Jack London's To Build A Fire

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John Griffith London was born in San Francisco, California on January 12, 1876. His parents were Flora Wellman and William Chaney, a prominent journalist, lawyer, and early leader of American astrology. London never knew his real father. Later Wellman married John London, a Civil War veteran, who settled the family in Oakland, California.
During adolescence, London decided to go by the first name of Jack. One of London’s earlier jobs involved working with the fish patrol searching for poachers. At the age of seventeen, London set sail on a seal ship for the Pacific Ocean. Tossed and turned about by a hurricane, London nearly died. After arriving home safely, London decided to put pen to paper. London entered a collegiate writing contest where …show more content…

London found himself traveling northward into the far regions of Canada and the Yukon hoping to find fortunes in gold. London did not find any gold, so he returned home. London’s northern gold adventures were not a waste, but rather an inspiring backdrop for his writing. In fact, the setting for “To Build a Fire” depicted the harsh environment London observed during his travel to the Yukon. For years, London wrote short stories for a California magazine, Overland Monthly.
Deciding to settle down, London married his first wife, Bess Maddern, in 1900. London and Maddern had two daughters before divorcing a few years later. In 1905, London married his second wife, Charmain Kittredge. Years later London endured many health issues. At the age of forty, London died from kidney disease. London left behind a legacy of stories involving nature, life lessons, and creative character inflections for readers to …show more content…

Thinking the old man was overly cautious and crazy, the man brushes off the warning. The old man, presumably a lifelong resident of the Yukon and experienced woodsman, obviously understands the threat and the danger nature presents to naive travelers. After falling through the ice, the man slowly begins to acknowledge there may have been some wisdom in the old man’s warning. The man gives a halfcocked smile when remembering the old man’s advice about running on dry frozen feet versus wet frozen feet. Suddenly the man is desperate to build a fire. The man’s “over confidence in his own abilities led to him making poor decisions and scorning the advice of those who know what they are talking about” (“Overconfidence and Arrogance”). The man, with wet feet and two epic fire failures, entertains the old man’s warning about traveling a little more seriously. If there were two people, one could surely start a fire if the other had some trouble. Refusing to give up, the man runs on his wet frozen feet until collapsing. Nature’s inhospitable side catches up with the man. Sitting helpless in the snow, the man finally acknowledged the old man was correct. Unfortunately, the thought came too late. The man’s failure to look past himself and listen an old man’s valuable advice ultimately contributed to his

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    Jack London’s To Build a Fire follows an unnamed protagonist, who’s only referred to as “the man”, as he travels the Yukon Trail during a severe snow storm. Along with his husky wolf-dog, he determined to meet friends at an old junction by six o’clock. The man, who was warned not travel in the Klondike alone, presses forward through the terrain’s harsh weather. He later falls through the snow in what looked to be a secure spot. With his feet and fingers soaked, he starts a fire and begins drying himself. The man constructs the fire under a spruce tree in order to take its twigs and drop them directly onto the fire. Each time he pulled a twig a branch overturned its load of snow, eventually blotting out the fire. He grabs all his matches and lights them simultaneously to set fire to a piece of bark; it soon goes out. The man decides to kill the dog and use its warm body to restore his circulation, but is unable to kill the animal and lets the dog go. The man attempts to run from the thought of freezing to death but he quickly falls down. He decides he should meet death in a more dignified manner; the man falls off into a calm sleep.

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  • Comparing the Two Versions of To Build a Fire

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    Jack London has written a classic short story in the 1908 version of "To Build a Fire." This is the classic story of man fighting nature. In most genres (e.g. movies, novels, short stories) the main character comes out on top, however unlikely that is. Jack London takes literary naturalism and shows the reader how unmerciful nature is. Much like Stephen Crane in "The Open Boat," in which the one of the characters dies, London doesn't buy into that "has to have a good ending" contrivance. Through analysis of two London's letters (to R.W. Gilder and Cloudesly Johns) these two versions of "To Build a Fire" come alive with new meaning. Although there are many differences on the surface, both stories use his philosophy as expressed to Johns and both teach a moral lesson, one which will not soon be forgotten: "Never travel alone."

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    As the plot unfolds, I feel the story's protagonist falls victim to several factors brought into play at once: his inexperience with the severity of the Klondike winters, his inability to envision the possible consequences of his decision to travel alone in such weather, a series of unfortunate events during his trip, and the misjudgment exercised in his attempts to survive those incidents. Though quick and alert, the man's lack of imagination renders him unable to visualize what might happen to a man traveling without a companion should adverse circumstances arise in such severe weather in an uninhabited landscape. When he indeed finds himself in dire straits as a result of getting wet in the brutal freezing weather, he once again fails to imagine how quickly the cold will threaten his life and consequently misjudges the severity of his situation. His poor judgment causes him to make one mistake after another until he finds himself incapable of extricating himself from his situation. It seems obvious that had he made himself more familiar with the culture of the land and paid attention to the warnings of the old-timer on Sulpher Creek, he might have chosen to delay his trip and live to travel another day.

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    Foremost, the theme of this story is that ignorance can lead to poor decisions because the man ignores his surroundings. An example of this is when the man ignored the advice and warnings given by the old-timer from Sulphur Creek. It stated on page 4 in the 3rd paragraph “It certainly was cold, was his thought. That man from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes gets in the country. And he laughed at him at the time.

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  • Naturalism in Jack London's To Build a Fire

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    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).

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  • Imagery In Jack London's To Build A Fire

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    In conclusion, the man thought he could travel the Yukon on his own even after the old man told him that it was not a good idea. He went through many obstacles, and the dog kept giving him warnings but the man’s ignorance and overconfidence got the best of him. London’s use of imagery, irony, and the relationship between the man and the dog helped the reader foreshadow the man’s death.

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  • Jack London

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    Jack London was not Jack London at first. His real name was John Griffith Chaney, or just Johnny. The future writer was born on January 12, 1876, at 615 Third Street, San Francisco, California. Jack London was raised in a family of his mother Flora, who was a spiritualist, and his stepfather John London, who loved him a lot. John London felt sorry for Jack, because he was a partially disabled Civil War veteran and Jack had to do all work. It is believed that Jack was the illegitimate son of Williams Chaney, an itinerant astrologer and journalist. London’s parents’ may be described as rather homely American family.

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  • The Role of Setting in To Build a Fire by Jack London

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    Jack London brings man versus nature discussion into his story. The environment, however doesn't play against him for say, but does warn him from the very beginning. The audience can conclude that just like “the man” everyone is alone in the world - fighting for ourselves and the things we wish to acquire. The character created by London is isolated from the universe and fooli...

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  • A Critique of Jack London's To Build a Fire

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    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.

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