Jack London's To Build A Fire

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Recommended: A one paragraph analysis of the major theme of building a fire by jack london

In 1908 Jack London published a tragic tale titled “To Build a Fire” in which the main character succumbs to the elements and passes away. Throughout the story Jack London shows the awe-inspiring power of nature with no regard to human life and the feebleness of man by pairing a dog and unnamed man together on a quest across the Yukon Trail. Throughout the story the man is ill-prepared, ill-informed, and unable to use the clues around him to survive. The dog is reluctant to follow the man throughout the story, but leaves his side only when it begins to smell the stench of death.
Jack London opens the story by painting the picture of the Yukon Trail. He describes the large area by stating “The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow. It was all pure white rolling in gentle undulations where the ice jams of the freeze-up had …show more content…

In the story the unnamed man forces the dog to walk across ice that cannot support the dog’s body weight. The dog falls through the ice and gets its feet wet, the dog begins to bite at the ice around the paw. Jack London then writes “He removed the mitten from his right hand and helped tear out the ice particles. He did not expose his fingers more than a minute, and was astonished at the swift numbness that smote them. It certainly was cold. He pulled on his mitten hastily, and beat the hand savagely across his chest.” (127). This is a perfect example of how fragile humans are, the unnamed man exposed his fingers for less than a minute and he was already experiencing extreme numbness. By the unnamed man experiencing numbness in his fingers so quickly it again shows the harsh conditions of the Yukon Trail. In most conditions removing one’s gloves for a minute is not a big deal, but in this condition, it could lead to losing multiple fingers due to frost

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