Jack London's To Build A Fire

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The story I will be analyzing and evaluating in my essay is To Build A Fire by Jack London. Jack London was a man who struggled much early in his life and he drew upon those harsh experiences in his writing. Though his life had a difficult beginning, Jack aspired to make a better man of himself and after great tribulation made his mark as an incredible writer. The following is an analysis and evaluation of what I think is one of his more intriguing stories. The story To Build A Fire takes place in the freezing harsh wilderness of Alaska. This story illustrates a couple of themes. One, is man’s stubbornness to listen to reason and thinking that he knows best despite being provided with sound advice. Another main theme which was masterly depicted by Jack London is that of humankind’s inability to overcome nature. I will explore both of these in the following paragraph as they went hand in hand together in this story. …show more content…

The first incident that depicts the first theme, man’s stubbornness to listen to reason, is when he takes off his glove to eat and his fingers quickly become very numb in this barren and harsh landscape. It is astonishingly cold but the man does not deeply ponder this fact as he is not given to observing the different workings of life as significant, but instead merely views them as cold facts. He had neglected to build a fire, at more than fifty degrees below zero! The man from Sulphur Creek had told him that it was very cold before he set out and he had laughed at

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