As time goes on, the relationship of man and nature evolves as men start to realize that nature is an unforgiving force. Man versus nature is a conflict of a person with a natural force and it is used as plot in fiction works. Most common forces of nature used include the help of winter and conflict with wild animals. The authors of the 19th century were naturalists. Naturalism conveys that human behavior is determined by the environment. These authors evaluate human actions objectively. They portray life as a battle that will be lost no matter what which concludes that humans are incapable of controlling there future. This literary movement helps justify their depiction of the conflict. The struggle of man against nature has been used to develop plot in literature that also serves to expose either a heroic or culpable side of the characters. Jack London uses nature as an obstacle to depict a witless human. Nature can be very restricting and limits expose an individual's character when they react to surpass the limit. This is seen in "To Build a Fire". A man was traveling on a trail in the hostile environment of Yukon to mine for gold. He decided to travel even though it was "75 degrees below zero"(483), which shows that he is overconfident in his survival skills. His actions lead him to severe consequences. This man thinks of this journey as easy and makes fun of the guys who advise him to not go. "It 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; and from there on it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and man's place in the universe”(482). This quote explicitly presents the fooli... ... middle of paper ... ...s seen in the poem, “The Need of Being Versed in Country Things” and the novel, The Old Man and the Sea. But a question that still remains very important is whether nature and man can ever coexist in a compatible relation? Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York. Scribner, 1952. Print. London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” Holt Elements of Literature. Fifth Edition. Essentials of American Literature. Ed. Kathleen Daniel and Mescal Evler. Austin, TX.: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 2007. 481-92.Print. Stiefvater, Maggie. Shiver. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print. “The Need of Being Versed in Country Things.” Bartleby.com. Web. 12 April. 2014. White Fang. Dir. Randal Kleiser. Perf. Klaus Maria Brandauer, Ethan Hawke, Seymour Cassel, James Remar Susan Hogan. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. 1991. DVD.
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.
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."
In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”, an unknown man is traveling alone in the extremely dangerous weather of seventy-five degrees below zero along Yukon Trail. Despite being warned about the dangers; he was bent on reaching his destination at the boy’s camp on Henderson Creek. Nevertheless, he tried many things to help keep his body warm but everything he tried failed. Close to death, he finally realized that it was impossible to survive this journey without a partner. The theme illustrates that sometimes it’s best to listen to others advice because everyone isn’t able to defeat nature.
Mitchell, Lee Clark. "'Keeping His Head': Repetition And Responsibility In London's 'To Build A Fire.'." Journal Of Modern Literature 13.1 (1986): 76. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Feb. 2012.
In ‘To Build a Fire”, the author, Jack London creates a tale that reflects his voyage in the Klondike gold rush as a miner in the glacial and cold terrain of Alaska and Canada during 1897 to 1898. The short story is about an unnamed man who takes his own journey through the Yukon in Alaska, where the temperature is 75 degrees below zero. The man and his dog, a husky, set out for their journey on an exceeding cold and gray day. Although he never reaches his destination, the unnamed man faces many obstacles throughout his journey that portray the characteristics of a hero; this can be shown through his persistence, independence and knowledge.
...t when he began to panic as the second fire extinguished. He seemed as though he had lost all knowledge of his survival skills. He thought about killing the dog and wallowing in its steaming insides for refuge from the cold. "The sight of the dog put a wild idea into his head. He remembered the tale of a man, caught in a blizzard, who killed a steer and crawled inside the carcass, and so was saved."(1752). When the man realized that the dog would not let him come near he was forced to concoct another plan. His idea was that if he ran all the way to the camp, he would be able to survive. Unfortunately, that plan failed as well and the man perished in the cold, numbing snow of the Yukon. Overall, naturalism is the most realistic literary movement. It parallels life more than any other movement because it reveals the fact that nature has not heart and no emotions. Nature feels no compassion for human struggles and will continue on it's path of destruction and harm regardless of the circumstances.
From the lone hiker on the Appalachian Trail to the environmental lobby groups in Washington D.C., nature evokes strong feelings in each and every one of us. We often struggle with and are ultimately shaped by our relationship with nature. The relationship we forge with nature reflects our fundamental beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. The works of timeless authors, including Henry David Thoreau and Annie Dillard, are centered around their relationship to nature.
“When it occurs to a man that nature does not regard him as important, and that she feels she would not maim the universe by disposing of him, he at first wishes to throw bricks at the temple, and he hates deeply the fact that there are no bricks and no temples.” In other words, nature is an apathetic force that acts upon the lives of human beings simply as a consequence of their existence. However maddening and frightening this may be, man is in essence a byproduct of the environment and its conditions. “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane displays a theme commonly found in naturalistic works of literature (517). According to “Realism in the Frontier,” naturalism begins in the late 19th century and continues into the early 20th century as philosophical
In “To Build A Fire”, the main conflict throughout is man versus nature although it would be inaccurate to say that nature goes out of its way to assault the man. The fact of the matter is, nature would be just as cold without the man's presence regardless of him being there .The environment as a whole is completely indifferent to the man, as it frequently is in naturalist literature. The bitter environment does not aid him in any way, and it will not notice if he perishes. In the same way, the dog does not care about the man, only about itself. Ironically enough though, as the man was dying he was getting upset toward the dog because of its natural warmth, the instincts that it had, and its survival skills and those were the elements that the man lacked for survival. It is ironic that the man had to die in order to find out that man's fragile body cannot survive in nature's harsh elements, regardless of a human’s natural over-confidence and psychological strength.
The external conflict of nature against man never becomes resolved, as nature ends the man and his goals. For example, the severe cold weather prevented the man fro...
Both “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” and “An Entrance to the Woods,” gives a viewpoint on the human relationship with nature. Terry Tempest Williams critizes man for being ruthless when it comes to nature and other humans. Wendell Berry believes similarly the same thing. He believes that man needs nature just as much as they need civilization. However, regardless of the differences, both writers offer an insightful perspective on the forever changing relationship between man and nature. And this relationship is, and always will be, changing.
Jack London was an American man of many talents, which included being an author, journalist and a social activist, despite being minimally educated. Nonetheless, he was undoubtedly most recognized for his short stories and novels that fixated on the harsh, cold climates that Mother Nature crafted. London focused on a deeper level of the wild and the literary devices in his work are littered throughout every one of his novels and short stories, including The Call of the Wild, White Fang, as well as “To Build a Fire.”
Jack London’s message in the writing “To Build a Fire” is to never underestimate the power of nature and following Experience would actually show someone that instincts should be trusted over ego and pride. London is known for being a Naturalist, naturalists are people that practice nature in literature or writings, naturalists believed that one’s surviving methods highly involve using one 's instinct. London’s “cautionary realist/ naturalist” text in the story “to build a fire” advices methods on the survivals of nature 's forces, this is a highly appropriate advice considering our struggle against disastrous natural phenomena such as global warming, tsunamis, floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and other geologic processes.
Within London’s stories, he presents a dark tone but life lessons throughout his pieces of work. One of London’s works that mirrors dark tones, and life lessons is “To Build a Fire”. This story is about a man who is traveling in extreme, miserable cold weather conditions with his dog. Though this man was advised by an older man not to travel in these harsh conditions, he does it anyway. In this story, the man’s destination is a faraway camp with people whom in which he is supposed to meet with. At the beginning of the story, he starts out with such optimism and courage that he is going to make it to his destination with no problem. As the story goes along, his health and optimism starts to deteriorate. I loved how London, throughout the story included the turmoil that this man was starting to comprehend. For example, a sign of trouble that the man was experiencing was when the “circulation of wet and freezing feet cannot be restored by running when it is seventy-five below. No matter how fast he runs, the wet feet will freeze the harder.” (pg. 1052). At this point in the story, the stubborn man is now remembering the older man from Sulphur Creek who had warned him, and tried to give him advice. London has managed to present the downfall of the man’s well-being. As the man gets worse and his dog is no longer wanting to be in his company, the more the old man’s advice is brought up. Further in the story the man’s optimism is beginning to disperse, and he decides at one point after trying so hard will not make it to the camp. He later dies under a tree, and the dog later goes away from him, and heads to the camp alone. This story is a representation of regret and troubled events that this man endures because of his stubbornness. London was able to present a story with hope, optimism, doubt, regret, life lessons, and the reality. As a result, this is why I love this work by Jack London,
Through the ingenious works of poetry the role of nature has imprinted the 18th and 19th century with a mark of significance. The common terminology ‘nature’ has been reflected by our greatest poets in different meanings and understanding; Alexander Pope believed in reason and moderation, whereas Blake and Wordsworth embraced passion and imagination.