Essay on To Build a Fire a Short Story by Jack London

One can express many different types of themes in Jack London’s, “To Build a Fire”. Though I feel strongly that London’s theme in the story is about that the environment shapes who we are because it shows that the man is not strong enough to live up to his environment. Allowing the environment to kill the man indicates that he is weak both mentally and biologically, while on the other hand the dog is stronger by surviving the same harsh environment. Instinct superior to reason is another theme that is highly portrayal able in London’s story. In order for the dog to survive and the man to die, the dog required instinct, of which the man lacked. The man did acquire reason and observance but not good enough to allow him to reach his goal

When his inexperience exposes itself to him, he remembers the old-timers words of wisdom. The man did not realize the prudence behind the old-timer’s words of wisdom. He ignored the old-timers cautions and dangers of traveling alone, making him foolish and naïve to his situation. “That man from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in the country. And he had laughed at him at the time!” (London, 528)

In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” the main theme of the story is to listen to old timer’s advice. Although, this is not the only theme of the story. There are many sub-themes that help support the key point such as nature overpowering man, pride leading to disaster, and failure of imagination. These sub-themes help strengthen the major theme of the story to help the reader understand that listening to old timer’s advice is important.

Do you love a good furtive? In To Build a Fire, Jack London gives students a short-term look inside the strong external view. Man and the Natural World, Foolishness, and Pride is a big take in this short story. In the third paragraph of this story, the speaker tells us all about the suffering with the man that he is disadvantaged of the mind. The absence of his imagination is an important fragility that will lead the man to create silly choices. The speaker marks a huge deal out of the point that the man has no imagination. The Yukon desert couldn’t care less. He’s just another kindly figure it can freeze. Some individuals may debate that each person has imagination. That everyone holds an assured mark of imagination capability. Out in the cold Yukon, you probably don’t think that having an imagination is going to help you much, but it will. As a reader, we must think about what good it would do the man to think enormously about the huge wilderness around the man. After all he is not a writer or a storyteller. He just want to go get some bacon. LOL. So why recommend he’s foolish for not having imagination?

“He was quick and ready in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in their meanings..” “From there, it did not lead him to thoughts of heaven and the meaning of a man’s life..” The short story “How to Build A Fire” by Jack London and the movie are alike in many ways, but are different in others.

When the story is just in its beginning, the man is portrayed as unimaginative and also being someone who is not a thinker. According to London (1902), although the man is aware of the harsh weather conditions he is going to encounter, he does not at all think about it. This makes the man die because of making a choice to travel on a cold day. If the man had imagined of what could happen, then he could have been in a better position to survive.

How to build a fire by Jack London, an American novelist, journalist, and social activist, is a short story about a man who is going through a rough time and he makes mistakes that don’t really help his situation. There are two versions of the story “How To Build A Fire”, one published in 1902 and, another published in 1908. The three things that specifically didn’t help his situation: he didn’t have situational awareness, he didn’t take anyone with him, and he wasn’t worried about how cold it was or the lack of sunlight. There was a man, who is unnamed, walking through the cold of Alaska. In Alaska it can get to almost negative fifty at night.

In Jack London’s short story, “To Build a Fire,” a man attempts to reach his destination across the Yukon wilderness. The cold and wintery setting is used to create the conflict of whether the man will make it to the campsite and transitions the mood from calm and uncaring to fearful. It also manages to convey the message that overzealousness can lead to failure.

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

This mans over confidents and arrogance is what lead too his own death in the first place. He was willing to kill a dog even though it was so loyal to this man "He would kill the dog and bury his hands in the warm body until feeling returned to them. Then he could build another fire." The man wasn't able to kill the dog because he wasn't able to rap his hands around its neck but the dog still cared for him in till it finally realized he had died already. He had finally realized and admitted that he was wrong but it was way to late to be sorry that he didn't listen to the old

“To Build a Fire” by Jack London, is a story based on a human’s inability to overcome the forces of nature. The story’s theme surrounds perseverance, even in the presence of a foolish decision. The character’s determination to face freezing weather, no matter how hard things get, shows that no matter how hard things got for him, he wasn’t going to give up. As the story goes on, the story depicts the characters ultimate decision to give himself a meaningful death. When faced with the forces of nature, the character decides to face his death with dignity and lay down next to a warm fire until death overcomes him.

As the title implies, Jack London's 1908 short story contains within its narrative a literal set of sequential directions on how "To Build a Fire." London extends this sequential conceit to his fatidic vision of the universe. Unlike the dog in the story, who can rely on its pure-bred arctic instinct as it navigates through the dangerous tundra, the anonymous man possesses a duller, myopic instinct which is unable foresee the consequentiality of the environment. This instinctual flaw in mankind (relative to that of a husky) is a given, but the man fails to compensate by integrating intellectuality into his journey. Were he to use all his resources efficiently, as the dog does, the man could anticipate the chain of events that

To Build a Fire by Jack London is a novella, published in 1908, is about a man who individually travels through the Yukon, and faces a variety of obstacles, until finally he decides to face dignity in his death. The novella’s point of view is third person omniscient, therefore the narrator tells us thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story. London was born on January 12, 1876 in San Francisco to his mother, Flora Chaney who was married to John London. London had a challenging childhood due to his unstable mother. He had to work for a gruesome eighteen hours a day, and every penny he made went to feeding his family.

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

Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire,” tells of a man who decides upon traveling in the acutely cold and unforgiving Yukon environment alone to regroup with his friends at a distant camp. Along the trip, the man walks across a hot spring which he perceives to be safe and breaks through the ice instantly getting his feet wet. The man knows what he must do to stay alive in such a situation, to build a fire, the only challenge is keeping the fire alive in such horrid conditions. The man tries desperately to cling onto life as he is attempting to start a fire, however his multiple attempts all fail and leave him in a desperate panicked state vulnerable to nature's firm grasp pulling him closer to an untimely death. He fights with every bit of power available as the fire plan proved no worth in such extreme situations, becoming so desperate as to attempt killing his own dog to warm himself with its carcass. After many attempts at preserving his life the man finally “grows calm and decides to meet death with dignity.” This eerily human story may leave some readers uncomfortable as it conveys such a brief but close up view of death. Some questions that may remain are, why was this story written? What was the mindset behind it? And, how accurate is this depiction for the time?