Compare And Contrast To Build A Fire And The Call Of The Wild

How much are you willing to sacrifice in order to survive? In the heart of the Yukon, both man and and dog must battle for survival. They must persevere in order to come out on top. In Call of the Wild and To Build a Fire there are many similarities and differences between Buck and the man.

In both stories, the personalities of the main character, Buck and the man, are very analogous. “Only this time he was the one who had been beaten,”(Call of the Wild, pg. 42), in this scene, Buck murders Spitz. This displays Buck’s thirst for life, even if he has to kill, Buck will do anything to stay alive. “He would kill the dog and bury his hands in the warm body until the numbness went out of them,”(To Build a Fire, pg. 6), Along with Buck, this demonstrates that the man is willing to kill another animal to stay alive. Along with personality, their primitive instinct is one in the same.

Throughout the stories, instincts that neither individual knew they had rose to the surface.

Then the panic seized the Yeehats, and they fled in fear to the woods proclaiming as they fled they advent of the evil spirit,”(Call of the Wild, pg. 104), Though Buck had previously killed, he had never committed a scandal such as murdering a whole tribe. “Then he scratched the bunch along his leg”(To Build a Fire, pg. 6) when the man could not light the match on the box, his instinct kicked in and he began trying other ways. The books have many similarities in affinity’s in Call of the Wild and To Build a Fire but there are also quite a few

discrepancies.
By the end of the story, Buck and the man learned contrasting lessons and evolved in ways that are not identical. “He may be seen running at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight or glimmering borealis”(Call of the Wild, pg. 108), towards the end of the novel, Buck had realized that being part of a pack/family was a favorable outcome than to be a lonely house pet. “Freezing wasn’t as bad as people thought”(To Build a Fire, pg. 9), however, the man had learned to never go out on his own and ended up dying. Another divergence in these books, is the relationship between man and dog.
In Call of the Wild, Buck and John Thorton have a very loving relationship whereas the man aspired to kill the Husky. “Love, genuine, passionate love, was his for the first time”(Call of the Wild, pg. 74), Buck felt a deep love for Thorton that he had not felt for past owners of his. “He got on his hands and knees and crawled toward the dog”(To Build a Fire, pg. 6), the man’s intention was to kill the dog and did not want to scare it away.
Bucka and the man’s personality and primitive instinct are similar. They both are willing to do about anything to sustain life. Though they are similar, both are very different in the sense of evolution and relationship concerning dog and man. Call of the Wild and To Build a Fire are both a story of an individual trying to survive.