own foolishness everytime he goes against the more experienced advice he is given. The narrator tells, “You were right, old hoss; you were right” (London 506). It is obvious that the Man realizes that his foolishness of not listening to the Old Timer lead to his death. Since the theme of foolishness plays a respectable role in this story, the conflicts given throughout the story shows the readers on how the main character could have avoided a number of conflicts, just by listening to the advice he was given. Furthermore, the conflicts throughout the story exemplify the theme of foolishness.

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.

As a matter of fact, the man seems rather flat. The author, by barely giving us any information regarding the man's personality, his life, or his physical appearance, helps in his dehumanization. By not even giving us his name as well, he keeps us strangers to him. Indeed, all throughout the story the narrator makes references to him by calling him "the man" and "he" (100). The minimum of details is revealed, and the narrator emphasizes his tendency to be insensitive and unaware of the environment he is in: "But all this--[…] the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all--made no impression on the man" (101). As if the man was not consciously aware of the danger, we have trouble entering his mind; so what is really going through his head? Unable to answer the question, we may feel upset about his lack of

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.

The Man was strong in his heart and did not give up. He was always trying to survive in the harsh cold weather of fifty below zero. He would get extra branches to maintain his fire when he could. “He worked methodically, even collecting an armful of the larger branches to be used later when the fire gathered strength” (London par. 25).The man was thinking ahead and decided he should just get as much as he can every trip to save time. The Man’s fingers got frozen when his fire got put out by the tree he had no mobility or sense of touch with his hands. He had to make a fire and he decided he would use his mouth. “He picked it up in his teeth and scratched it on his leg. Twenty times he scratched before succeeded in lighting it” (London par. 28). The man had no mobility of his hands so he thought outside the box and fought for his life using his survival instincts. He used his mouth to ignite the match and make the fire. Despite his best efforts, The Man succumbed to the cold weather due to his foolishness of not being

When his inexperience exposes itself to him, he remembers the old-timers words of wisdom. The man did not realize the prudence behind the old-timer’s words of wisdom. He ignored the old-timers cautions and dangers of traveling alone, making him foolish and naïve to his situation. “That man from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in the country. And he had laughed at him at the time!” (London, 528)

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.

“To Build a Fire” is a short story written by Jack London. It is viewed as a masterpiece of naturalist fiction. “To Build a Fire” features a miner who is traveling to the Yukon Territory with a dog as his companion. The miner is the protagonist and the dog companion is called the foil. The dog plays off of the traits of the protagonist. “The central motif of “To Build a Fire” concerns the struggle of man versus nature.” (Short Story Criticism) The most argued point in the short story is the reason of the protagonist death. “Some critics believe that it was his lack of intuition and imagination that lead to his death, while others say that he dies because of panic.” (Short Story Criticism) The protagonist in “To Build a Fire” struggles in

“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.

After further and cumulative study of the story, one may come to the conclusion that the man in the story has totally influenced reality both in his refusal to allow perceptions persuade him from his mission as he set out to it and also in his utter confidence in his own perceptions of his unique and higher judgment maintaining an overly optimistic outset in regards to his own abilities. One particularly dire incident began, “The man was shocked. It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death” (London 130). One can see by the word “shocked” that he clearly assumed nothing would go wrong, until it actually is done already.

Foreshadowing impacts this story in a huge way as it develops what is going to happen to the man toward the end of the story. London uses foreshadowing to give an insight as to what the man’s fate will be by the end of his journey. In the story the man is told by the old-timer to not travel alone, but the man chose to go with only his dog, not listening to the old-timer because he has too much pride. The man recalled the conversation, “The old-timer had been very serious in laying down the law that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below,”(London 502) but