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What is one theme of to build a fire by jack london
To build a fire by jack london theme essay
To build a fire by jack london theme essay
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Significance of “Dying” and “Death” in "To Build a Fire"
The significance of the words "dying and death" in Jack London's 1910
novel, "To Build a Fire" continuously expresses the man's dwindling warmth
and bad luck in his journey along the Yukon trail to meet "the boys" at
camp. London associates dying with the man's diminishing ability to stay
warm in the frigid Alaskan climate. The main characters predicament slowly
worsens one level at a time finally resulting in death.
The narrator informs the reader "the man" lacks personal experience
travelling in the Yukon terrain. The old-timer warned the man about the
harsh realities of the Klondike. The confident main character thinks of
the old-timer at Sulphur Creek as "womanish." Along the trail, "the man"
falls into a hidden spring and attempts to build a fire to dry his socks
and warm himself. With his wet feet quickly growing numb, he realizes he
has only one chance to successfully build a fire or face the harsh
realities of the Yukon at one-hundred nine degrees below freezing. Falling
snow from a tree blots out the fire and the character realizes "he had just
heard his own sentence of death." Jack London introduces death to the
reader in this scene. The man realizes "a second fire must be built
without fail." The man's mind begins to run wild with thoughts of
insecurity and death when the second fire fails. He recollects the story
of a man who kills a steer to stay warm and envisions himself killing his
dog and crawling into the carcass to warm up so he can build a fire to save
himself.
London writes, "a certain fear of death, dull and oppressive, came to him."
As the man slowly freezes, he realizes he is in serious trouble and can no
longer make excuses for himself. Acknowledging he "would never get to the
camp and would soon be stiff and dead," he tries to clear this morbid
thought from his mind by running down the trail in a last ditch effort to
pump blood through his extremities.
The climax of the story describes "the man" picturing "his body completely
frozen on the trail." He falls into the snow thinking, "he is bound to
freeze anyway and freezing was not as bad as people thought. There were a
lot worse ways to die." The man drowsed off into "the most comfortable and
cold darkness. He then goes out in the cold and splits fire wood with which
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.
A person's next move can affect them and someone in their life without them even realizing it. So why would they want to make the decision that could result in a sudden death in their family ? It is only right they be held accountable for the steps that lead up to or occurred after, they got entrapped in a life or death situation unless, it happens to be an accident.
Literature focuses on many aspects to form a coherent and captivating story, mainly those aspects retaining to characters and conflict. Within any story, a conflict arises for a character to overcome which drives the whole story. Conflict, the struggle against many forces of multiple varieties, creates the obstacle or issue a character must face to advance past the problem. In "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, conflict plays a major role in the story. The conflicts of man fighting against nature and man against himself present the struggles the unidentified man from "To Build a Fire" faces and attempts to overcome. These conflicts of man and nature influence the whole story and the fate of the character.
C.S. Lewis was one of the greatest know fictional writers; he created a wonderful series of books called The Chronicles of Narnia. His real name was Clive Staples Lewis but also his friends called him “Jack”. He was born on November 29, 1898 in Belfast, Ireland. C.S. Lewis was married to Joy Davidman, his father was Albert James Lewis and his mother was Florence Augusta Lewis. He is best known for his fictional work and for his non-fictional Christian apologetics. When Lewis was a little boy him and his brother created the world of Boxen, also he had a fascination with anthropomorphic animals falling in love with Beatrix Potter’s and often writing and illustrating his own animal stories. When C.S. Lewis was a teenager most of his writings moved away from the tales of Boxen, and he began using different art forms to try to capture his new-found interest in Norse mythology and the natural world. In 1916 he was awarded a scholarship at University of Oxford.
For centuries, the value of horses was known to farming and working communities, but it was not until very recently in history that people began to see the value of a horse for the disabled and mentally handicapped. Hippotherapy, as defined by Barbara Smith, is “the use of the horse as a medical treatment strategy and not as a method to teach riding.” Dozens of studies show the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of this specialized therapy for certain disorders. The horse provides a stepping stone to well-being for people with debilitating illnesses that otherwise could not achieve optimal wellness through conventional therapies.
The short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a comprehensive story that tackles the struggles of a newcomer trying to survive a day in the Yukon with very harsh and cold weather. The man travels with a big native husky and tries many times to build a fire but fails due to his inadequate personality. The man repeatedly lets his ignorance and arrogance dictate his decisions which soon leads to his demise. The theme of the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London is that being ignorant, arrogant and foolish can lead to bad decisions.
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).
In the story "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, foreshadowing is often used. In this story foreshadowing is an effective way to build up a climax. The foreshadowing is both shown by the environment and things the characters say.
Throughout history, women have had to fight for equality with men in the world. Today sexism continues to be a problem and women are still not completely treated the same way men are. Sexism is defined as discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex (“Sexism-Dictionary.com”). Recently, the music industry shows sexism towards female artists. This not only allows male artists to have a more likely chance of being respected, but also affects the views audiences have on female artists. Sexism is shown in the music industry towards female artists.
The Denver International Airport opened on February 28th, 1995. It wasn’t available for use nearly 16 months behind schedule costing 4.8 billion dollars, two billion over the spending budget. It is 35,000 acres which makes it the second largest airport on the planet and is about double the size of the next largest airport. The reasoning for opening a new airport for Denver was mysterious because Denver already had a functioning airport. This airport is also a whole 6 miles outside of Denver; basically, in the middle of nowhere. The entire roof of DIA is made of 15 acres of Teflon-coated, woven fiber glass. This material makes it impossible to find the place using radar.
Theory and research are linked in quantitative and qualitative data in the sense that theory is the prime mover with respect to research, making sense out of various isolated empirical generalizations. When research is done, many authors begin to write literature reviews in order to support the topics of discussion. Literature reviews can inspire new ideas, and help lay the foundation for studies (Polit & Beck, 2010, p. 170). Researchers begin to gather their data through qualitative, quantitative, and evidence-based research in order to support their general findings. When writing a literature review, researchers provide readers with a background for understanding current knowledge on a topic (Polit & Beck, 2010, p. 170). The primary focus included in this literature research is: Should vaccines be required for children? In order to elaborate on this current issue, a secondary question that can be asked is: How does a parents view on vaccines affect whether or not a child will be vaccinated due to the belief that it may cause autism? Identifying questions within the topic is the primary action of writing a literature review (Polit & Beck, 2010, p.172).
Cheerleading is a sport that involves short routines that combine dance, gymnastics, and stunting. “Cheerleading’s roots are closely tied to American football’s” (Varsity). The sport started out as a way to boost school spirit, which helped improve team performance. Over time cheerleading has become an All-Star sport of its own (EpicSports).
3.Rosiak, L. (2012, December 25). Fathers disappear from households across America - Washington Times. Washington Times - Politics, Breaking News, US and World News. Retrieved October 5, 2013, from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/25/fathers-disappear-from-households-across-america/?page=all