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Analysis of to build a fire by jack london
Analysis of to build a fire by jack london
Analysis of to build a fire by jack london
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There are many factor that determines your survival in the wilderness. To survive, you not only need enough and correct supplies but you also need luck and to stay calm. In the story “To Build a Fire” the man and the dog was trying to cross the Yukon Territory of northern Canada and he was traveling under freezing cold weather. To him, fifty degrees below zero simply meant a danger of frostbite and the need for warm clothes. It did not lead him to think about how vulnerable he was in this frozen wilderness. Nor did it lead him to have humility about his place in the universe. At last he end up dying in the wilderness. In the short story, “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the main character, “the man,” was responsible for his situation because …show more content…
For instance, the old timer said not to travel when it was colder than 50 below. “He knew that at fifty below spit crackled on the snow, but this spit had crackled in the air, which meant that it was colder than fifty below. But it did not matter.” It showed that the man knew it was colder than fifty because his spit froze before it hit the ground. He should not have continued traveling after he realized that but he went anyway. Also, he travelled alone even though the old timer said not to. “He was bound for the old mine near Henderson Creek, where his friends were already gathered. He had come a different way, alone, to check on the chances of getting logs in the spring.” It demonstrated that the man travelled with just the grey husky even though the rest of his friends took a different route to camp. He did not stay with them and went by himself instead. He want to check out the logging …show more content…
For example, he was trying to kill the dog. “He would kill the dog and bury his hands in the warm body until the numbness went. Then he could build another fire.” “Then he realized that he could not kill the dog with his helpless hands.” This shows he is panicking because he wasn’t actually able to kill the dog because his hands were too frozen to work and he is not thinking clearly. He was also trying to run up the trail. “In a panic, he turned and ran up the old, dim trail.” “Several times he stumbled, and finally he tottered, crumpled up, and fell” This shows he is not calm because he is trying to run when he physically cannot; he stumbles up the trail and finally
The man was so confident that he thought he had many protecting to keep him warm and last through the hold snowy trip. ”He held on through the level stretch of woods for several miles, crossed a wide flat of rigger-heads, and dropped down a bank to the frozen bed of a small stream. This was Henderson Creek, and he knew he was ten miles from the forks. He looked at his watch. It was ten o'clock. He was making four miles an hour, and he calculated that he would arrive at the forks at half-past twelve. He decided to celebrate that event by eating his lunch there” (London par. 8 ). This shows that he was confident that he would last through the whole trip with what he is just wearing. He was also confident because he was moving fast and he thought he was traveling fast but he was not traveling quick enough. “He was. pleased at the speed he had made. If he kept it up, he would certainly be with the boys by six. He unbuttoned his jacket and shirt and drew forth his lunch. The action consumed no more than a quarter of a minute, yet in that brief moment the numbness laid hold of the exposed fingers. He did not put the mitten on, but, instead struck the fingers a dozen sharp smashes against his leg.” (London par. 14). He was confident on how fast he moved and stopped and relax to enjoy his frozen
As Chris became more fascinated with the wilderness, he increasingly became indifferent towards different aspects of his life. Chris’ operation prior to embarking in the wilderness was fruitless because he lacked the sufficient and valuable preparations. Furthermore, it is appropriate to say that the actions that he took were beyond heedless: “He spent very little time learning how to actually live in the wild” (Christian 1). Practice makes perfect is a common proverb that echoes throughout society but was unfortunately missing from Chris’ life. Chris’ enthusiasm towards nature prevented him from making a logical decision of having sufficient experience with the wilderness itself. Ultimately, Chris was an oblivious person because he commenced into the wilderness with meager supplies. However, Chris failed at entering his excursion with sufficient preparations: “He left the map in Gallien’s truck, along with his watch, his comb, and all his money, which amounted to 85 cents” (2). By leaving his belongings in Gallien’s truck, Chris made an extremely absurd decision. More specifically, he disabled any possibility for him to receive immediate assistance when his health began declining rapidly. Finally, individuals should prioritize rationality in certain situations because it is crucial for them to use when they are blinded by a
The man had numerous chances to take correct, decisive action. For example, the man knew that spit would freeze
Before going on his trek alone into the Yukon wilderness, an “old-timer” had given the protagonist in “To Build a Fire” advice. He told the protagonist not to travel alone in the frigid Yukon territory because it can get dangerously cold.. The protagonist chooses not to follow this advice and comes to regret it as he freezes to death. Towards the beginning, the protagonist even looks down upon the old-timer, believing the old-timer to not be as manly as him. The protagonist initially thinks, “Those old-timers were rather womanist, he thought […] Any man who was a man could travel alone” (21). Not only does the protagonist ignore the advice of the old-timer, but he even thinks of the old-timer as being inferior and weak. The protagonist completely overlooks the fact that the old-timer is a veteran to the unforgiving land and he is merely a newcomer with little knowledge of the land. The protagonist soon realizes that the old-timer was right. The narrator acknowledges the wisdom in the advice of the old-timer once the cold has set in on the protagonist: “That man [the old-timer] from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth […] and he [the protagonist] had laughed at him at the time!” (15) The protagonist had once laughed at the old-timer, thinking the old-timer was just weak, but he now sees the wisdom in the old-timer’s advice. The protagonist comes to realize that the old-timer was right but by this point it is far too late. Christopher McCandless also ignored the advice of others throughout his adventure, the most distinguished advice given to him from an “old-timer” of Alaska directly preceding McCandless’s final journey into the Alaskan wilderness. Jim Gallien picked up McCandless outside of Fairbanks, Alaska and immediately noticed McCandless’s unpreparedness. After McCandless told Gallien of his plans to survive in
...e wilderness.” Krakauer stats this in the book to explain what Chris was up against walking into the wilderness. No ordinary man would do this to survive out on his own facing the wilderness. Kleinfeld made an extraordinary remark in her article “McCandless: Hero or Dumb Jerk” “Jon Krakauer's best seller "Into the Wild" immortalizes this young man, who walked into the wilderness with no map, no ax, no mosquito repellent and no first aid equipment.” She makes a good statement about his bravery because not many men would go out with no supplies to make them survive. He went out by himself, no supplies and try to pull off to live in the wild.
Living in the wilderness is difficult, but understanding the meaning of such lifestyle is even more difficult. One of the Christopher’s admirable qualities was that he was well aware of what he was doing. He knew about the difficulties and dangers that he would face into the wilderness, and was mentally prepared for that. Author Jon Krakauer says that “McCandless was green, and he overestimated his resilience, but he was sufficiently skilled to last for sixteen weeks on little more than his wits and ten pounds of rice. And he was fully aware when he entered the bush that he had given himself a perilously slim margin for error. He knew precisely what was at stake” (182). McCandless was an educated youth, who loved nature and dreamed of living in the Alaskan wilderness. Although he ignored to take many necessary things with him on this
You’re stuck in the middle of the woods not knowing where you are or where to go. What are you going to do? You don’t have any water or food or source of heat. How long will you survive? Most people have no basic knowledge of survival skills and would panic or die. Nobody knows any basic survival skills even though everyone should know for that one time that you need to survive in the wild.
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).
Chris McCandless’s story, in Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is an important story to be heard, but it should be read as a cautionary tale for all people wanting to go into the wilderness unprepared. Anyone going into an inhospitable region should be aware of this story and should not make the mistake of being
I think that "To Build a Fire" story relates to many issues hidden behind a superficial plot. The story takes place in a very severe winter; the man under appreciates the dangers of nature forces and struggles to return to camp. He is warned about possible dangers, but he is also too pride and too self-confident to take the advice into consideration. The protagonist is accompanied by a dog. The man tries to survive, but forces of nature are stronger and he dies.
If you are in a life or death situation, every decision you make stacks the odds either for or against you. Once you make a few bad decisions, you realize that your chances for survival are getting slimmer and slimmer. As this fact settles into your conscious mind, it produces panic. Panic is what happens when the brain can't handle the information it is given. Panic takes over rationality, and as a result, you do and say things that are uncharacteristic of you. Panic destroys your self confidence.
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.
There was no mistake about it, it was cold.” This shows that when the man had met the old-timer from Sulphur Creek last fall, he was warned about how cold it can get in the area, yet the man was ignorant and neglected the helpful warning. On page 6 in the 1st paragraph it also stated “The old-timer had been very serious in laying down the law that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below.” This shows that the man was given advice by the old-timer to never travel alone in the Klondike when the temperature is below -50°C. The man was well aware of how low the temperature was. However, the man still disregarded the advice given by the old-timer and went on a journey alone. The man was very ignorant towards the advice and warnings given by the old-timer from Sulphur Creek. Another example of this is when the man was ignorant towards all of his surroundings. There were many hints in nature and in the trail that warned the man to not continue to travel in the Klondike that day, yet he let his
As the plot unfolds, I feel the story's protagonist falls victim to several factors brought into play at once: his inexperience with the severity of the Klondike winters, his inability to envision the possible consequences of his decision to travel alone in such weather, a series of unfortunate events during his trip, and the misjudgment exercised in his attempts to survive those incidents. Though quick and alert, the man's lack of imagination renders him unable to visualize what might happen to a man traveling without a companion should adverse circumstances arise in such severe weather in an uninhabited landscape. When he indeed finds himself in dire straits as a result of getting wet in the brutal freezing weather, he once again fails to imagine how quickly the cold will threaten his life and consequently misjudges the severity of his situation. His poor judgment causes him to make one mistake after another until he finds himself incapable of extricating himself from his situation. It seems obvious that had he made himself more familiar with the culture of the land and paid attention to the warnings of the old-timer on Sulpher Creek, he might have chosen to delay his trip and live to travel another day.
Preparing for a trek in the wilderness comes with two major responsibilities. These two responsibilities are to pack lightly, and always remember that Mother Nature is not always on a person’s side. Packing lightly ensures that one will not be overloaded as they go out into the woods, and can save a person’s necessary energy for a later obstacle in the wilderness. Mother Nature is a very unpredictable factor in the climates one may encounter in the wild. Whether it is ran, snow, sleet, hail, heat, or bitter cold, one can never predict the outcome of the forces that they may face.