Jack London’s “What Life Means to Me” and with the support of London’s “How to Build a Fire”, both demonstrates naturalism through man vs external forces, displays characters from the lower class of society, and how both stories give of a pessimistic and deterministic theme.
London’s, “What Life Means to Me” demonstrates naturalism by giving examples of Man vs. Society. In this story, London give many examples of his battle with society and how many times he tried to adapt to society and climb the ladder only to be knocked down again. For example, in the story London states that he works as hard as two men and his boss took advantage of the situation and worked him until he no longer had the will to work anymore and found himself begging for money (Baym, 564). This is just one example where his decision to use strength to get his way to the top, but society fought back against man and society won this round.
London gives another example where he is successful against society and rises to the upper class of society by selling his “brain”. He states that he is giving up using his strength to make it to the top of society, instead, he will be using his brain to get him there (565). London states that selling his brain make him more successful and get him
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to the upper class of society by stating, “As a brain merchant I was a success. Society opened its portals to me. I entered right in on the parlor floor, and my disillusionment proceeded rapidly (565).” Another example of Man vs External forces comes from London’s “How to Build a Fire.” This story deals with the concept Man vs Nature.
Both stories deal with aspects of external forces controlling and shaping the characters of the story. However, in “How to Build a Fire”, the main character struggles with a cold harsh winter in Alaska with temperatures of seventy-five degrees below zero. He must build a fire to keep warm and use his knowledge of the dangers in the snow and ice to keep him alive. Unfortunately, nature is a harsh mistress to overcome. The man later died due to the over powering force of nature, “Later, the dog whined loudly. And still later it crept close to the man and caught the scent of death
(638).” Secondly, naturalism focuses on characters coming from a lower class of society. London first talks about his life growing up in the lower class by stating, “I was born in the working-class. Early I discovered enthusiasm, ambition, and ideals; and to satisfy these became the problem of my child-life. My environment was crude and rough and raw (563).” London also talks about his dreams of making it to the upper Escalon’s of society by stating, “I had no outlook, but an uplook rather (563).” London also described his experience as a working-class citizen and how people over fifty years of age were broken down or worn out. He tells many tales of his struggle in the lower class and how he sold his muscle to do the work of two men and how it had worn him out so much that he quit and went and became a tramp and went around begging people for money and spent his time in prisons and slums (564). In “How to Build a Fire”, the main character is described as a man with having a beard, chews tobacco, wearing moccasins and having to walk many miles through the snow to get to his destination (629). The story also mentions that the man was looking for place to get logs out in the spring (629), hinting at the man is part of the working class. These factors describe the main character comes from lower class of society. Both stories describe characters coming from the lower class. Many of these stories show the harshness and living conditions, as well as, how the characters work themselves to do death just to stay alive. Both stories show the writers negative outlook in the characters and mainly choose people from the lower class to allow the reader watch someone from a low status try and make it either from one place to another or a higher place in society, only to have to watch the main character fail. Furthermore, “What Life Means to Me” gives many examples in which the story gives off a deterministic yet pessimistic view. This story gives many examples of the main character’s determination to make it to the top of society. Like his efforts as a sailor, an electrician, and a revolutionist. The reader can see how hard the character is working and how much effort he is putting in by giving it all he’s got. For example, “Very well, I was strong. I would carve my way to a place amongst them and make money out of the muscles of other men, I was not afraid to work. I loved hard work. I would pitch in and work harder than ever and eventually become a pillar of society (564).” London allows the reader to pick up on a trial and error pattern, formulated to give off a pessimistic view of the character’s efforts. For example, London gives the idea that he is going to use his muscles to climb his way up only to find himself back in the slums. Even after making it to the upper class, London went back to the working class where he started (564-565). London’s, “To Build a Fire”, has the very same view in the story. For example, the man uses his knowledge of the cold and danger of the snow to keep himself alive and unharmed to make it to his destination. However even after his knowledge and many close calls his determination turns up beat to deadly very quickly. “He would be in to camp by six o’clock; a bit after dark, it was true, but the boys would be there, a fire would be going, and a hot supper would be ready (Bayne, 629).” The main character started with a very good stride and escaped many obstacles until he got his feet soaked. From this point forward the main kept trucking along only to die a few miles from his destination leaving his dog all alone (Bayne, 639). Both stories written by London do not have happy endings, in fact the meaning behind the stories are high ending in failure. As both stories unfold, many similarities unfold as well. These stories demonstrate supportive naturalistic characteristics like man vs. external forces, Characters from lower class of society, and a deterministic and pessimistic Theme.
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
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 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.
McCandless ardently disliked the government and found the conditions of the world appalling; his disdain towards the way the world functioned could only be settled if he could run away from it all or so he thought. McCandless’ ideology and passions stemmed from those of the author, Jack London – he fervently condemned capitalist society, glorified the primordial world, and championed the great unwashed (44). Living in a society in which nature was exploited to support consumerism, McCandless realized that he could reject that ...
Naturalism was a literary movement that took place from 1880s to around the 1940s. This movement used detailed realism to propose that social conditions, genetics, and the environment had unavoidable force in shaping human character. According to Zhang, “Naturalism was first proposed and formulated by French novelist Emile Zola, and it was introduced to America by American novelist Frank Norris.”(Zhang par.1) The term naturalism defines a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings. Naturalism writers often used the regularly ignored lower to middle classes backgrounds for characters in their stories. Naturalistic authors believe that the laws behind the forces that govern human lives might be studied and understood through the objective study of human beings. Natur...
Providing the separation between survival and death. setting was the most important factor in "Building a Fire" by Jack London. Works Cited and Consulted Hendricks, King. Jack London: Master Craftsman of the Short Story. Logan: Utah State U P. 1966.
The external conflict of man against nature and the internal conflict of man against himself play a huge role in the whole story, leading to the fateful outcome of the man. The man fell victim to the struggles the conflicts presented, majorly impacting the story. "To Build a Fire" encompasses the idea of man becoming his own enemy and people remaining insignificant to forces of natures. The conflicts presented in the story embody the aspect of nature as an unstoppable, unpredictable, and powerful force that easily overtakes man. That thought shows how one man has little effect on nature, and in the end, does the most harm by subjecting oneself to nature's fury. The story, "To Build a Fire" by Jack London truly shows how weak an unprepared person compares to the unruly forces of nature.
In response to the romantic period (1798-1870), authors began to focus their writing on ordinary people and their everyday lives rather than the supernatural, nationalism, heroism, and strange and faraway places, themes characteristic of romantic literature. In the story “To Build a Fire” shows what a realism story looks like. Everything about it is based on real events that can happen, is realistic. Whatever happens to the man, you can relate to because you know how cold it can get and maybe you also can relate how hard it is to build a fire. A lot of people, like the man in the story, sometimes arent as bright in the head and can be the cause of their own problem. In the story there is a part where the man fails to kill the dog because his hands are frozen, shows how a lot of times you cant accomplish something, you fail. Instead of a happy ending and expecting for the man to find his way back to camp, he does not, he dies, adds that very realistic event that would of happened to many other people and the story has a bad ending
An Analysis of Jack London's To Build a Fire. In her cultural criticism of Jack London's "To Build a Fire", Jill Widdicombe explores the question of whether the story's protagonist might have perished from the extreme cold of the Klondike winter even if with a traveling companion. She describes the brutality of the winter weather and, alluding to the man's confidence in his ability to survive the weather, describes it as "behavior most of us can understand" - especially if we are accustomed to warmer surroundings. She states: "the extreme cold of frosty landscapes--or "The White Silence", as London describes it--is so quiet and abstract that it does not immediately appear to be lethal".
When Jack London wrote "To Build a Fire" he embraced the idea of naturalism because it mirrored the events of daily life. Naturalism showed how humans had to be wary at every corner because at anytime death could be there, waiting for them to make a mistake and forfeit their lives. He used naturalism, the most realistic literary movement, to show how violent and uncaring nature really is and how no matter what you do nature will always be there. London also presented the basic idea of Darwinism and the survival of the fittest, basically if you are dumb you will die. Collectively, London used naturalism to show how in life, humans can depend on nothing but themselves to survive. "To Build a Fire" is a short story that embodies the idea of naturalism and how, if one is not careful, nature will gain the upper hand and they will perish.
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.
Jack London brings man versus nature discussion into his story. The environment, however doesn't play against him for say, but does warn him from the very beginning. The audience can conclude that just like “the man” everyone is alone in the world - fighting for ourselves and the things we wish to acquire. The character created by London is isolated from the universe and fooli...
To conclude, naturalism has many definitions and characteristics. It was a powerful movement which suggested the role and influence of the environment, one’s background, and one’s social status had in shaping human character. The major characteristics of it include the environments power or control over humans, objective science, instinct, pessimism, and detachment.
I agree with Karen Rhodes observation that to build afirecan be interpreted as the story of a man in the journey of human existence. However, I think her view of to build a fire as an American experience comes from the fact that she is an American. I agree with her theory that the Man's death in the end was due to the nature of the man and his environment. The protagonist in to build a fire did nor have any grasp of the danger he was in. he tried to reason himself through it all. He thought, " Maybe, if he ran on, his feet will thaw out; and anyway if he ran far enough, he would reach camp and the boys. (Jack London, 157).
The Error of Man Man has shown his ability to do great things. He has been able to evolve and grow throughout the generations. One thing that has never changed through the years of growth is that man is his own worst enemy. No one else has made man suffer as much as himself. A great example of man versus himself is Jack London’s