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To build a fire essay
To a build fire essay
Setting is the main character in building a fire
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Setting In to Build a Fire Two comrades go on an adventure into a extremely cold environment. Will they survive? The short story is “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. The book is about a man and a dog that attempts to cross the Yukon Territory with little equipment. In “To Build a Fire” the setting supports the character, plot, and theme. One of the first ways setting has an impact on “To Build a Fire” involves the characters. In the story the man underestimated the amount of supplies he needed for the trip, and he ended up regretted his decisions. The man has the biggest impact of the setting. He didn't expect it to be that cold and get colder (5). This show how the temperatures were rapidly increasing. During the story his limbs were starting to get lose circulation(4).The setting was killing him over time. The setting forced him to attempt killing the dog to survive. The dog is the one who helped him not step in ice water.As a result the dogs got its paws stuck in the ice water(2). The old man in the story added on to how serious the cold was by saying you will not survive alone.What the old man told him is all the man knew(4). The point …show more content…
In “To Build a Fire” a bold man ignores a warning from an old man and goes into an extremely cold area. He has to face a bunch of challenges. He has to deal with the cold the whole story. The cold atmosphere numbs his fingers and toes,which prevents him from using them properly(4). Then he used the dog to check if there was ice water. There was ice water so he had to lick the ice off of the dogs toes so he would not die(4). He had to build 2 fires,but on the second fire snow fell on it and put the fire out(6). This caused him to lose the ability to bend his fingers,because he needed the fire to thaw his hands out. As a result this made him run in panic hoping to find a camp that would save him. Eventually he gave up and remembered the old mans words. Then he laid there in the
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
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.
Altho somewhat similar the two stories are very different in many ways. The first story is called “Mystery of Heroism” by Stephen Crane and the other one is “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. Both of the books are part of the short story genre and realism stories. The author's purpose for writing the “Mystery of Heroism” is to tell a story about a brave man who went to get water for a dying man. The purpose for writing “To Build a Fire” is to tell about a man and his dog and how he tried to fight the below freezing temperatures to stay alive. Both authors use realism because they want to tell real stories about people and how they had to overcome struggles in their lifetime. These two stories have similarities but they are way more different than anything else. One of the stories is about a man who has to overcome fear to get water for a man.
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...
According to GVSU, “‘reversal’…: occurs when a situation seems to developing in one direction, then suddenly ‘reverses’ to another”. This reversal is evident when the man is making his way over patches of ice for a while, then all of a sudden transitions (reverses) when he falls through the ice and gets his feet wet (London). According to GVSU, “‘recognition’…: a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate”. This recognition is evident when the man recognizes how fast his hands and feet are freezing in the cold, and when he realizes that he should have brought a trail-mate once the snow puts out the fire he made to dry his feet (London). According to GVSU, “‘suffering’…: Also translated as ‘a calamity,’ the third element of plot is ‘a destructive or painful act’”. This suffering is evident when the man begins to freeze to death, and eventually hallucinates that he sees himself with his friends, walking towards his dying body, and after this he slowly freezes to death (London). This shows that the plot of To Build a Fire is similar to that of a complex plot of a Greek Tragedy, which again shows that To Build a Fire can be seen as a Greek Tragedy.
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.
In response to the romantic period (1798-1870), authors began to focus their writing on ordinary people and their everyday lives rather than the supernatural, nationalism, heroism, and strange and faraway places, themes characteristic of romantic literature. In the story “To Build a Fire” shows what a realism story looks like. Everything about it is based on real events that can happen, is realistic. Whatever happens to the man, you can relate to because you know how cold it can get and maybe you also can relate how hard it is to build a fire. A lot of people, like the man in the story, sometimes arent as bright in the head and can be the cause of their own problem. In the story there is a part where the man fails to kill the dog because his hands are frozen, shows how a lot of times you cant accomplish something, you fail. Instead of a happy ending and expecting for the man to find his way back to camp, he does not, he dies, adds that very realistic event that would of happened to many other people and the story has a bad ending
What would you do if the only thing separating you from death was starting a fire? Most people would obviously start a fire because they do not want to die. This is exactly the same situation that a man falls into in To Build A Fire. In this story a man is setting across the Yukon in order to get to a camp where his friends are at. This is a trip that he has made many times and he can even predict what time he will arrive in that camp. He is traveling with a dog as his companion. As he goes along the trail that he has picked out he notes many things about his surroundings and the temperature is a constant figure in his mind because if it drops too rapidly that would mean death for him. When he stops to eat food he builds a fire and takes a rest for awhile. After sitting her for awhile the snow that was on the tree above him falls on top of him because it had begun to melt from the snow. When the snow falls it gets him all wet and in the process puts out his fire. Aggravated, he gets up and begins to build another fire because he knows that he will have to dry out before he can leave. This is where the story goes bad because he is unable to start another fire and he ends up dying slowly while his dogs runs to the camp. Throughout this story there are many things that begin to make the reader’s mind start to pick out certain messages. I think that biggest part of this is paying attention to the setting in this story, because this story has a lot to do with nature. The second most important in characters because both of the characters in this story tell a lot when readers begin to analyze the characters traits and actions which also ties into plot. In my opinion the main messages from To Build A Fire by Jack London are nature trumps...
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).
Also, the setting in this story does not have many details at all. I think the main message in To Build a Fire written by Jack London is perseverance in the characters, for the man to keep going in the freezing weather, the dog to not curl up and die and the man he tried so hard to make it to the camp and at least tried to get there. In To Build a Fire by Jack London, the main character in the story showed a lot of perseverance to not give up in the cold weather and even how freezing he was. There were a lot of times during the story he could have given up and stopped trying to get where he was going, but he didn’t. Like when his fingers were so cold that he couldn’t light a match, so he lit the whole book instead, that wasn’t the brightest idea, but at least he was trying.
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 the short story “To Build a Fire” written by Jack London, the story utilizes literary devices in order to establish the tone of the story. From the very beginning, the narrator who is a non-participant in the story slips several devices such as the setting and atmosphere, writing style, as well as figurative language. These various devices were used in order to help the reader understand the mood which in turn would also help the reader understand the tone of the story. The story of a lone man walking in such harsh conditions who is attempting to survive, will enhance the mood and tone of the story to allow the reader to fully understand what happened.
This is the man's first winter in the Yukon, and he is "green" to the land. Twelve inches of snow had fallen since the last tracks were made on the trail. Despite the warnings of the native of Sulfur Creek "that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below" (982), he travels only with his husky. He writes his own death sentence when he proudly refuses to take a friend. As he begins his attempt and is blind to the fact that no human could survive such a challenge "He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances" (977). He thought those old-
Somewhere past the midpoint of his trek the man breaks through the ice and his legs and feet become wet. Knowing he must dry his socks and boots or he will freeze to death he builds a fire. While attempting to light the fire he begins to realize just how cold it must be yet he attempts to rationalize the situation and stay focused.
The narrator describes the Yukon as “bleak,” “cold,” “gray” and as an “indescribable darkness” (London 64). The lack of sun is highlighted numerous times, and it is noted that “it had been days since he had seen the sun” (London 64). The narrator also expresses the barren and frigid temperatures that exist as the man sets off on his journey “the Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice” “as far as his eye could see, it was unbroken white” (London 65). The man’s spit freezes before it hits the ground (London 65) and the narrator states that it is “Fifty degrees below zero” (London 65). The man dismisses this life-threatening reality and considers it as “cold and uncomfortable, at that was all” (London 65). In the face of the overwhelming deadliness of the Yukon, the man “was not able to imagine” (London 65) that the effects of the winter could end his life. The man’s poor decisions stem from his underestimation of nature. He dismisses the frigid temperatures because to him they are nothing more than a numerical indicator of temperature and not a reality of the brutal environment that he is traveling through. The man further underestimates the risk that exists when he leaves the trail knowing that there are hidden dangers under the snow. He knew that Henderson Creek was just below the ice and snow but decided to