Importance Of Decisions In To Build A Fire, By Jack London

Life is something that people tend to take for granted. When people catch themselves in life-or-death situations they sometimes make decisions that seem crazy to normal people just living their everyday lives. People that make crazy decisions when they know the risks, or decide to do something before fully understanding the risks, should be held accountable for that decision that they made and if they need rescuing then they should be the ones to pick up the bill. If they don’t take responsibility for the cost of their decision and rescue, then taxpayers are the ones that end up paying for it.

It is very common to see people deciding to go mountain climbing, hiking, or sailing-in a place where they shouldn’t be, just for the thrill of it.

The main character was given advice but he thought that he was too strong so he arrogantly did not take it. For instance, in paragraph 21 it states, “The old-timer had been very serious in laying down the law that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. Well, here he was; he had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. Those old-timers were rather womanish, some of them, he thought. All a man had to do was keep his head, and he was all right. Any man who was a man could travel alone.” Of course, it states right there that he had saved himself, but the mistake probably would’ve been prevented if he had a partner with him. The man thought that he was too tough to take advice from people that were much wiser than him. The man might have thought that he was “all that” but as he is dying he realizes that this advice would have saved his life. In paragraph 29 it states, “The old-timer on Sulphur Creek was right, he thought in the moment of controlled despair that ensued: after fifty below, a man should travel with a partner.” The man lost his life after making several mistakes that a partner could have prevented. What’s even worse is that he realized all of this at the end, if only he hadn’t been so cocky at the beginning of his adventure. All in all, the man in this short story

For example, fires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis and so on. In the passage, “The Cost of Survival,” it says that, “Some people wind up in trouble because of bad luck, but others make dangerous choices.” In other words, sometimes there isn’t anything that can be done life just happens. However this doesn’t apply to every life-or-death situation, sometimes people just don’t make the right decisions and these decisions have a direct effect on the lives of others. Another example of an exception would be war veterans. These people risk their lives to protect their country not for the thrill of it. In the editorial, “The Moral Logic of Survival Guilt,” Nancy Sherman explains subjective guilt and the effect that it has on war veterans. For instance, on page 154 paragraph 4, Sherman states, “Subjective guilt associated with this sense of responsibility, is thought to be irrational because one feels guilty despite the fact that he knows he has done nothing wrong.” This example shows that the veterans already hold themselves accountable for more than what a person can ever be blamed for. It is definitely not fair to hold them accountable because they are heroes and what they do is very noble and it would just be cruel to make them pay for any injuries or additional costs. Therefore war veterans are exceptions because if anything