To Build A Fire And Jack London's Literary Comparison

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The world today needs more pieces of literature that teaches a person about the dangers around them. Clearly, then real topics are better than unbelievable stories because real life has so many lessons to teach. The fact remains; Jack London writes stories about the Alaskan Klondike and the harsh environment where as James Thurber writes more about fantasy. Therefore to emphasize this point, one can use James Thurber’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and Jack London’s “To Build A Fire” to make this point. London’s story is more realistic and can be used as a valuable lesson that man should always know his limits, whereas Turber’s story can be used to entertain but has little to no practical application other than that.
London’s uses the real hardships of the Alaskan wilderness to bring “To Build a Fire” to life. The story is a linear piece of literature that has little to no actual conversation, and demonstrates London’s descriptive talents as he describes the cold and unforgiving land. Thus, the reader of the story can quickly determine with all the foreshadowing that London’s story will not be a happy one. The man in this story can be described as arrogant of the dangers around him, and is unaware of his own frailty (London 596-605). …show more content…

Also, the story jumps around from daydream to real life and can be quite complicated to keep up with which reality Walter Mitty is actually in. Thurber creates a fantasy world for Mitty and allows him to experience life in an alternate setting. Moreover, each time Mitty enters one of his daydreams; he is a hero, a leader, a man of great skill, or a man of iron principles (Thurber 167-170). While the story is entertaining to read, it lacks any real character development. Mitty as a man is still a mystery to the

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