Perseverance in the Klondike

726 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: After twenty years of literary analysis

“To Build a Fire” written by Jack London, was published in 1902 and then re-published again in 1908, which is the most recognized. London sailed to join the Klondike Gold Rush in July of 1897, his time there influenced many of his works. The main character of the story is an unnamed man, a newcomer to the Yukon, who is going to meet his friends at an old claim. His companion is a big husky wolf dog, whose instincts tell him that it is too cold to venture out , but he relentlessly follows the food and fire provider. All of the elements are against the man, but he continues to push forward even when he loses feelings in his hands and legs. The man finally comes to the realization that he is going to die; he lies down in the snow and falls into a comfortable sleep. The dog stays with the man for a while confused and wondering why he is laying in the snow, he curiously walks up to the man and sniffs; the smell of death fills his nostrils. The dog leaves the man and searches for the other food and fire providers. In London’s “To Build a Fire”, he displays the perseverance that the man undergoes in various stages as he faces his imminent death. When the man starts this journey he is unaware of the fate that Mother Nature has in store for him. The weather is seventy five below zero, his beard is frozen and caked in amber icicles from spitting his dip out. The longer the man walks his cheeks start to get frost bit and he rubs them to attempt to keep the feeling, he continues to push forward brushing the problem off not thinking anything about it.” Bit painful, that was all; they were never serious.” (3). Sublime to the slow effects the weather is having on him, he stops around noon for a lunch break. Instead of immediately building a f... ... middle of paper ... ... mumbled to the old-timer of Sulphur Creek.” (11). He then drifts off into what seemed to be the best sleep of his life and the dog stays for a bit only to eventually leave and find the other “food-providers and fire-providers”. (11) The perseverance displayed by the man in Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire”, is a true testament of the human spirit. Even when all of his surroundings are obviously against him, he continues to push forward and try to survive. When all of his hope was gone, he continued to remain calm and somewhat clear headed. London’s experiences while living in the Klondike helped him capture the essence of the wilderness, and put it in grave detail to influence the outcome and fate of his characters lives. Works Cited London, Jack . "To Build a Fire." The Century Magazine Aug. 1908: n. pag. The world of Jack London. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Comparison Of Into The Wild And Jack London's To Build A Fire

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Mccandless And To Build A Fire

    1560 Words  | 4 Pages

    Christopher McCandless had always admired the works of Jack London. He even went as far as naming Jack London “king”. McCandless relished the naturalisitc elements of London’s writings, elements that he chose to ignore in his own life. Jack London often depicted men as being controlled by their environment and being unable to withstand any heavy circumstances. He depicted themes about the frailty of man and man’s inability to overcome nature. But McCandless clearly did not take away any of the valuable lessons from these stories. He hailed London as “king” but never truly learned from London’s stories, dying in a tragically ironic way when he came to meet the same fate as the protagonist in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”. Christopher McCandless

    Read More

  • Jack London’s Use of Repetition in “To Build a Fire”

    1230 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Jack London And To Build A Fire By John Cheever

    1592 Words  | 4 Pages

    As a chechaquo, or newcomer to the land, and this being his first winter, he should have listened to the advice of the old-timer at Sulphur Creek, who told him men should not travel without other men when the temperature is seventy-five below zero. When man is seemingly successful and boldly thinks, “Those old-timers were rather womanish, some of them” (London 553). This shows that the man is trying to challenge nature simply by defying the word of more experienced men. In such harsh climates, men truly adapt to nature out of the necesitity to survive.By defying the word of an experienced traveler, the man is attempting to challenge nature by changing the ways men have adapted to it. Next, the man ignores his only traveling companion, a dog. While the man regards the dog to be inferior in every way, he overlooks a crucial piece of evidence- the dog is naturally suited to the environment. The dog’s survival instinct is shown to be of value when the man misjudges the temperature to be fifty below zero, a cold but normal temperature to be outside, when in reality it is seventy-five below zero, a temperature where travelling should not occur. London expresses the misguided superiority by stating, “This man did not know cold. Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant

    Read More

  • Stephen Crane's The Open Boat and Jack London's To Build A Fire

    2312 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparing the Two Versions of To Build a Fire

    1093 Words  | 3 Pages

    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."

    Read More

  • The Importance of Setting in Jack London's To Build A Fire

    1451 Words  | 3 Pages

    Providing the separation between survival and death. setting was the most important factor in "Building a Fire" by Jack London. Works Cited and Consulted Hendricks, King. Jack London: Master Craftsman of the Short Story. Logan: Utah State U P. 1966.

    Read More

  • Conflicts of "To Build a Fire" by Jack London

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Masque Of The Red Death Romanticism Vs Realism

    462 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Jack London's To Build a Fire

    474 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • To Build A Fire

    583 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Jack London's, 'To Build a Fire';, it is obvious to see that as the story progresses, the man becomes more bestial. However at the same time the dog seems to gain the human quality of good sense. This quality of good sense, which the dog acquires, allows it to away from the same fate of the man. There are many examples of how this is portrayed as the story makes headway.

    Read More

  • Naturalism in Jack London's To Build a Fire

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • To Build A Fire Symbolism

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    “To Build A Fire” by Jack London depicts the adventure of a brave man on his futile journey across the Yukon wilderness at temperatures 75° below zero. The man is in a constant battle against nature struggling to brave the harsh cold weather and reach the camp, yet he repeatedly loses this unwinnable battle every time. The multiple attempts to start and maintain a strong fire symbolizes the hope of survival for the man in the frigid wilderness. However, each futile attempt to keep the fire burning alerted the man to the dangers of the serious position he was in.

    Read More

  • Jack London Fire

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    “There was no Promise of sun, although there was not a cloud in the sky.” Jack London’s short story starts out cold and bleak. The story is about a man traveling the Yukon with a wolf-dog. They are set to get to an old camp off Henderson Creek to meet up with the boys, who arrived there earlier, a little after dark. Unfortunately, due to the man’s ego or rather lack of common sense, he ends up freezing to death on the trail and never makes it to the camp. This story is full of foreshadowing, irony and is about Naturalism in the sense of man verses nature.

    Read More

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

    513 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Perseverance in the Klondike

Open Document