Themes In To Build A Fire By Jack London

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

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 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

But, we realize almost immediately, the man has only a superficial knowledge of the Arctic. As he stands on a bank of the Yukon about to plunge into an almost absolute wilderness, he has little or no understanding either of his immense isolation relative to his surroundings or of the extreme danger posed by the cold snap. But all of this, London comments at the beginning of the third paragraph, "The mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all, made no impression on the man." Thus, the man also knows, in addition to the fact the sun will reappear, that it is fifty degrees below zero, but he does not know the meaning of this fact, it portends death for anyone who makes himself vulnerable to its ability to kill. "Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head."

This man who we do not know from the start got lost in the Yukon Trail. From the start we could see he wasn’t sure where he was and that brings me to number one in the Principle of Survival his perception was not clear he wasn’t sure what was going on at the beginning all he knew was the it was nine o’clock and the sky was starting to get a subtle gloom. His awareness was not in the best place either in this situation, “ But all this-this mysterious, far reaching hairline trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and the strangeness of it was- made no impression on the man.” He wasn't aware of the symptoms that he was already experiencing like the frost forming on his beard. He didn't have that awareness that he needed in the type of climate he was in.

The man had no imagination and only understood facts. He knew it was very cold and his body was numb, but he failed to realize the danger. A newcomer with no experience, he thought he was invincible. Neither the "absence of sun from the

“To Build a Fire” begins with a man going on a Yukon trail. He gets to a layer of ice. He walks on the ice to test it, and then he falls through. He then tries to make a fire. It fails and he tries again, but stull fails.

lead his readers to believe that the man will suffer a tragedy in the end

In the story “To Build a Fire” a man goes on the Yukon Trail in rigid temperatures. Due to the coldness he ended up dying. A theme for this story could be to trust animal instincts. One way the theme is presented in the story when the dog knew it was getting to cold. In paragraph 6 it states, “The dog had learned fire, and it wanted fire, or else to burrow under the snow and cuddle its warmth from the air.”

One prominent and reoccurring theme of the story “To build a Fire” by Jack London is the need to possess instincts. The importance of one’s instincts is brought to light when, despite warnings from the locals, a man decides to travel along the Yukon Trail with only his native wolf dog. It is during this trek, when they are faced with the dangers of the extreme cold, that London brings rise to his theme: the need for one to possess instincts. He does so throughout the story by showing the contrast of the dog’s instinctive behavior and its ability to survive compared to that of the man’s. He shows the contrast by pointing out the man’s unconcern for the cold, his inability to sense danger, and finally his incapability to survive in the wilderness.

No matter what type of story you are reading, setting always plays a key element in producing the desired effect. Jack London's short story To Build A Fire provides an excellent example of this. In this story, a man hikes across a snow and ice covered plane towards the encampment where he is supposed to meet up with more travelers like himself. The setting of this story is one of the northernmost most areas of the earth, the Yukon. The man must hike across this area for approximately thirty-six miles before he reaches the camp at which he is expected. The constantly dropping temperature further complicates the man's hike. When he begins his journey at nine o'clock in the morning it is

“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.

“Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality” (James “William James Quote”). This sentiment from William James who was a leading philosopher and psychologist at the turn of the 19th Century inspires one to challenge their labeling of a current circumstance, suggesting happiness is a perception that can be manipulated. This mind over matter approach to life’s struggles has become commonplace in the repertoire of motivational speakers, close friends, coaches, and other well-meaning influencers alike. This ambiguous concept has the ability to produce very real consequences, even death. In

Nature often tests man’s limits. Sometimes man can overcome these tests and win; however, there are times when man just simply fails. In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,”, a man faces many trials which test his limits. Unfortunately, through arrogance and a lack of preparation the man cannot survive the conditions of the Yukon in which he haves a hard time making it through the tremendous cold and is set up for death. The setting in “to build a fire” has an impact on the characters, plot, and symbolism. One of the first ways that the setting has an impact is on the characters. For an example, “it certainly was cold, he concluded, as he rubbed his numbed nose and cheek-bones with his mittened hand” (2). The weather had been very cold in which it caused the man’s body to be numb. The second reason setting has an impact on is the man’s food. For example, “He had forgotten to build a fire and thaw it out” (4). The cold weather caused the man’s biscuit to freeze. Another way the setting has an impact is on the dog. For example, “It had wet its forefeet and legs, and almost immediately the water that clung to it turned to ice” (3-4). The water would have caused the dogs feet to become sore. Not only has the setting influenced characters, it has also influenced the plot of the story. Another way that the setting impacts “to build a fire” involves the plot. First in the opening of the story, the man faces difficult things. For example, “the man's red beard and mustache have likewise

One of the most prominent facets of the man’s personality is his overwhelming arrogance. The man is a newcomer to the Yukon territory or “chechaquo”, and is inexperienced in the customs of the land. The man believes that he will be unaffected by the harsh conditions and does not seem to grasp the grave reality of the situation. This characteristic is displayed early in the story, when the man rebuffs the old timer’s warning advice and later mocks the old man and his caution of the danger of traveling in the freezing temperatures, especially without a partner. “Those old-timers are rather womanish, some of them, he thought” (1210). Despite the likelihood that the old-timer has spent his lifetime in the area, the man considers his advice to be weak and believes, arrogantly, that he is superior in his masculinity and abilities. Eventually, the man realizes that he should have listened to the words of the old man in Sulphur Creek. Further, the man’s arrogance is displayed again when he ignores the warning signs that the environment is not suitable for such a long solo trek. Despite the incredible cold, the man fails to comprehend just how miniscule he is compared to nature. “…the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all made no impression on the man” (1205). It is this arrogance that limits the man’s ability to grasp how insignificant his life is compared to the great power of