My choice is for Jack London’s short story “ To build a fire”. I have always had a huge interest in great extremes of nature such as unpredictable floods or hurricanes or earthquakes or severe temperature changes which strongly influence the course of ordinary human life and cause people to show completely even unknown to themselves hidden deep in daily living qualities. I consider nature is a living matter that can react to the negatives provided by humanity in the forms of violent wars or conflicts or сareless attitude to natural resources or landscapes. Abnormal weather conditions or extremes are nature’s lessons to show humanity the fragility of our existence and thereby compel to respect the world of nature that was created not only for
The short story "To build a Fire" by Jack London, tells about the relationship between man and nature. The story takes place in the Yukon during one of the long night. The main character who is unnamed travels with a dog along a small trail to a mining camp. The man leaves against the advice of a local and after a short time realizes that he should have waited. The temperature is extremely cold because the mans spit freezes before it hits the ground. The main obstacle of his journey is the many covered springs that mean death to whoever falls into them. The man sends his dog in front of him to make sure that the trail is safe. Eventually the dog falls into one of the springs and gets his paws wet.
In “To Build a Fire,” Jack London presents the story of a man against nature as he tries to survive in the harsh winter of the Yukon in the early 1900’s. He begins a nine-hour hike through, temperatures as low as -75 degrees Fahrenheit, and he plans to meet up with friends in the area. With him is a local husky, with whom he has little companionship. The narrator builds a fire to warm himself. However, as the fire starts to reach a good warming point, snow falls and douses the fire. Finally realizing that things are getting drastic, the man starts running for the camp in desperation, with hopes of warming his body and possibly getting help. Eventually though he falls from exhaustion. While on the ground, he falls asleep and
In Jack London’s short story, To Build a Fire, there is an unnamed man who is trying to make it back to his camp in the freezing weather of the Yukon. The man travels only with a sled dog and himself in the 50 degree below zero weather. Throughout the short story, the man struggles to survive as he soon realizes the temperature is actually severely dangerous at 75 degrees below zero. In the end, the man ultimately dies before successfully reaching his camp due to not being able to build a fire on time to stay warm. While laying on the cold ground finally accepting his death, the man thinks back to before he went out an old man warned him of the dangers of traveling alone out in this kind of weather. He accepts he was wrong to not head the
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.
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.
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" 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.
Imagine this, breathtaking cold, loneliness and uncertainty all wrapped into one. If given tips to survive, would you follow them or steer clear of that path? In Jack London’s short story titled “To Build A Fire,” a man is stuck in the great unknown. Not suitable for humans and in no way enjoyable. In Laurence Gonzales's short story titled,“Deep Survival”, there are twelve steps to any man's survival. If the man from “To Build a Fire” would have followed these steps, would his predicament have turned out differently?
There are many authors in this world today. Some are known for classical writings of poetry, or hundreds and hundreds of books written by them. This author though was one who portrayed himself through dozens of short stories. His name is Jack London. Jack London is a writer who shows the conflict between Nature versus Man in his writings and supports this theme through his work, “To Build a Fire.” Jack was born on January 12, 1876 and died on November 22, 1916. He is best known for his nature novels depicting how nature can sometimes be so powerful that it overcomes man. Jack was deserted by his father when he was eleven and was mainly raised by his mother in Oakland, California. When his mother became ill she passed him on to the care of
Jack London’s 1908 short story “To Build a Fire”, focuses on a man who is traveling through the Yukon in -°F weather, alone. “To Build a Fire” is set in Yukon, Alaska during its colder months, with no sun. The protagonist known only as “the man” has no first hand experience in such weather therefore underestimates the danger involved. After accidentally stepping knee-high in spring water, the man attempts to build a fire to dry himself off. At first he is seemingly successful in building the fire, until snow from the branches above fall onto the flames and blots them out. When trying a second time the man is too cold to hold anything and can not successfully light the fire. The man then becomes frantic and attempts to run back to camp, but the Yukon is much too large, and the man eventually freezes. The mood in this story is very
The movement of naturalism was greatly influenced by the 19th-century ideas of Social Darwinism, which was in turn influenced by Charles Darwin's theories on evolution. Social Darwinism applied to the human environment the evolutionary concept that natural environments alter an organism's biological makeup over time through natural selection. Social Darwinists and naturalists cited this as proof that organisms, including humans, do not have free will, but are shaped, or determined, by their environment and biology. Naturalists argued that the deterministic world is based on a series of links, each of which causes the next (for more on these causal links, see Causal links and processes, below). In "To Build a
Many people often brag that they are “one with nature” and consider themselves the outdoors type. However, when put into hard situations that occur in the wilderness, several people come to realize that they are not as experienced as they had hoped for. When trekking through the outdoors, people need to have a partner with them, which is what the main character learned in Fire. He believed that he was skilled, but when put to the test, the man struggled immensely and ended up perishing due to his lack of preparation. A wise man once stated, “By falling to prepare, you are preparing to fail” (Franklin). In Jack London’s To Build a Fire, three major mistakes were made, which were not heeding advice given, not taking into account his surroundings, and believing he could live inside a dog.
“To Build a Fire” is a story tale about a dog that connects to nature more than man ever did.
In “To Build a Fire” Jack London narrates the story in the third person point of view. He chose this because it was the best way to describe everything that happened. The use of a third person narrator allows the reader to understand both the environment and the characters in the story.
The theme “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, is about pride, which is shown by survival in the wilderness, taking advice, and inevitably death. Pride is a major part of survival, especially in environments such as in Yukon, Alaska. When advice is given to you, it’s meant to help you or to save your life. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way when you don’t listen to advice, such as did the main character in the Alaska extreme cold weather. Formatively, you have to ask yourself; will you live or will you die in extreme cold weather if advice is given to you on what to avoid and how to survive?