Author of Major Barbara, George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything” (Arrogance). Many of us different times of our lives have believed that we know much more than we actually do. In “To Build a Fire,” the man has the same mentality as the arrogance that Shaw wrote about. The arrogance towards nature and the human nature seals the fate of the man in the story. Author of “To Build a Fire,” Jack London uses Naturalism to show the struggle of human nature and nature against man. London has always been able to excel in his use of naturalism in each of his stories, showing the struggles that people face against nature itself and their own human natures. In “To Build a Fire,” Jack London used naturalism to …show more content…
Because of the powerfulness of nature and his own struggle with human nature, the narrator is subject to failing against nature. When the man realizes that he may have doomed himself when the snow puts out his fire, he tries his best to build a second one. He thinks of regrets of not having a trail mate, but notes, “it was up to him to build the fire over again, and this second time there must be no failure” (634). This failure would mean his own death, proving that now the man is recognizing the power of nature. From this point in the story, the man is victim to the deadly force that nature is, especially when man tries to fight against it. In this story, the struggle between man versus nature is a very resonating theme throughout the story. The dog in the story opposites the man as the man ignores the warnings that laid ahead, the dog is distinctively aware of nature’s power. When the man has finally died at the end of the story, the narrator noted the dog’s behavior: Later the dog whined loudly. And still later it crept close to the man and caught the scent of death. This made the animal bristle and back away (638). The dog displays the tentative awareness of nature’s massive force that causes the man’s death. The power of both nature and human nature show that man is overwhelmingly outmatched when trying to overcome either of
In the course of human history, man has managed to do some really dumb things. Whether it’s because we lack sufficient knowledge, make a mistake, or are just too stubborn to use sound judgement, dumb decisions are made every day by everyone. However, none have a greater level of stupidity than the choices made by the man in Jack London’s To Build a Fire. This is a story of pride, ignorance, and stupidity, which ultimately leads to the downfall of its main character. This short story is a caution against over confidence and unpreparedness, showing the harsh effects of both. Ultimately, it is an issue of man’s pride versus the harsh conditions of nature. It shows that one cannot simply overlook nature, because doing so can lead to the destruction
Annotation: When a dog is sick beyond healing, many owners would want to take their dog out of misery and kill it. Even though the situation between Edward Prendick and the Leopard Man is different, Prendick sympathizes for the creature and desires to take it out of its misery.
The poem above speaks volumes about the nature of man’s best friend. Dogs are not inherently bad, but are rather “a product of their environment”. The same principle applies to the world’s most misunderstood breed of dog. When you hear the phrase “pit bull”, what do you think? A savage beast, murdered out of cold blood?
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.
... how the mind works. Sometimes deep seated guilts will manifest themselves sub-consciously. Shakespeare uses the idea in `Macbeth' with Lady Macbeth's growing madness and the visitation of Banquo's ghost. This has something of the same flavour; `gory locks' are being shaken here. The sound quality of the double `-ing' endings in lines twenty two and twenty three lull the reader before the final hammer blow of `dead'. The word takes on a thudding sound like a heart stopping. It is only here that the poet gives away the fact that the poem is not really about the dog at all, but `the dead' suggesting a group, possibly of friends or comrades from World War II that he has so far avoided mourning. The poet reaches a moment of epiphany, he realises that the past can be brought back, relived, suffered again, and finally mourned; that redemption can be reached.
feelings in the man and the dog, of a constant battle with this world of
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
The dog they rescued is a particularly prominent topic, a vestige of the past civilizations. In defiance of the treacherous environment, the dog managed to survive, a feat that even Lisa, the most cold-blooded of the three main characters, could not help but be “impressed by” (Bacigalupi 61). Therefore, the dog is a symbol of hope for the reader, an animal that is in the extreme, completely out of its element, and yet capable of surviving. As a result, nature’s idea of itself is astoundingly resilient, keeping certain species alive as an attempt to return to the normal state of the world. Even after horrendous trauma the natural world is still capable of a stalwart attempt at reclaiming itself. Accordingly, it is never too late to start fixing the damages and help nature’s cause, before allowing it to escalate to such a degree where the oceans are black with pollution and there is no room left for the humans of today. Chen could not help but notice that the dog is different than them in more than just a physiological nature; “there’s something there” and it’s not a characteristic that either them or the bio-jobs are capable of (64). Subsequently, the dog has something that the evolved humans are missing, compassion. In consequence, the author portrays the idea that the dog
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).
Obviously that was not the situation which was meant to occur. The cold served as a lesson to be taught to all explorers who would set foot into the never-ending winter from that day on. The continuous efforts that the man made to start a fire symbolize his will to survive. No will however is match for mother nature. The suffering man took on the role as a great teacher and hopefully preserver of life for generations to come.
In Jack London's "To Build a Fire" we see a classic story of man against nature. In this story, however, nature wins. One reason that this is such a compelling and engrossing story is the vivid descriptions of the environment the nameless main character endures. Plot and characterization are brief, and the theme is simple. Yet this story is still a very popular story, and it has a mysterious quality that makes it great.
Ones take of this story can be many of sorts. The dog essential may have saved this young child, his father may have chosen to throw him out the window. If the dog wasn’t there to take his place, who is to say what could had happened? It also shows how the dogs undeniable, love, devotion and eagerness to please his master. Eventually these traits, sadly left him resting lifeless in his young master’s arms. The relationships between these characters, is one of who’s pulling the strings. The abuse has been passed down from father to son. This story leaves an emptiness, with the unsettling turn of events.
Karen Rhodes analyzed to build a fire in a cultural context. He believed "London's works were written so that he could survive in a world he increasingly came to see as "red in tooth and claw""(1). It is obviously the story of a man fighting the stresses of Nature. According to Rhodes, to build a fire was drawn from the year London spent in Canada's Yukon Territory. London depicted arctic and very cold conditions throughout the story. Rhodes believed to build a fire represented London's Naturalistic Flavor. "It pits one man alone against the overwhelming forces of nature"(Karen Rhodes, 1). He also believed to build a fire can either be interpreted as the Pioneer American experience or can be read as an allegory for the journey of human existence (Karen Rhodes, 1). According to Rhodes, there are two versions of to build a fire; the first one was written in 1902 while the second one was written in 1908. We are studying the 1908 version." It has come to be known as everyman trekking through the Naturalistic Universe"(Karen Rhodes, 1). To build a fire is indeed the story of a man trekking through the universe alone except for his dog. The man's death at the end was the culmination of the story. " His death came through no lapse of observation, no lack of diligence, no real folly but the nature of himself and his environment" (Karen Rhodes, 2). I think his is a fine criticism of London's to build a fire. London had made use of his life experiences in writing the story.
The interactions with the family shows common struggles and the description of how the dog reacts gives off a sense of hope and safety. Often during times of distress people use religion as a way of coping with problems. The dog in the story is “. . . turned over upon his back, and held his paws in a peculiar manner. At the same time with his ears and his eyes he offered a small prayer to the child”(Crane, "A Dark Brown Dog") this happens several times in the story which usually brings the little boy happiness. The dog also allowed the child to occasionally take out anger on it even when no reason was given. The dog played a safe haven that allowed the boy to believe things will get better shown here: “When misfortune came upon the child, and his troubles overwhelmed him, he would often crawl under the table and lay his small distressed head on the dog 's back. The dog was ever sympathetic”(Crane, "A Dark Brown Dog"). The story eventually ends with the dog 's death by the hands of the child 's father here: “The father of the family paid no attention to these calls of the child, but advanced with glee upon the dog...He rolled over on his back and held his paws in a peculiar manner. At the same time with his eyes and his ears he offered up a small prayer...the father was in a mood for having fun, and it occurred to him that it would be a fine thing to throw the dog out of the window”(Crane, "A Dark Brown Dog"). Even before the dog 's last moments he uses religion as hope that the father will stop his violence but instead the father tossed that hope away once he grabbed the dog to toss it out the