The Unnamed Man 's Imminent Downfall

Upon seeing this tragedy, the Narrator describes that, “the sun seemed to scream an inch above [his] head” (436). The proximity of the heat incites intense emotion among the civilians, including the cop for acting so impulsively and the Invisible Man, who was “walking blindly” yet with his mind “registering it all vividly” (436). The sun blinds him, inhibiting any emotional restriction, yet the sun also clears his mind from obscurity; the heat pulls the Narrator’s emotions out from hibernation and removes them from a dormant stage. In addition, at Clifton’s funeral, the crowd before the Invisible Man is “sun-beaten and

On the morning of September 11, 2001 millions of people were in shock the moment they received news that the World Trade Center was hit. The images from this horrific day flooded the media’s television screens and newspaper articles. Perhaps the most gruesome images shown were those of people jumping out of the building as they were collapsing. Tom Junod, a writer for the Esquire magazine, illustrates his perspective of this shocking incident through pictures, media coverage, and depicting people’s reactions in his article The Falling Man. Tom Junod’s article should be read by anyone who believes they have felt all there is to feel from the 9/11 attack. He will prove otherwise that there is indeed still much emotion to

Characterization, or lack of it in this case plays a dominate role in London’s short story. The reader never finds out why the central character and rival competitor are battle with each other. The conflict is brought to a simple effort of getting information for the scouts side of the fight. Still the readers are giving little to no background “He was a young man, not more than twenty-four or five, and he might have sat his horse with the careless grace of his youth had he not been so catlike and tense.” (London). I can infer from this this that this is his first war, he is inexperienced. Later on in the story, the antagonist is introduced. Comparable to the protagonist the antagonist’s previous history is for a reader to conclude on their own. The little given information t is “ {…} the man with the ginger beard {…} “ (London). This is a hard hitting point

When the man was trying desperately to re-light the fire he removed his gloves and lost all feeling in his hands. If he had remained calm and thought about his situation he might have had a chance to survive. Nature showed no mercy when the man attempted to re-light the fire using only his palms, and he failed. "He was losing his battle with the frost. It was creeping into his body from all sides."(1754) The man's unfortunate mistakes cost him his life and nature felt no sympathy for him. He was just another man who failed to defeat nature for one more day. If the man had brought along a companion for the journey like the old man in the town had suggested he would still be alive. However, his stubbornness would not submit to that. "The old-timer on Sulfur Creek was right, he thought in the moment of controlled despair that ensued: after fifty below, a man should travel with a partner."(1752). Instead the man brought a wolf dog with him to keep him company. The only thing that the dog was good for was as an outlet for the man's jealously when he realized all the mistakes he had made. The man envied how the dog could just sit in the snow and his warm fur would protect him from the elements. The mistakes that the man made reflect everyday life by showing how just one accident or miscalculation can cost you your life. Naturalism utilized the environment to show how fierce and apathetic the world can be. In the opening scene of "To Build a Fire" London used a bleak

The narrator negated the advice given to him that, "no man should travel alone in the Yukon when the temperature is sixty degrees below zero." He failed to heed to the advice because he thought of how he had saved himself from the accident, and had built the fire alone. This was pride ruling him not knowing that, he was risking his life. His arrogance made him believe that he can make it all alone, and alive. The main character’s poor decisions led to his death. He was not compatible with the cold weather, and thus could not make it alone as his pride, and arrogance made him believe. His arrogance caused his death, because he imagined that he had the ability to travel alone in the harsh cold weather, and ignored the advice given to him. This instance of the narrator dying, because he thought

In “To Build a Fire”, the man ignores the advice that he has been given to survive in the Yukon environment: “The man had been very serious when he said that no man should travel alone in that country after 50 below zero. Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old men were rather womanish, he thought” (London 72). The egotistical nature of the man is harmful to his own survival, which leads to dire consequences later on in the story. Ignoring the advice he had been given, the man is used to portray how people can become very haughty, too prideful for their own good. A similar message is conveyed in Crane’s “An Episode of War”, in which arrogance leads to malicious warfare in our own society. When the lieutenant is shot and injured, his pride hinders him from accepting assistance from the men he is commanding: “There were others who proffered assistance. One timidly presented his shoulder and asked the lieutenant if he cared to lean upon it, but the latter waved him away mournfully. He wore the look of one who knows he is the victim of a terrible disease and understands his helplessness”(---). Injured and in need of help, the lieutenant warrants away assistance from his subordinates, as it would be modest to do so. His arrogance prevents his wound from receiving immediate and proper attention from those who rank below him, with the lieutenant only accepting help from other officers on the battlefield. Both London and Crane display similar examples of how human egotism and close-mindedness can lead to harmful effects, especially when people choose to ignore nature’s power. This naturalist style is incorporated in their perspectives, and helps shape some of the many ideas and themes that the reader can pick out from both author’s

In the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the protagonist foremost values his pride, which leads to his demise. The story starts off with the protagonist taking a detour in the Yukon so that he could survey the trees in the area (he was doing this so that he could send logs down the river to the gold prospecting camp, where he would sell the wood to the prospectors for money). But, the protagonist’s pride blinds him from what could have and should have done to ensure his survival in the Yukon. About halfway through his journey, he accidentally breaks through the ice on the spring and his foot falls into the water. At the temperatures mentioned in the story (seventy below zero), if he did not dry himself properly, it could lead to serious frostbite and/or death. So, he was forced to build a fire, and the “fire was a success. He was safe. He remembered the advice of the old timer on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The old-timer had been very serious in laying down that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. Well, here he was; he had had an accident: he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old-timers were rather womanish” (London 8). The man keeps feeding the fire and gets ready to take his (frozen and potentially dangerous) footwear off, and feels content and a sense of satisfaction of disproving the old-timers. But, just as it seemed to be that the fire was stable and strong, snow that was on the branches of the spruce tree he was under fell

readers and their interpretations. This way, this character can either be seen as a man who is

` E.B White, author of famous stories like Charlotte’s Web, once said ,"The middle track was missing, the one with the marks of the hooves…”. He continues on with this phrase, trying to connect the reader to the concept that change comes with time. In “” Once More to the Lake” by E.B White and ” Forgetfulness” by Billy Collins, both writersauthors strive to make the reader understand how nothing can stay the same throughout the tests of time. In White’s story, he narrates an experience of going to the lake that he used to visit when he was young. He takes his son with him, and at first, sees himself in his son, but eventually succumbs to the repercussions of time, proving that he is closer to death than previously thought. Additionally, the poem ”Forgetfulness” address the same topic. Billy Collins, the author, describes experiences that display memories being forgotten over time. Collins, therefore, tries to show the reader that memories tend to fade, or change, over one’s lifetime. Therefore, using diction and figurative language, E.B White and Billy Collins help one better understand that the true tragedy of time is the change that comes with it.

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

Through this quote it shows the narrator's emotional truth when he says, “ I remember opening up the letter, scanning the first few lines, feeling the blood go thick behind my eyes. I remember a sound in my head.” Through this first person perspective you aren’t necessarily offered the complete facts of the event, but you really feel the emotions that he was feeling. Often times you can learn just as much from emotional truths in which you can really understand and connect with a person. This retelling functions as a way of empathizing with his fear and shame that ultimately drives him to run away from his hometown in order to collect his

Through history people have tended to judge the lives of other by what they see on the outside, and completely disregard their actually character. “Stereotyping in the World” today has become a greater and greater problem has history moves on. Some have been known to look past these cases such as Reginald Rose’s book Twelve Angry Men. The play has been shown that one voice can change the thoughts of many by getting past the first layer and breaking it down to their inner person. Twelve Angry Men has showed the theme of “Stereotyping in the World” through the characters’ proper reasoning, communicating, and believing in good faith.

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.

In "To Build a Fire," a mysterious man, referred to as "the man" (Rhodes 1) in many literary critiques, must survive a hump over the frozen tundra of the Klondike, and with him he takes his husky. The two characters act as foils to each other, each experiencing the same situations as the other, but it is their responses to the situations that show the difference between the two. For example, both the husky and the man break through the ice and got their paws/feet wet: "Suddenly it (the husky) broke through… the water that clung to it turned to ice" (London 500) and then later "…the man broke through (the ice)" (London 501-502). It is the husky, however, that proved more adept to coping with the freezing climate of the North, especially after having gotten wet in a freezing creek. Because of this innate ability of the husky, he survived the ordeal whereas the man died of hypothermia after his fire, which was meant to dry out his foot, was snuffed out by the Northern snow. "It was as though he had heard his own sentence of death. For a moment he sat there and stared at the spot where the fire had been" (London 503). It is this symbol of survival that is perhaps the most characteristic and recurring theme in London's writings, known as Spencerism.

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.