Anxiety, suspense, hesitation, and death; these all revolve around survival, which lets humans go over their limits and see what they’re really capable of. Survival is a mix of physical, mental, and emotional challenges. Though there are many stories that challenges man over his abilities, there are two stories that show survival that question our dominance as human beings. “To Build a Fire” by Jack London and “Sea Devil” by Arthur Gordon are both about characters that have caught themselves in a battle between man and nature. In “To Build a Fire” the man is facing freezing temperatures and in “Sea Devil” the man is being pulled and swept along by a Manta Ray. These stories illustrate that to survive you need to always be thinking of what to do and know that every small decision can have huge effects. Two types of survival used were mental and physical; characters in both these stories have to overcome mental and physical challenges.
In “To Build a Fire” it shows how not to survive and to lead to one’s demise. One example of this is that the man is very ignorant to his surroundings and how they can contribute to his survival or demise. The man doesn’t think of his physical injuries and their importance. To survive you need to go through pain by taking precautions to save one, but the man did not do this. It says in the text, “What were frosted cheeks? A bit painful, that was all; they were never serious.”(London 23). This quote shows how the man is not aware of the seriousness of his frosted cheeks. Ignorance of his frosted cheeks later contributes to his demise later in the story. This tells that to survive you have to be aware and alert of everything, so “To Build a Fire” shows lack of physical survival because the man is tr...
... middle of paper ...
...l survival.
Two types of survival that were demonstrated in these stories were physical and mental. Overall the man in “Sea Devil” survived because he used his mental strength to make a plan to escape the Manta Ray. Overall in “To Build a Fire” the man dies because he had made too many mistakes due to his arrogance and over confidence that led him to get many of his body parts frozen and die because of the temperature. Survival lets humans go over their usual abilities. Though this is true, sometimes people take the wrong path to survival and do not survive at all. We humans think nothing can stop us, but many things can; we just underestimate them. Human’s think they are the most high, but we aren’t and never entirely will be.
Works Cited
Gordon,Arthur. “Sea Devil”. Saturday Evening Post.May 1998
London, Jack. “To Build a Fire”. Century Magazine. August 1908
Our journey starts in the year 1853 with four Scandinavian indentured servants who are very much slaves at the cold and gloomy headquarters of the Russian-American fur-trading company in Sitka, Alaska. The story follows these characters on their tortuous journey to attempt to make it to the cost of Astoria, Oregon. Our list of characters consists of Melander, who is very much the brains of the operation as he plans the daring escape from the Russians. Next to join the team was Karlson, who was chosen by Melander because he is a skilled canoeman and knows how to survive in the unforgiving landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Third was Braaf, he was chosen because of his ability to steal and hide things, which made him a very valuable asset to the teams escape. Last to join our team is Wennberg who we know is a skilled blacksmith who happens to hear about their plan and forces himself into the equation.
Often in works of literature, a character struggles against powerful forces or obstacles, and these have a significant effect on the character. In the fictional novel Deathwatch by Robb White, the protagonist Ben is an example of a character who has to struggle against powerful forces or obstacles. Ben is a college student who wants to be a geologist. He was given an opportunity to earn some extra cash to help pay for college. The only thing he had to do was to guide a big game hunter named Madec in the desert to the location where Bighorn Sheep would be found. It sounded easy but he later ran into problems with Madec. He first had to fight through the hardships that was experienced for survival. Then he had to manage to undertake mother nature.
One conflict seen in Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is the conflict between man and nature, which Louie, Phil, and Mac faced while lost at sea. As the men spent countless days at sea their points of view about the situation “were becoming self- fulfilling” (Hillenbrand 155). The
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
The imagery of fire continues in the story; the building of their fires, how the man molds the fires, and how they stoke the fire. When the boy gets sick the father is referred to many times of how he builds and rekindles the fire. This actual fire is a symbol for the fire that the man and the boy discuss carrying within in them. The man fights to save his son and the fire within the boy
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.
.... Also, the captain fighting with his inner self wonders how in the world his ship could sink. Wondering why he did not go down with his ship to save another crew member. Meanwhile, the oiler fights with himself wondering why he is going through so much pain and suffering of rowing the boat when they are all going to die anyway. Man versus self is can sometimes be more of a killer than man versus nature because of the mental anguish a person can go through to find reasons why nature would do this to him. The men in “The Open Boat” has shown us that no one person or a group can out smart or out think nature. Nature has shown us that it does not play favorites. As a result, four men land on an island and only three live to tell about their war against nature. In conclusion, nature does things for a reason, we might not always be able to know why but there is a reason.
Being prideful can be very easy. It's natural to think that you are superior, and that you can do everything. However, this is not always correct, and sometimes pride can lead to negative effects. These instances are shown vividly through the short stories, “To Build a Fire,” and “The Scarlet Ibis.” In the end of these stories, the main character’s pride caused regret, or even death. In”To Build a Fire,” by Jack London and “The Scarlet Ibis,” by James Hurst, the authors both conveyed the common theme that pride can have negative consequences.
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.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, but the one most responsive to change.”(Darwin). In the novel The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, this statement could not be more appropriate. Not all survival is depicted by how robust you are, rather how durable your mentality is. Surviving will never be something that screams the word easy. Everyone at some point will have thoughts of giving up but it is the past experience that you hold onto that will keep you going. Some may choose to make risky decisions without thinking about the consequences. But all will have to act to make change in order to survive. So Margaret Atwood describes in her novel that survival is a natural instinct that all people have however not everyone in life
In conclusion, the key to survival in dire and drastic situations comes from deep within every human. Every individual will go through changes in order to adapt and survive the harsh conditions and challenges they are put through. In order to survive, one must be ready to give up their morals, one must find a way to keep their mind fresh and sane, and one must be ready to compromise and sacrifice. Most humans are generally very civilized under normal conditions, but when the need to survive becomes the top priority the wild animal inside everyone takes over. The author, William Golding, of Lord of the Flies once wrote, “Maybe there is a beast....maybe it's only us” (80).
Gonzales, Laurence. Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why: True Stories of Miraculous Endurance and Sudden Death. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2003. Print.
When Jack London wrote "To Build a Fire" he embraced the idea of naturalism because it mirrored the events of daily life. Naturalism showed how humans had to be wary at every corner because at anytime death could be there, waiting for them to make a mistake and forfeit their lives. He used naturalism, the most realistic literary movement, to show how violent and uncaring nature really is and how no matter what you do nature will always be there. London also presented the basic idea of Darwinism and the survival of the fittest, basically if you are dumb you will die. Collectively, London used naturalism to show how in life, humans can depend on nothing but themselves to survive. "To Build a Fire" is a short story that embodies the idea of naturalism and how, if one is not careful, nature will gain the upper hand and they will perish.
Jack London’s “To Build A Fire” could be described as the ultimate man versus nature story. The main character battling nature’s every attempt to kill him and striving forward to find his friends and the warmth they would bring. However; after reading through the story multiple times I believe that the underling element of this story is not man versus nature but merely man versus himself. Throughout the story we can see the events that led up to the man’s undoing were his lack of knowledge, his stubborn ways, and his foolish behavior.
I agree with Karen Rhodes observation that to build afirecan be interpreted as the story of a man in the journey of human existence. However, I think her view of to build a fire as an American experience comes from the fact that she is an American. I agree with her theory that the Man's death in the end was due to the nature of the man and his environment. The protagonist in to build a fire did nor have any grasp of the danger he was in. he tried to reason himself through it all. He thought, " Maybe, if he ran on, his feet will thaw out; and anyway if he ran far enough, he would reach camp and the boys. (Jack London, 157).