Taking a Look at the Formalist Theory

Throughout the centuries, there have been an infinite amount of literary works written by a sea of authors that write a variety of genres. All of these works are precious in their own way, and even if their theme is similar to that of another, the author always ads a bit of his/her own flare in order to make said literary creation unique in some way. William Wordsworth’s “London 1802” and Paul Laurence Dunbar’s “Douglass”, although quite similar in form and sentence structure, do add their own flare through the use of specific details. Through the use of these devices, the speakers show their disgust for the evil deeds humans do and

The dreadful scenery has been fully characterized in Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire,” where the day is being described as cold and grey, having no sun or clouds during the day, and having ice-covered ground overlapped with snow on top. The setting is as important as the man in this story because the setting describes all the situations the man is put through and has to deal with throughout the story. The setting may be more important than the character with its beauty of a frozen tundra, with its darkness from the lack of sunshine, and with its mysterious, far-reaching hairline trail.

Throughout the novel, the author, Barbara Kingsolver, uses various stylistic devices to create complex, symbolic, and significant literature that is also rich in meaning. In the assigned passage, Kingsolver incorporates several literary devices to capture the audience’s attention and leave them with something to think about post reading.

Jack London, a 20th century author, is famous for novel The Call of the Wild and short story To Build a Fire. The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, was originally published in 1903, but it is still being printed today. The novel tells the tale of Buck, and his transition from house dog to a sled dog who works in the Yukon Territory. On the other hand, To Build a Fire, also by Jack London, was published in 1908, and is about a man and his dog who are traveling in the Yukon alone. Because of amateur mistakes, the man ends up freezing to death. While Call of the Wild and To Build a Fire both share the same setting, and feature characters in similar situations, they are quite different in terms of the main character and the relationship

The author highlights different points in the story with several scenes of action. One part in the story that really stands out to me is when Jack London writes:

Throughout the book, the author Jack London was mentioned numerous times. Many of the excerpts from his writings were placed in the beginnings of the chapters. “London

The King uses a lot of stylistic elements in his letter to the Birmingham Jail. Stylistic elements are techniques that give meaning, feeling, or ideas. One of the elements he uses is allusion. An allusion

In 'To Build a Fire,' the man's antagonist is nature: London displays the man's journey as restricted by external forces. First, the temperature of the tundra is seventy-five-below zero

The words and phrases Jack London uses in To Build a Fire gives rich meaning to the story. The story covers a man's fatal journey through the Yukon wilderness with his dog. The further the reader goes into the story, the more the reader learns about the man's personality. The man is young and quite arrogant in his ability to survive in the extreme cold. In the end, the man's misjudgments lead to his early death.

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.

As we read Jack London’s The Call of The Wild and To Build A Fire, we interpreted that the books have a few comparisons, but differ at the same time. Both of the books are based on the Yukon during the gold rush, and they both persevere with the situations they are given. The second similarity between the two is that in both novels, they involve the sled dogs. In To Build A Fire, we saw that the man was on an adventure and he needed to build fires to survive, but he did not succeed. In The Call of The Wild, we got to see the growth in Buck as he eventually became a strong sled dog. The differences in these examples is that in The Call of The Wild, Buck has a good ending to life, but the man does not.

Imagery is another important element which London uses to illustrate and emphasize his theme. In “To Build a Fire” Earl Labor sees the “mood and atmosphere, which is conveyed through repetitive imagery of cold and gloom and whiteness,” as being “the key to the story’s impact” (63). London does rely heavily on imagery to set the mood of the story, and in this way he draws a picture of the harsh environment that his character must endure. London uses imagery with such skill that the reader can almost feel the deadly cold of the environment and can almost hear the “sharp, explosive crackle” when the man’s spit would freeze in mid-air (119). Through the use of such vivid imagery, London guides the reader toward the realization of the story’s theme; the reader can visualize the man “losing in his battle with the frost” and therefor can picture man in his conflict with a cruel and uncaring universe (128). Symbolism is also an important element in “To Build a Fire”. David Mike Hamilton’s criticism, he says “the fire symbolizes life as does the white snow that falls at the beginning of the story.” He also views “the dark point in the midst of the stamped snow, foretelling the end of the fire, and thus of life” (2). I strongly agree with Hamilton’s criticism; “the dark point in the midst of the stamped snow” because it not only foretells the end of the fire but of the end of life itself.

Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” is the story of a nameless hiker traveling with his dog who has gone into the Alaskan winter with only enough to make fire, and one meal. He is making his journey by foot to meet up with his friends at a camp that lies a day ahead. He has prior experience with cold temperatures but his overconfident manner doesn’t allow him to make reasonable decisions throughout his journey. As the weather gets colder his confidence in survival quickly decreases causing him to regret his decision to ignore lifesaving advice from an experienced man. London portrays a theme of death in this short story and more is learned about the process of the characters thoughts; this shows the struggles the man faces as he comes to a harsh realization in the cold of the Alaskan wilderness.

Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire” is about a man’s battle to survive during a Yukon winter. The unnamed man has to accept that he isn’t greater than nature, and the setting Jack London created was the perfect example. Nature’s power is immense and will not be overpowered by men. Jack London used nature as the foreshadowing force to predict the man’s future.