To Build A Fire Literary Analysis

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

He characterizes the native dog as gray-coated and wolf-like, yet he evinces the animal’s innate intuition when he writes, “The animal was worried by the great cold. It knew that this was no time for traveling. Its own feeling was closer to the truth than the man's judgment” (London). This direct characterization of the dog serves to contrast the man’s poor judgment. Despite the dog’s apparent anxiety, the man remains disillusioned that he is fine. Cohen brings attention to this lack of reverence for nature that the man displays. “Had the man regarded the fire with a greater or perhaps different kind of respect, he might have survived” (Cohen). The man’s arrogance and lack of respect for the power of the natural world led to his demise. The characterization of the dog highlights how the man ignores his dire condition out of arrogance and dies as a

Captivated by the rugged and wild challenges that Alaska had to offer, he set off to have a chance to live like his hero, a novelist, Jack London. In the book, Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, a troubled man by the name of Chris McCandless goes on adventurous journey to the Alaskan wild to experience more to life and satisfy his thirst for adventure. Along the way he meets various of different people on the road. He tried to give them advice but failed to follow any, including his own, as his past showed otherwise. McCandless rejected his privileged life, family, and the rest of civilization in order to achieve what he was looking for which ultimately led to his death. Krakauer goes as far as trying to connect to McCandless because of his fondness for the outdoors as well. Life on road for McCandless was thrilling and treacherous and everything in between. Some argue that he was naive and foolish for going on such a dangerous voyage unprepared and lacking survival skills. However, McCandless carried certain characteristics that allowed him to survive as long he did in the wild. At certain points, the nomadic life didn’t seem suitable for McCandless, and on other occasions he seemed dominant of what he was doing. With advantages and disadvantages, life

The freezing Alaskan wilderness is one in the stars of both To Build a Fire and the Call of the Wild. “The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice,” quoted Jack London in his short story, To Build a Fire. The Yukon mention in the previous quote is a river that is located

As a matter of fact, the man seems rather flat. The author, by barely giving us any information regarding the man's personality, his life, or his physical appearance, helps in his dehumanization. By not even giving us his name as well, he keeps us strangers to him. Indeed, all throughout the story the narrator makes references to him by calling him "the man" and "he" (100). The minimum of details is revealed, and the narrator emphasizes his tendency to be insensitive and unaware of the environment he is in: "But all this--[…] the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all--made no impression on the man" (101). As if the man was not consciously aware of the danger, we have trouble entering his mind; so what is really going through his head? Unable to answer the question, we may feel upset about his lack of

The novel “Into the Wild”, by Jon Krakauer, is an excruciating story about a young man facing off against the dangers of nature. The main protagonist, Chris McCandless faced off against many internal and external obstacles that stood in his way of achieving his goal of successfully surviving on his own in the wilderness of North America. McCandless clashed with many lethal and perilous obstacles as he travelled all the way across the continent. The challenges he faced varied from surviving in the harsh wilderness, the difficulties of young manhood, and also the challenge of person versus society.

Identity is something that all human beings search for throughout their lives. Who a person is, defines not only who they are but what their life will be like. When a person knows who they are it can give them a sense of power and confidence. Although, sometimes the components of a person’s identity can amount to a less than desirable being. Within the narratives of Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, “Survivor Type” by Stephen King, and “To Build A Fire” by Jack London the identities of each protagonist are evident in several ways. Into the Wild is a true story that follows the adult life of Christopher McCandless including personal accounts from his friends and family as he hitchhiked in the United States until his eventual demise in the Alaskan wilderness. “Survivor Type” is a short story following a drug-dealing surgeon named Richard Pine as he is stranded alone on a small island and must resort to cannibalism to survive. “To Build A Fire” is also a short story that tells of another man’s journey on the Yukon trail through negative seventy-five degree weather, alone. Through their actions, values, and beliefs each man’s identity is thoroughly unraveled within their narratives.

One theme from “To Build a Fire” is to listen to those more experienced than you. The man didn’t listen to the old-timer when he said not to travel alone.

London describes the landscape in great detail saying “North and south, as far as his eye could see, it was unbroken white, save for a dark hairline that curved and twisted from around the spruce-covered island to the south, and that curved and twisted away into the north, where it disappeared behind another spruce-covered island" (850). This quote contributes to the unemotional, and indifferent mood that we as readers get from the story. It represents the attitude nature has toward the man. The Yukon is an immensely vast landscape, "this dark hairline was the trail -the main trail- that led south five hundred miles to the Chilcoot Pass, Dyea, and the salt water; and that led north seventy miles to Dawson, and still on the north a thousand miles to Nulato, and finally to St. Michael, on Bering Sea a thousand miles and half a thousand more" (850). This shows that even when the man attempted to run back to camp he never had a chance. Nature never gave the man a chance. The landscape is so large that he would never have reached civilization in

In the story “To Build a Fire”, Jack London writes about the journey of a young man who succumbs to the harsh environment of the wilderness, due to his over confidence of being able to survive the extreme cold temperatures in an unforgiving environment. The man ignores the small subtle signs from the environment as well as his body, which were early indications that his journey was headed in a different direction. London tells the story of how one man’s stubborn ways leads to him questioning his own decisions which ultimately lead him to his own demise. The story begins with a young man who is on a trek to meet up with his friends later in the evening, but gets sidetracked and decides to take an alternate route to look for wood.

If he had paid adequate attention to his internal signals he may have survived.If the man did not believe his body, there were also several external signals to guide him. He mentioned the "old-timer at Sulphur Creek" many times. The experienced old-timer warned him of the danger of traveling alone. He didn't listen to the old-timer. The man spat, and it crackled before it hit the ground.

“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.

In his novel, Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer establishes young Christopher McCandless as a heroic and brave figure. Krakauer supports his portrayal of Chris by utilizing a narrative form and focusing on the relatable, human aspects of Chris, and by contrasting his story with the cautionary tales that are scattered throughout the history of the Alaskan wilderness. The author’s purpose is to promote his own theories and opinions on the boy’s life and death in order to establish what he believes to be the truth. The author writes in a fond tone for aspiring wilderness explorers and their critics.

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