The quality of limitless exploration is inherent in human nature. It can even be perceived as a form of challenging nature. In “To Build a Fire” by Jack London and “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, the authors explore the tendency of mankind to explore, thus challenging nature. However, the characters being human, are flawed and hinder themselves from accomplishing their goals. In “To Build a Fire” the protagonist attempts to trek the Alaskan wilderness by himself, but his arrogance paired with ignorance prevents him from being successful. In “The Swimmer”, the main character, Neddy Merrill, challenges nature by attempting to retain his childish youth despite his growing age. His childish mentality, alcoholism, and overconfidence prevent him …show more content…
from swimming home in a series of swimming pools. In all, the two authors thread together a common theme- man attempts to challenge nature, but ultimately prevents himself from being successful. Foremost, in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the unnamed protagonist challenges nature by attempting to travel through the Alaskan wilderness to the next camp in dangerously low temperatures.
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 …show more content…
of cold, of real cold, of cold one hundred and seven degrees below freezing point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge” (552). While the man is trying to defy nature he ignores what could possibly be his greatest advantage- a lethal weapon guaranteed to work by centuries of evolution- his dog. By ignoring his dog the man is trying to challenge nature in not only one, but two ways. Not only does he attempt to take on the wilderness in bitter temperatures, he is trying to ignore the survival instinct of his dog. In summation, the man attempts to defy nature by ignoring the survival instincts of his dog, ignoring the word of more experienced men, and by thinking he has outwitted nature itself. Equally as important as defying nature is the fact that the man prevents himself from being successful in his defiance.
When the man is cautioned by knowledgeable men about taking note of traveling alone in severely cold temperatures, the man blatantly ignores them. He thinks to himself, “Any man who was a man could travel alone” (553). This shows not only his ignorance to the harsh realities of an extreme climate but him as a highly critical character because he assumes the old-timer is not a “real man” since he suggested not to travel alone. Not only that, but the man carries his ignorance over the course of his journey. After swiftly creating a fire in a desperate situation, he thinks boldly “...the cold of space was outwitted” (551). He believes he has successfully overcome nature’s harshness by building one fire on his lengthy journey to the next camp. His bold thinking reveals the man’s arrogant character, which prevents him from being prosperous in the harsh climate. It lulls the man into a false sense of security where he believes he is unstoppable. However, like any man, he is not as strong as he believes himself to be. As the environment does its work, the bitter cold becomes even more dangerous, and the man is faced with a choice- he can keep fighting or give in to the sleepiness of death. At this point “...he sat up and entertained in his mind the conception of meeting death with dignity...Well, he was bound to freeze anyway, and he might as well take it
decently.” (558). The man’s obvious pride inhibits him from taking the necessary steps to ensure his survival. His immense pride urges the man not to keep running, a sore attempt at warming his body in the freezing temperatures. His pride convinced him that lying down and waiting for death was better than dying while fighting to survive- surely what any “real man” would have done. All things considered, the man may have had been prosperous had he not been unintentionally preventing himself from being so by blatantly ignoring the word of more experienced men, being arrogant in nature, and allowing his pride to obstruct his survival. Similarly, Neddy Merrill, the middle aged protagonist in John Cheever’s “The Swimmer”, attempts to defy nature. Neddy’s first attempt at defying nature is in his retention of his youth, physically. Cheever describes Neddy as, “he seemed to have the special slenderness of youth - and while he was far from young he had slid down the banister this morning” (Cheever 123). This shows that Neddy is trying to physically retain his youth, and work against the clock that ages his body, and his body is able to adapt to youthful activities such as sliding down the banister. This line of boyish thinking also brings Neddy to his next attempt at challenging nature. As Neddy travels home, “...he seemed to see, with a cartographer's eye, that the strings of swimming pools, that the quasi-subterranean stream that curved across the county” (124). Essentially, Neddy pictures the series of swimming pools as a undiscovered river and himself as an explorer to claim it. He challenges nature in this way by attempting to conquer what, in his mind, is untouched land. Finally, Neddy is able to challenge nature by his lifestyle. Cheever reveals Neddy to be an athletic man who makes an effort to preserve his body of his youth. However, Neddy has a continual drinking problem and does not stop drinking. He is challenging nature by expecting preserve his body in pristine condition while abusing alcohol in his daily life. In all, Neddy Merrill attempts to defy nature. Like every character, Neddy Merrill is flawed, and it is those flaws that prevent him from accomplishing his goals. One of Neddy’s primary goals is to retain his physical prowess from his younger days. However, in doing so he also retains a childish mental process. For example, Neddy believes “he was a pilgrim, and explorer, a man with a destiny, and he knew that he would find friends all along the way; friends would line the banks of the Lucinda River” (130). Not only does Neddy allude himself into believing the series of swimming pools constitute a river, which he names Lucinda River after his wife, he allows himself to believe friendly people would be easy to find along this river. This is an innocent and therefore childish point of view. Next, Neddy has a long term uncontrollable case of alcoholism, which is painfully obvious on numerous cases. One such instance is when he is reflecting on his surprise to information he should have known. Neddy thinks, “was he losing his memory, had his gift for concealing painful facts let him forget he had sold his house, that his children were in trouble, and that his friend had been ill?” (128-129). This prevents him from his childish view of meeting friends along the ‘Lucinda River’ since he is treated poorly and coldly by his neighbors as each piece of new information is revealed to him. Lastly, Neddy inhibits himself from accomplishment by assuming unconditional respect and a permanent social status. When he enters the home of the Biswanger’s, Grace Biswanger treats him coldly and calls him a gate crasher. Neddy assumes “..she could not deal him a social blow- there was no question about this” (129). He does not question his status nor does he entertain the possibility of a change in his status. This prevents him as he attempts to ‘conquer’ the series of pools because as he realizes the changes in his life, he ages and becomes more lethargic. In all, Neddy’s innocence, his long term alcoholism, and his over confidence prevent him from conquering nature. In all, Jack London and John Cheever present a common theme in their short stories “To Build a Fire” and “The Swimmer”- that man attempts to overcome the challenges nature prevents, only to cripple themselves in their endeavors. While the protagonist in “To Build a Fire” tires to physically scale the wilderness in his challenge of nature, the protagonist in “The Swimmer” tries to defy nature by retaining his youthfulness. Thus, the characters’ defiance of the limitations of nature can be attributed to the human tendency to push the limits, which results in innovation for the generations to come.
He is very unprepared because he doesn’t have enough equipment to finish his trip because it’s too cold. The traveler does not have proper clothing to keep him warm in the cold weather. ”The frozen moisture of its breathing had settled on its fur in a fine powder of frost, and especially were its jowls, muzzle, and eyelashes whitened
Before going on his trek alone into the Yukon wilderness, an “old-timer” had given the protagonist in “To Build a Fire” advice. He told the protagonist not to travel alone in the frigid Yukon territory because it can get dangerously cold.. The protagonist chooses not to follow this advice and comes to regret it as he freezes to death. Towards the beginning, the protagonist even looks down upon the old-timer, believing the old-timer to not be as manly as him. The protagonist initially thinks, “Those old-timers were rather womanist, he thought […] Any man who was a man could travel alone” (21). Not only does the protagonist ignore the advice of the old-timer, but he even thinks of the old-timer as being inferior and weak. The protagonist completely overlooks the fact that the old-timer is a veteran to the unforgiving land and he is merely a newcomer with little knowledge of the land. The protagonist soon realizes that the old-timer was right. The narrator acknowledges the wisdom in the advice of the old-timer once the cold has set in on the protagonist: “That man [the old-timer] from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth […] and he [the protagonist] had laughed at him at the time!” (15) The protagonist had once laughed at the old-timer, thinking the old-timer was just weak, but he now sees the wisdom in the old-timer’s advice. The protagonist comes to realize that the old-timer was right but by this point it is far too late. Christopher McCandless also ignored the advice of others throughout his adventure, the most distinguished advice given to him from an “old-timer” of Alaska directly preceding McCandless’s final journey into the Alaskan wilderness. Jim Gallien picked up McCandless outside of Fairbanks, Alaska and immediately noticed McCandless’s unpreparedness. After McCandless told Gallien of his plans to survive in
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.
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.
The short story "To Build a Fire," written by Jack London, is a tragic tale of an overconfident, inexperienced man traveling through the brutal, sub-freezing conditions of the Yukon with only the companionship of a dog. The man, un-named in this story, arrogantly decides to break from the main trail to take a less traveled route against the advice of the seasoned old-timer of Sulfur Creek, who warns of traveling alone in such severe conditions. The man is described as being without imagination and not aware of the significance of the things around him, how frail his life is. As his journey prolongs, his confidence builds as he continually cheats nature, but the temperature extends lower and lower below freezing. He inevitably is caught by the fierce cold when he breaks through some ice and is wetted, in dire need of warmth and to dry his moccasins, the man must build a fire. Successful in his attempt, the man’s ego grows but the unforgiving antagonist of the story steps in and snuffs out the flames, as melted snow falls from the branches above. The man’s overconfidence starts to dwindle as his hands become unresponsive due to the extreme cold, and the cruel reality of death sets in as he fails to ignite another flame. As his limbs become rigid, he wrestles with the idea of killing the dog to thaw his unmoving hands, but once within his grasp, his frigid hands prevent him from drawing his knife. In a last ditch effort to not freeze to death the man begins to run in a panic, fighting the cold for his life. Then it happens, the realization, in an epiphanic moment the man comes to grip with the fact that his end is near and rather than flailing about like a fool, he decides he wo...
In Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer explores the human fascination with the purpose of life and nature. Krakauer documents the life and death of Chris McCandless, a young man that embarked on an Odyssey in the Alaskan wilderness. Like many people, McCandless believed that he could give his life meaning by pursuing a relationship with nature. He also believed that rejecting human relationships, abandoning his materialistic ways, and purchasing a book about wildlife would strengthen his relationship with nature. However, after spending several months enduring the extreme conditions of the Alaskan wilderness, McCandless’ beliefs begin to work against him. He then accepts that he needs humans, cannot escape materialism, and can never fully understand how nature functions. Most importantly, he realizes that human relationships are more valuable than infinite solitude. McCandless’ gradual change of heart demonstrates that exploring the wilderness is a transformative experience. Krakauer uses the life and death of Chris McCandless to convey that humans need to explore nature in order to discover the meaning of life.
The Importance of Setting in Jack London's To Build A Fire In "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, the setting plays a. significant role throughout the entire short story. Jack London uses techniques to establish the atmosphere of the story. By introducing his readers to the setting, prepares them for a tone that is. depressed and frightening. Isolated by an environment of frigid weather and doom, the author shows us how the main character of the story completely unaware of his surroundings.
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.
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. Had he understood the importance of fostering a relationship with the dog, a native Husky with inbred instincts regarding the native climate, the dog would have interacted differently with him, maybe warning him of the danger of the weather through its actions or perhaps providing help, either by sharing its body heat or by going for help. However, instead he held little regard for the dog and the dog reciprocated: "there was no keen intimacy between the dog and the man.
He knew that it was 75 degrees below zero and that his body was numb but he didn't care because he thought he could handle it. Even when he was about to die he thought, "freezing to death is not as bad as people thought it was"(1772) and "when he got back to the states he could tell the folks what real cold was. "(1772) Obviously the man did not take the situation seriously. Instead of dying with dignity he thought about himself "running around like a chicken with its head cut off."
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 “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the setting plays a significant role throughout the entire story. The chosen setting by London creates a specific and idealistic mood for his depressing story. It forces, as well as prepares, it’s audience to what the story holds. The amount of constant detail the story holds allows the reader to anticipate the ending that is inevitable to happen.
In Jack London's "To Build a Fire" we see a classic story of man against nature. In this story, however, nature wins. One reason that this is such a compelling and engrossing story is the vivid descriptions of the environment the nameless main character endures. Plot and characterization are brief, and the theme is simple. Yet this story is still a very popular story, and it has a mysterious quality that makes it great.
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.
Jack London 's "To Build a Fire" is a tragic story of a man who embarks on a journey through the frigid cold on the Yukon Trail during a brutal winter and is faced with battling the power of nature. We are shown a man who begins his journey, accompanied by a wolf-dog that follows, with all the confidence in the world, only to quickly end, not just his travels, but also his life. London uses many elements of naturalistic literature to tell his story. The theme of man versus nature, as well as survival, is our first evidence of this. He also concentrates on narrative as opposed to character to make his point that we are nothing in the eyes of nature. Determinism is another theme used that is extremely important. Naturalism, in all, is a type of extreme realism that is built on the idea that environment determines and governs human character. "To Build a Fire" is a classic example of naturalistic literature and shows that, if humans are not careful, nature will defeat them.