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Who Is Jack London's 'To Build A Fire' In American Literature?

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J The Importance of Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” in American Literature Jack London once said that “You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” One of his greatest works “To Build a Fire” is a stellar example of how Jack London made this quote come to life since London literally went to the Alaskan Klondike to find his inspiration. London’s’ work relies heavily on the struggle between man and nature, brings to light countless realistic features of an important time in American history, and it features Darwinist thoughts and ideas that were introduced during this time period. London was alive in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, which proved to be an extremely volatile time period in which various changes …show more content…

Early on in the story, London provides quite a few clues that this struggle will eventually take a turn for the worst and it does relatively quickly. From the beginning the narrator is beginning to experience conflict with the temperature and the environment. The narrator immediately knows that “it was cold and uncomfortable”, however he did not know exactly what kind of cold he was encountering (London). When the narrator least expected it “at a place where there were no signs, the man broke through” (London pg. #). At this point the prominence of the conflict between the man and nature is highlighted. The narrator whom had controlled almost all aspects of his journey was all of a sudden thrown “into an existence over which [he had] no control” (Adams). The narrator himself continued to try to keep himself level headed as he faced the obstacle that mother nature had decided to face him with. The narrator found himself once again facing off against nature as he desperately tried to build a fire to keep from freezing. However, “the man tries to use reason instead of imagination to get him past his difficulties and safely to camp but, that human rationality proves to be helpless against the Klondike’s ‘killing landscape’” (Widdicombe) The environment provides disaster after disaster for the narrator of London’s work until nature eventually wins over him and …show more content…

This time period in history featured numerous amounts of people moving out to unexplored regions to prospect for valuable gold. In fact, according to Robert Niemi, London himself was “among an estimated quarter of a million men from all over the world who stampeded to Alaska in hopes of getting rich quick.” However, people failed to realize that this was not the case. In reality, as exhibited in “To Build a Fire,” immense hardships and tragic events plagued the explorers of the Klondike. The vast amount of people that left for the Klondike in hopes of riches was astonishing. However, the journey to even make it to the places where they were hoping to find riches was difficult. Of the scores of individuals that left to find gold “only fifty thousand would make it into the interior” for the opportunity to prospect for riches

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