To Build A Fire

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Recommended: Symbolic significance of old man and the sea

Both of the novella “Old man and the sea” and “To build a fire“ talks about surviving experience in extreme environment. The novellas show how the critical environment will cause people to misjudge the decisions they need to make. The decisions people made in the those environment are extremely important that relates to if the survivors are able to walk out from the extreme environment they are staying. In “To build a fire” the misleading of the entire incident starts from the beginning of the trip. He did not evaluate the weather condition and did not bring enough supplies, and he wants to meet his friend as soon as possible. This problem also happens on Santiago the old man. He did not catch any fish for 87 days. This desire of catch a fish …show more content…

“Now the tree under which he had [built his fire] carried a weight of snow on its boughs. High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow, and the fire was blotted out! Where it had burned was a mantle of fresh and disordered snow.”(Page23). This quote shows how the man was frustrated when the fire has put out by the snow on the top of the tree that he did not notice. The frustration causes by the failure. Jack London had done a terrific job on draw connections between the fire and the man, before this part. For the man, fire keeps him warm and it is his energy support. The circumstance of “To build a fire” is out of the man’s control. He could not control his body and started to have hallucination cause by the hypothermia problem. He could not control his hands, makes him not able to light up the matches, and lead towards death in the end of the …show more content…

Marlin fish shows his strength on escape from the rope and death. When he tries to pull up the fish, the fish fights back and pulls his boat around the ocean. The old man old shows his strength, he battles with the fish for three days and three nights. Ernest Hemingway describes the issue about hand cramp and injury cause by the rope, The cuts on his hands represents the mark in the process the achieve victory. In Old man and the sea Old man Santiago battles on the ocean. He is very familiar with ocean, his life is support by the ocean. Fishing industry is the main industry in the village he lives in, although he did not capture any fish for more than 80 days, this trip is still consider as a daily routine in his fisherman career. The difficulties environment brought to the old man triggers him to lose patient and start his trip without assistant, he believes that the young boy will be affected by his superstitious thought, which he believes he contains bad luck on

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    The quote, “Nothing happened. The fish just moved away slowly and the old man could not raise him an inch. His line was strong and made for heavy fish and he held it against his back until it was so taut that beads of water were jumping from it. Then it began to make a slow hissing sound in the water and he still held it, bracing himself against the thwart and leaning back against the pull. The boat began to move slowly off toward the north-west.”(44) creates in depth meaning into how the old man is strong because the fish possesses a determination equal in magnitude to Santiago’s. Santiago has a large amount of endurance, and is using it in the midst of following the fish. Another example of Santiago’s endurance throughout the novel is his strength with the physical pain he feels. For example, the old man has a lot of back pain while following the fish, and catching it, especially. “...”( ).........The old man also experiences physical pain when his hand is cramping and when it gets cut. The author states, “The old man would have liked to keep his hand in the salt water longer but he was afraid of another sudden lurch by the fish and he stood up and braced himself and

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    To Build a Fire is a remarkable account of one man’s finish line. In it this story holds quite a few rather important morals. There is as well a very important theme. The theme most referred to is that of the power of nature. The force that it can display on earth is immense and cannot be duplicated or overpowered by humans. However one man decided he would be the one prove this axiom wrong. One man became totally confident that he can and will withstand the awesome mighty strength of nature.

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    Never to travel alone,and not to travel when it is 75 below zero are two of the things he had said to john. John had also not packed enfo food ,and later in the story he has a small fire ,but is not aware of his surrounding. When you move somewhere new and a person who lives there gives you advice on how to live do you take it or not? Therefore his first two mental mistakes is when he had just moved to alaska when he is talking to a local man and he had told john some great advices. Which was to never travel alone and when it is 75 below to not go outside.

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    The narrator’s goal is to overcome the weather and reach a mining camp where he may be able to become wealthy; the only problem is that he must do so alone. “London originally conceived his tale [To Build a Fire] as a moral fable and a cautionary narrative to American youth never to travel alone” (Hillier 1). Naturalism prevails in an obvious aspect of the story; the primary conflict centralizes around a man’s struggle with nature, and, like in most literary modernism, nature proves to be too significant of a power. At the end of the story, the man falters and is unable to remain warm in the frigid wind. The story is also laced with Darwin’s theory of evolution and determinism, therefore survival of the fittest is an important theme in this story.

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  • The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway

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    The Old Man and the Sea focuses its plot mainly on Santiago’s struggle against the marlin. Existentialism makes its appearance when Santiago chooses to pursue the marlin, stay with it the entire way, and fight tooth and nail at the end. “My choice was to go there to find him beyond all people,” is how Santiago explains his actions to challenge the fish (Hemingway 50). He mentions how he was born to be a fisherman, and by chasing the marlin, he will give his life the meaning for existence. Santiago also insists on staying with the fish until one of them is dead, which exemplifies his will to fulfill his goals in life. He endures obstacles such as nausea, cramps, and sleep deprivation because he does not want to give up and surrender his fate. When it comes down to the final struggle, Santiago pits all of the pain, strength, and pride he has left against the fish in order to bring it down. Despair begins to creep in when Santiago finds it hard to pull in the marlin, but he overcomes it with every ounce of will he has. He knows that it is up to him to create this important moment in his li...

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    His persistence and confidence was clearly demonstrated at the beginning of the novella. At the beginning of the novella, Santiago seems to run out of luck: he has been unable to catch a fish for eighty four days. As a professional fisherman, eight four days without catching a single fish would be shameful, especially for an old man. However, he never once ga...

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