Jack London's To Build A Fire

He pulls twigs from the nearby underbrush to feed the fire, but the resulting vibrations eventually cause the snow on the tree's loaded boughs to tumble down, extinguishing the flames and frightening the man for the first time. He gathers material for a new fire and lights it with great difficulty, burning himself with his matches in the process. But then he accidentally pokes everything apart and extinguishes the incipient flame while trying to remove a piece of moss. He seizes hold of the dog, planning to kill it and use the fresh carcass for warmth; however, he finds that he can neither draw his knife nor strangle the animal with his frozen hands. In a final desperate attempt to warm himself up, the man tries to run along the trail but repeatedly stumbles and falls. Finally understanding the truth of the wise man's warnings about the cold, the man succumbs to hypothermia and sleeps his way into death, imagining himself to be with "the boys" as they find his body the next

This week’s readings had many strong representations of Naturalism in the two stories. The works found parallels through their character’s treacherous journeys in life, as depicted in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, with his freezing trip, and “Maggie: A girl of the Streets” by Stephen Crane, over her, and her family’s rough, and unfortunate life.

The story To Build a Fire demonstrates possible dangers of traveling in the Yukon under extreme cold. Through a young man, Jack London depicts the consequences of ignoring instinct and survival advice. The man travels with a dog, who can perceive the dangers of the freezing wilderness. The reader learns of the man's personality through descriptive words and phrases while journeying through the story.

They had come across the mountain from the Indian Creek country... He would be in camp by six o’clock that evening.” (London, 66) Both the man from To Build a Fire and Craig Johnson were still trying to survive was because they had to meet

The man should’ve noticed this and turned back, but the man was that of a stubborn mule he felt as if a little weather 70 below zero wouldn’t harm him, if he kept his head. Not to mention the fact that his chew left an amber trail in his beard. No to mention his cheeks and nose went numb, along with his has even though they had mittens are them. The man could’ve heeded is the way the dog acted towards the weather.

In the story “To Build a Fire,” Jack London demonstrates that survival comes with knowledge, experience, and preparation. For example, when the man was hesitant to continue further with his journey due to the dangerous concealed ice skins beneath the snow; his solution was to shove the dog forward. This depicts that the man is knowledgeable of ice skins, thus being the reason why he pushed the dog to test their surroundings. With knowledge of the wilderness, he avoided the dangerous ice skins. One example of how experience plays a role in survival was when the man never really knew what “real cold” felt like.

Finally, he began to palm branches, rotten twigs and moss together. He struck the piece of birch-bark to his teeth, it lit. He held the piece of birch-bark between his teeth; he inhaled the fumes, coughed and blew out the small twinkle of a fire. The dog sat curled neatly in the snow surrounded by its own body warmth watching the man struggle.

In Jack London’s shorty poem, titled “To Build a Fire,” London creates a character of a man who goes on a journey through a hostile environment in the sub-freezing temperatures of the Yukon trails. The man’s journey takes a turn for the worse when he gets his feet wet falling through ice and struggles dearly as he battles to keep warm by building a fire. The man’s struggle for survival faces him come to terms with reality to face death with dignity and falls victim to the unforgiving power of nature. No one can deny that Mother Nature can present harsh weather for any man to endure.

In the excerpt “To Build a Fire” by Jack London a man decides to travel alone in the cold, ignoring the advice of others. This man has very little experience traveling in the dangerous Yukon wilderness especially when it is- 75 degrees below zero. He had a choice to stay at home safe of the danger ahead of him, but “This man didn’t know cold. Probably all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant to cold” (line 4 and 5).

"To Build a Fire" takes place in Yukon, on an extremely cold and grey winter day. An unnamed man travels alone, except with an unwilling dog, to the camp at Henderson Creek with his friends, "the boys". Travelling on such a cold day did not worry the man at all though, because he is "without imagination" (100). The dog, on the other hand, knew by its instincts that it is too cold to travel. As they walk, the man encounters plenty of trouble, including the struggle to build a fire with his numb hands. He thinks about killing the dog for its warmth but is unable

To permit the ice to remain would mean sore feet. It did not know this. It merely obeyed the mysterious prompting that arose from the deep crypts of its being.” The dog is able to quickly recover from the fall

He thinks very pragmatically about low temperatures, so “he was keenly observant”, he knows to react efficiently and stay confident. He actually manages to keep his self-control for a long time despite the many vicissitudes he meets. However, this lack of sensitivity leads him to his doom since he does not know how to stay humble in front of the indomitable elements nature is. He refused to listen to the advices of the old man from Sulphur Creek who had recommended him to not face the cold alone. However, he does not appear to be entirely a novice of the extreme cold either. He is aware of the danger of the cold. Many times he thinks he has never experience such a cold temperature before, but still he lacks of judgement and continues his adventure, believing his thoughts and skills will be enough to live through the

“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.

“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

The man and dog are in a battle of survival of the fittest and must adapt to the environment in order to live. The dog and the old-timer have been given survival resources adapted over many generations. The old-timer relies on wisdom passed down from his ancestors who have learned to endure the harsh cold of the Yukon, by traveling with another companion. If the man wished to succeed in the harsh conditions, it would have benefited him to listen to the words of the old-timer. “The man did not know cold. Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold” (London 632). The man is