Stories do more than just tell us a nice tale. They present at many a times, struggles and real life situations. They can take the reader back in time and reveal the hardships of more self-reliant times. In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”, the man suffers physical, psychological, and emotional problems throughout the story. Even though this character is given no name, a reader can almost feel every hardship he goes through in the whole story. In the beginning of “To Build a Fire”, the man is on his way back to a cabin. While he walks, he mentions how he knew how cold it was, but it didn’t mean anything to him apart from just a temperature—nothing more. He does not think how this may affect his body in the long run, and is somewhat ignorant of the consequences of such foolishness. An example from the story, the man spits in the air to see if his assumption is true. When he hears an explosive cracking
There is nothing wrong in working diligently toward a goal. In this story’s case, the goal of reaching the man at the camp he is walking towards. But, he keeps going despite all the indicators he should stop. These are real life threatening indicators the man consistently ignores, as though he were all-powerful god. He shows a lack of concern for his health and well-being. Last of these trials of this is emotional. From the beginning of the story, it is clear the man has no concern with his body feels. He refuses to say any emotion of any kind. He laughs about the cold and the pain it gives his body. He is heartless to his dog companion and yells at it with harshness and threats of violence. Even toward the end of the story, when his life is clearly on the edge of ending, he just acts like it will be a welcomed sleep. No worries about death or the life of himself and the dog. The man is cold hearted and uncaring to both himself and the
They say to “always be prepared for unexpected situations,” this represents the man in the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. The man is unprepared because he does not
In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,” the nameless man’s pride cost him his life. Throughout the story, the character exhibits many indications that there is a possibility of his demise. It begins with the character’s inability to ground himself to reality, he observed the events happening around him, but he does not fully grasp the impact they have on him. He is naïve and overconfident, believing he could survive on his own; he does not take advice from an experience man from that country.
Christopher McCandless had always admired the works of Jack London. He even went as far as naming Jack London “king”. McCandless relished the naturalisitc elements of London’s writings, elements that he chose to ignore in his own life. Jack London often depicted men as being controlled by their environment and being unable to withstand any heavy circumstances. He depicted themes about the frailty of man and man’s inability to overcome nature. But McCandless clearly did not take away any of the valuable lessons from these stories. He hailed London as “king” but never truly learned from London’s stories, dying in a tragically ironic way when he came to meet the same fate as the protagonist in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”. Christopher McCandless
In 'To Build a Fire,' the man's antagonist is nature: London displays the man's journey as restricted by external forces. First, the temperature of the tundra is seventy-five-below zero (978), which naturally exposes the man?s ?frailty as a creature of temperature? (977). Obviously the man is subject to the forces of winter, and can not change his homeostasis as a warm-blooded animal. Similarly, London employs the ?traps? (979) of snow-covered pools of water to show that while humans may presume we are invincible, nature will stealthily remind us of our vulnerability (through invisible germs, for example). Just as the man does not see the ?trap? (981) that soaks his legs, he fails to notice the dog?s apprehension regarding their journey (981). Here London shows man's self-proclaimed superiority is falsely assumed, as he lacks the ?instinct? (978) that the dog possess; later, the man can not kill the dog (985), which signifies the dog is not subordinate regarding survival. After the man steps in the water, London notes, ?He was angry, and cursed his luck aloud? (981). By attributing his misfortune to ?luck,? the man relieves himself of responsibility, recognizing himself as a victi...
In “To Build A Fire”, the man tries to kill his dog, for its natural warm covering because he learned that someone else who was stuck in a blizzard lived because the person killed a deer and then him or her stuffed themselves into the deer’s corpse to avoid death from the cold. In “The Ledge”, the man tries to save his son, which is one of his companions, instead of trying to kill it. In “To Build A Fire”, the man is strict to his dog, his companion the whole time from the beginning to his final moments before running off crazily, as a last-ditch effort to preserve his life, whereas in “The Ledge”, the man is strict at first, because his son and nephew forgot his tobacco, but he later became more tender and caring at the end when the fisherman, son, and nephew all realize that death was inevitable for them. In “To Build A Fire”, the man forces his dog to walk on thin ice to test if the ice is thick enough to be walked over, but the ice proved to be too thin to be walked over and the dog almost falls into the freezing water beneath. Whereas in “The Ledge”, the man warns his son and nephew to be careful not to get their fingers wet, but the son and nephew get them wet anyways. Lastly, in “To Build A Fire”, all the dog wants was for the man to start a fire because of the frigid temperatures; it was impatient. But in “The Ledge”, the pooch waits patiently for the ducks; thanks to its training, while the unseasoned son and nephew are impatient to
In the course of human history, man has managed to do some really dumb things. Whether it’s because we lack sufficient knowledge, make a mistake, or are just too stubborn to use sound judgement, dumb decisions are made every day by everyone. However, none have a greater level of stupidity than the choices made by the man in Jack London’s To Build a Fire. This is a story of pride, ignorance, and stupidity, which ultimately leads to the downfall of its main character. This short story is a caution against over confidence and unpreparedness, showing the harsh effects of both. Ultimately, it is an issue of man’s pride versus the harsh conditions of nature. It shows that one cannot simply overlook nature, because doing so can lead to the destruction
Choices can lead to unintended consequences. The man in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” illustrates this when his decisions lead him to his death. In the middle of the frigid Alaskan winter, the man with his dog as his sole companion is venturing through the Yukon on a scarcely traveled trail so that he can make it to where his companions have set up camp. On his journey, he is confronted by many obstacles in the forms of cold, his decisions, and his own body. He is able to overcome these obstacles individually, but when he faces all three obstacles at one time after falling into some water, he is unable conquer them by getting a fire built. Because of this failure, he realizes that he has been beaten by his bad choices and accepts his fate,
Jack London has written a classic short story in the 1908 version of "To Build a Fire." This is the classic story of man fighting nature. In most genres (e.g. movies, novels, short stories) the main character comes out on top, however unlikely that is. Jack London takes literary naturalism and shows the reader how unmerciful nature is. Much like Stephen Crane in "The Open Boat," in which the one of the characters dies, London doesn't buy into that "has to have a good ending" contrivance. Through analysis of two London's letters (to R.W. Gilder and Cloudesly Johns) these two versions of "To Build a Fire" come alive with new meaning. Although there are many differences on the surface, both stories use his philosophy as expressed to Johns and both teach a moral lesson, one which will not soon be forgotten: "Never travel alone."
When the narrator introduced the main character of the story, the man, he made it clear that the man was in a perilous situation involving the elements. The man was faced with weather that was 75 degrees below zero and he was not physically or mentally prepared for survival. London wrote that the cold "did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold."(p.1745) At first when the man started his journey to the camp, he felt certain that he could make it back to camp before dinner. As the trip progressed, the man made mistake after mistake that sealed his fate. The man's first mistake was to step into a pool of water and soak his legs to the knees. This blunder forced the man to build a fire to dry his wet socks and shoes so his feet would not freeze and become frostbitten. When the man began to build a fire he failed to notice that he was doing so under a large, snow laden spruce tree where he was getting his firewood. When the man had a small fire that was beginning to smolder the disturbance to the tree caused the snow to tumble to the ground and extinguish the fire. "It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open."(1750).
To Build a Fire is a remarkable account of one man’s finish line. In it this story holds quite a few rather important morals. There is as well a very important theme. The theme most referred to is that of the power of nature. The force that it can display on earth is immense and cannot be duplicated or overpowered by humans. However one man decided he would be the one prove this axiom wrong. One man became totally confident that he can and will withstand the awesome mighty strength of nature.
In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire” the unnamed protagonist is not prepared for the extreme cold weather. He does not take the right tools with him if he comes to grief, nor he has dressed heavily enough for the cold weather. The man lacks the ability to apply the knowledge of how to deal with his environment. At the start of the story he believed himself invincible, he was filled with self-confidence, but by the end of the story he is not so confident, he is unable to realize that his actions in the present has future consequences. First of all, I would like to reflect on the dog in the short story, because it knows that every decision it makes has consequences.
In Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" the reader watches a man's mental condition go from high to devastatingly low. At the first of the story, he is very self confident in his own abilities. This is evident by the way he keeps saying the he will be in camp by six.
The short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a comprehensive story that tackles the struggles of a newcomer trying to survive a day in the Yukon with very harsh and cold weather. The man travels with a big native husky and tries many times to build a fire but fails due to his inadequate personality. The man repeatedly lets his ignorance and arrogance dictate his decisions which soon leads to his demise. The theme of the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London is that being ignorant, arrogant and foolish can lead to bad decisions.
"To Build a Fire" is a story about a man who is traveling alone in the frozen Yukon. He knows that it is not safe to be traveling when it is so cold, but stubbornly keeps moving. He falls through a crack in the ice, wetting his feet. In order to stay alive, he must build a fire, warm his feet and move on. Despite several attempts, the man fails and dies. Of the fourteen pages within "To Build a Fire," eight of those are devoted to the events of the man trying to make a fire; the other six mainly focus on the setting. The man's determination to build the fire is evident-a simple annoyance at the beginning leads to a frantic demise at the end. The plot was as simple as one man's attempt to survive against nature.
Karen Rhodes analyzed to build a fire in a cultural context. He believed "London's works were written so that he could survive in a world he increasingly came to see as "red in tooth and claw""(1). It is obviously the story of a man fighting the stresses of Nature. According to Rhodes, to build a fire was drawn from the year London spent in Canada's Yukon Territory. London depicted arctic and very cold conditions throughout the story. Rhodes believed to build a fire represented London's Naturalistic Flavor. "It pits one man alone against the overwhelming forces of nature"(Karen Rhodes, 1). He also believed to build a fire can either be interpreted as the Pioneer American experience or can be read as an allegory for the journey of human existence (Karen Rhodes, 1). According to Rhodes, there are two versions of to build a fire; the first one was written in 1902 while the second one was written in 1908. We are studying the 1908 version." It has come to be known as everyman trekking through the Naturalistic Universe"(Karen Rhodes, 1). To build a fire is indeed the story of a man trekking through the universe alone except for his dog. The man's death at the end was the culmination of the story. " His death came through no lapse of observation, no lack of diligence, no real folly but the nature of himself and his environment" (Karen Rhodes, 2). I think his is a fine criticism of London's to build a fire. London had made use of his life experiences in writing the story.