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To Build A Fire Theme Essay

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The main theme of London's "To Build a Fire," is man versus nature. The unnamed man wanders into the forest with a native dog hoping to make it out alive. Unfortunately the wrath of mother nature prevents him from getting any further leaving him dead. "The theme consists of a double movement - downward toward disintegration and death and upward toward reintegration and life, but life greatly enriched" (Peterson, 15). The theme in the story is in a downward shift. Throughout the entire story, everything is going downhill. For example, the one upward shift in the story is when the man gets a fire starting to keep him warm. Although this all changes when the fire is doused by snow falling on the fire. This being the reoccuring downward shift.

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