Jack London Conflicts

In the short story “To Build a Fire” the main character faces many challenges throughout the plot. Even when he tries to persevere and push through he fails miserably. As the story progresses more and more conflicts are born. The setting of Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” is merciless and has a major impact on the main character.

In “To Build a Fire” the main character believes he is ready to take on the extreme wilderness. He begins his hike on the Yukon Trail, but decides to take a detour and turn off to scout land. Eventually he plans to meet his friends at the old claim near Henderson Fork. The only issue is, he’s attempting to make the journey in fifty degrees below zero weather. His only partner; a dog. Even though this is his first hike off trail, he feels he is unstoppable, as if the bone chilling cold can’t touch him. He has been warned countless times to never travel alone, but he doesn’t listen. When the man starts on his route

he soon realizes the meaning to their cautions. He ends up falling through the ice when he tries to cross a river, so now his already numb feet are frozen to his socks and boots. Due to the fact that his fingers are numb as well he has complications starting a fire to thaw himself out. In the end the man finds himself sprinting to save his life, but falls short when his energy runs out and he tumbles over. As he lays in the snow, he knows he's not going to make it. He finally decides to accept his death, and begins daydreaming until the light surrounds him.

The setting is a brutal bully to the main character in “To Build a Fire”. The story is set off

the main Yukon Trail, on a cold gray morning. It is so cold that when the man spits, his

saliva freezes in mid air. The frigid atmosphere takes a major toll overall on the man's body. “He knew the bark was there, and though he could not feel it with his fingers, he could hear its crisp rustling as he fumbled for it. Try as he would, he could not clutch hold of it. And all the time, in his consciousness, was the knowledge that each instant his feet were freezing” (90). In this instance the man is attempting to start a fire, but is having difficulties because his hands are paralyzed from the bone chilling cold, which makes him unable to grip anything.

Besides the raw temperature, the main character is affected by the objects and surroundings in the setting as well.

The man has to trudge through thick bitter snow, and cross over a stream that has patches of thin ice natural from hot springs. While crossing the creek he hits one of the pockets of the fraile ice and breaks through into the arctic water. Chaos also occurred, because of the setting when he tried to defrost himself. “Each time he had pulled a twig he had communicated a slight agitation to the tree---an imperceptible agitation, so far as he was concerned, but an agitation sufficient to bring about the disaster. High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow....It grew like an avalanche, and it descended upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out”(89). In this sample from the story, the man had made a fire under a spruce tree. Just when he thought everything was going well a load of snow from the branches of the tree broke free and smothered his fire, leaving him powerless to restart

it.
The main character in this story takes many tumbles on his journey. He learns the hard way to always take into consideration advice when he receives it or the odds may not turn out in his favor. In conclusion Jack London creates conflict through the setting in the short story “To Build a Fire”.