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To build a fire by jack london plot
Jack london to build a fire essay
To build a fire by jack london essay
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The story “To Build a Fire” by jack London is one of the most famous stories of survival in the wilderness. The story is about a man leaving a camp to walk to another camp at a temperature of 75 degrees below zero, with an Alaskan husky dog as a companion. The story takes place in the past and was written in 1908. The man in the story is purposely not given a reputation, as the deterministic environment is additional more necessary than his free will and individuality. His aim at the start of the story is to reach the camp to meet "the boys," presumptively to prospect for gold. The man's greatest deficiency, resulting in his death, is his inability to think about the long term consequences of present actions or fact. The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert within the things of life but only in the things and not in the significance. London describes how the extreme cold does not make the man meditate upon mortality. More pertinently, the man does not notice that building a fire under a spruce tree may be dangerous. The plot in this story is one of a man trying to conquer the last frontier. Through this plot he shows how one needs to keep in mind that, despite how much we predict that we can control something, we are still at nature's fate. Nature's scorn is shown when the central character, after passing through the foremost dangerous areas of "ice springs," thinks that he’s home free. Then he stepped one pace forward into a puddle of shallow water that goes up to his knees, and gets frostbite on his feet and loses his matches. When the man thinks that he is home free again and his fire is started and will soon be drying him, it’s put out by snow on the same tree that has given him the bra... ... middle of paper ... ...eaths of iron halfway to the knees and the moccasin strings were like rods of steel all twisted and knotted” and “a good idea, he thought, to sleep off the death it was like taking an aesthetic.” In conclusion the story is about a man’s struggle to make it in 75 below temp and making a fire is the only way for him to survive. London shows the theme of ruggedness by how the man seems to have no fear of a temperature of fifty below zero. The story teaches the readers that even though we may want to travel alone in the outdoors, we should always travel with some friends or stay within our limits. The man in the story is making a nine-hour trek across the frozen Yukon with only his dog in the biting cold, but after many calamities he freezes to death. He knew he was going to die if he didn’t get warm soon enough, but the cold got the best of him by freezing his arms.
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
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.
ideas. A reader of A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt, may not be accustomed
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.
Jack London has written a classic short story in the 1908 version of "To Build a Fire." This is the classic story of man fighting nature. In most genres (e.g. movies, novels, short stories) the main character comes out on top, however unlikely that is. Jack London takes literary naturalism and shows the reader how unmerciful nature is. Much like Stephen Crane in "The Open Boat," in which the one of the characters dies, London doesn't buy into that "has to have a good ending" contrivance. Through analysis of two London's letters (to R.W. Gilder and Cloudesly Johns) these two versions of "To Build a Fire" come alive with new meaning. Although there are many differences on the surface, both stories use his philosophy as expressed to Johns and both teach a moral lesson, one which will not soon be forgotten: "Never travel alone."
By day the Man and his son are walking south, to the sea, because of the harsh winters that they have to endure in order to make it. By night the two males are trying to find shelter and eat what they scavenged throughout their walks and Man will listen out for any danger that may come. Because it is winter and during that time there is snow and rain nights become extremely difficult as they are already short on some supplies. Making fires and keeping them lit is one of the hardest things the Man tries to maintain, but with heavy winds, rain and the snow, they risk the chance of hypothermia, especially with very little energy to keep up with them.
In the opening line of the novel, the narrator provides a vivid description of the his decaying 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.
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
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).
London explains the man’s arrogance over foreshadowing. The man does not listen to anyone, he just thinks he is the best and will survive of his own. London writes, “He was a newcomer in the land… this was his first winter. The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances” (London 1). Without imagination, it was harder for the man to come up with ways to survive in the really cold winter. The author is claiming that mankind does not care about nature. London is delivering that the man is narrow-minded. The author conveys that mankind does not think about the resources around him. The man never thought out the journey and starts trying to force nature to help him in a way that he is destroys it, so nature is backstabbing him. For example the dog did not give him warmth, the
Jack London creates a setting that is hostile and “cold”. The story is set in the wilderness of the frozen Yukon, during the harsh winter months, when “there was no sun nor hint of sun” in the sky. The character that London introduces is isolated from the world. “The man” doesn't have a companion; only the dog that follows him.
Have you ever thought of being lost in the coldest of weather and have nothing but your own pet. The setting in "To build a fire" has an impact on several parts of the story. Jack London, the author of this book, has made an outstanding book of a man and his pet. These characters have to survive mother nature as she puts them up at the challenge that could lead them to their demise. The setting in the story is very suspenseful and it has a lot of turns for the worst.
Jack London is a well-known author for his novels about how humans interact with nature; an example of a novel that he wrote is White Fang. London understood the importance of the respect of nature, and had the idea to express the importance of nature through stories. In many of Jack London’s stories, he displays the constant struggle between man and nature. In the short fiction, “To Build a Fire,” London demonstrates the human race’s inability to listen to nature when needed. The opening of “To Build a Fire” uses vivid imagery, giving you a strong idea of the cold and harsh weather.
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.