Essay about To Build a Fire

Although the circumstances nature thrust at the man were immortaly dangerous, the man’s deficit of imagination and negligence innately led to his death. Psycologically, the man was no match for the treacherous conditions around

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 man represents the fraction of society that doesn't respect nature. He doesn't understand the power of nature because he is oblivious to it. On the other hand the dog was "told a truer tale than that was told to the man by the man's judgement." The man "did not know cold. Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold." "The was no keen intimacy between the dog and the man." The man and the dog are together because the man needs the dog, and the dog has no choice. They have no emotional connection between them because the dog is used as a slave. In one part of the story the man uses the dog to test the trail and make sure that it is safe. The dog has more inherent knowledge about the area, all of his "ancestry knew" about the cold and the dangers of extreme cold. He also had a warm "natural covering" to keep him safe from the weather. The man was not used to the cold. He "was without imagination. He was quick and alert to the things of life, but only the things, and not the significances." He also was stubborn for his neglect to take advice.

Readers of all ages, literature lovers, and book fanatics often find conflicts within their own lives just as the characters of the stories they read do. Some are able to find a way to overcome and conquer, while others get stuck behind or can not find a way to beat them. In Jack London’s short story called “To Build a Fire,” the main character conflicts with mother nature, who keeps tearing him down at every possible point. The main character, who is only referred to as the Man, is battling his way alone through the harsh temperatures of the Yukon. On this journey he runs into many obstacles and challenges. The Man does not listen to the advice he is given, leading to his inevitable death at the end. The most notable theme London builds

Some stories can have an emotional impact on readers, but every so often a story will reach out and help the reader escape into it. Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” is a fascinating story with a remarkably well described setting, and geographical descriptions of the surrounding Yukon areas. It portrays an overconfident man, whom because of his lack of intuition and stubbornness, succumbs to natures unforgiving climate.

Story takes place in the Klondike. The main character used the landscape as a clue. He also used a faint line as his way back (Kreidler, Michele L). Since it’s snowy he leaves a trail behind him. He uses takes advantage of the landscape around him but relies on it for too long. “The man is a newcomer to the Klondike and is setting out from town to join his compatriots, referred to 'the boys' at a specified point on the Yukon River” (Kreidler, Michele L). He is new in the Klondike so this already shows that if he goes anywhere he is most likely getting lost. This foreshadows the death of the man. “London describes the traveler, "a newcomer in the land," as being unaware of "his frailty as a creature of temperature…able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold"” (Robert S. Puchalik). The man doesn’t know how frail the human body can be. The setting is important because if he knew the territory he was in he would probably have a higher chance of surviving. Klondike is where the man is currently staying. It is a safe zone for him because he has warmth. He is traveling to the Yukon River to meet his compatriots.

He had the ‘book smarts’ about walking through the Yukon but he lacked the ‘street smarts.’ He may lack experience and imagination in traveling in subzero temperatures but his calm nature allows him to stay focused, even when the fire is snuffed out by the falling snow from the tree and he thought of it as hearing his own death sentence. “It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death. For a moment he sat and stared at the spot where the fire had been. Then he grew very calm.” (London, 529) Furthermore, when he is sure he will lose his toes and fingers, he does not lose sight of his most important goal, surviving. London tells how, even when in grave danger, the man regroups without panic and strong belief in his own abilities. “Well, it was up to him to build the fire over again, and this second time there must be no failure. Even if he succeeded, he would most likely lose some toes” and “Such were his thoughts, but he did not sit and think them.” (London, 529)

He is not dead, he is not alive. The wind blows, but he does not feel. People help him, but he does not respond. His soul is crying, trying to get out, but really it cannot. It has been months suffering from misery, thus cannot help himself or scream. It is a place where even the sane lose their sanity. Locked in his own thoughts, trying to find hope, but the only hope is to drown and forget.

Rubbing his face and beating his hands only temporarily helped his circulation. After he got his feet wet, they froze. His fingers "seemed remote from his body" because he could not move them. The most obvious clues that the man took in were internal.

Usually when a person is given advice from an older and wiser person, they accept and use the advice. This man refused the advice given to him by the man from Sulphur Creek. He recollected when the old man told him how cold it got sometimes, and the man laughed at the thought. Once again, after he fell into the freezing water, he remembered the old man telling him that no man should travel alone in 50 below 0 weather or colder. At this time, he had made a fire to warm himself up; all was going well. This made him think how “womanish” the old man was and how much of a manly man he, himself was (London 553). Soon, thereafter, his fire was put out by the snow on a tree because of his recklessness when gathering sticks for the fire. After that he realized how much of a fool he had been

 the man is at a disadvantage to the dog.    The dog by nature, is an

“To Build a Fire” is a short story written by Jack London. It is viewed as a masterpiece of naturalist fiction. “To Build a Fire” features a miner who is traveling to the Yukon Territory with a dog as his companion. The miner is the protagonist and the dog companion is called the foil. The dog plays off of the traits of the protagonist. “The central motif of “To Build a Fire” concerns the struggle of man versus nature.” (Short Story Criticism) The most argued point in the short story is the reason of the protagonist death. “Some critics believe that it was his lack of intuition and imagination that lead to his death, while others say that he dies because of panic.” (Short Story Criticism) The protagonist in “To Build a Fire” struggles in

“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.

After further and cumulative study of the story, one may come to the conclusion that the man in the story has totally influenced reality both in his refusal to allow perceptions persuade him from his mission as he set out to it and also in his utter confidence in his own perceptions of his unique and higher judgment maintaining an overly optimistic outset in regards to his own abilities. One particularly dire incident began, “The man was shocked. It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death” (London 130). One can see by the word “shocked” that he clearly assumed nothing would go wrong, until it actually is done already.

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