To Build a Fire Essay In the short story To Build a Fire by Jack London, London uses the minor character, the dog, to display the common sense and wisdom that the man in the story lacks. The actions by both the nameless man and the dog prove that, during the battle of man versus nature, survival instincts should be heard and followed. Acting unreasonably in such conditions along thecold Yukon trail, where the story takes place, is nothing else but a death sentence. To overcome nature in this situation, the man would have had to listen to his instincts and act rationally, which, unfortunately, did not happen. Both characters, the man and the dog, should have listened to their survival instincts in order to survive the dangerous snow–covered trail. Through the struggle of man against nature, endured by the nameless man and dog in the short story To Build a Fire by Jack London, the man followed what he believed to be the best, and the dog followed along even though its survival instincts said otherwise. First, the man followed what he believed to be the best choice in the given situation. The man seemed to not be phased by the extremely cold temperature and did not seem to think twice when embarking on his journey without a partner. It was clearly foolish of him, but he did what he thought was the correct thing to do. The man even clearly recalls being told that "no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below" by the old–timer at Sulphur Creek (London 604). The
To Build a Fire The short story "To build a Fire" by Jack London, tells about the relationship between man and nature. The story takes place in the Yukon during one of the long night. The main character who is unnamed travels with a dog along a small trail to a mining camp. The man leaves against the advice of a local and after a short time realizes that he should have waited. The temperature is extremely cold because the mans spit freezes before it hits the ground. The main obstacle of his journey is the many covered springs that mean death to whoever falls into them. The man sends his dog in front of him to make sure that the trail is safe. Eventually the dog falls into one of the springs and gets his paws wet. Immediate, acting...show more content...
At first he though that it was only a small problem and the cold might cost him a couple of fingers, but towards the end he realized that it was his life that he was fighting for. When the fire failed the second time he became desperate. "He remembered the tale of the man, caught in a blizzard, who killed a steer and crawled inside his carcass, and so was saved." This "put a wild idea into his head," "He would kill the dog and bury in the warm body until the numbness went out of them." When the man failed to kill the dog "A certain fear of death, dull and oppressive, came over him." He began to panic and run blindly to the camp. Although he knew he lacked the endurance he drove forward until collapsing for the final time. Once again he saw the warm dog and became angry and envious of his warmth. Eventually he sat up and decided to meet "death with dignity." After he accepts his death he has an out of body experience, and then "drowsed off into what seemed to him the most comfortable and satisfying sleep that he had ever known." The story shows that nature is stronger than man. Animal's live a lot closer to their habitat than we do and therefore have a more intricate understanding of it. The man should have listened to the old man, or noticed the signs that his dog was giving. The story also shows that nature is random, it doesn't choose who will live and die. I think that this story is a perfect example of naturalism, because it contains all of the Get more content
"To Build a Fire" Reflection 1."To Build a Fire," a short story by Jack London, begins on a bitterly cold day at nine o'clock in the morning. The story is set on the Yukon Trail as a man walks along a wooded path trying to reach a mining camp and his friends. It is an isolated area with no other people. London describes the trail saying, "The trail was faint. A foot of snow had fallen since the last sled passed over..." There is no sun, even though it is daytime, making a gloomy atmosphere. London writes, "It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun." 2.The dog in the story is guided by instinct and a will to survive.
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In the story "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, there are three principal themes. They are respecting nature, and considering results of actions. The main theme, or universal truth, is heeding warnings. The themes are shown through the character and his actions. The main character in the story had an attitude that prevented him from heeding internal and external warnings. He did not respect nature's power, and therefore he paid with his life.His attitude was arrogant and careless.
The man had no imagination and only understood facts. He knew it was very cold and his body was numb, but he failed to realize the danger. A newcomer with no experience, he thought he was invincible. Neither the "absence of sun from the...show more content...
The man learns his lesson the hard way.The man encountered many internal warnings that it was too cold to be outside. First, his nose and cheeks went numb. His face, feet, and hands followed. His beard and mustache grew icy from his breath.
Rubbing his face and beating his hands only temporarily helped his circulation. After he got his feet wet, they froze. His fingers "seemed remote from his body" because he could not move them. The most obvious clues that the man took in were internal.
"He wondered whether his toes were warm or numb." It should have worried him. When he lit the last fire, his flesh burned. He knew because "he could smell it." He could not even feel his hands burning. The man thought it was "curious that one should have to use his eyes to find where his hands were." Eventually, no amount of running or thrashing can awaken the feeling in his body.
If he had paid adequate attention to his internal signals he may have survived.If the man did not believe his body, there were also several external signals to guide him. He mentioned the "old–timer at Sulphur Creek" many times. The experienced old–timer warned him of the danger of traveling alone. He didn't listen to the old–timer. The man spat, and it crackled before it hit the ground.
This alarmed him of how cold it was, but not of the dangers. "In a month, no man had come up or
Sometimes everyone feels like giving up, and the only thing a person can rely on is his will to survive. Giving up is admitting defeat, in every circumstance. In the story by Jack London, To Build a Fire, the main character learns a hard lesson of reality, when he meets his fate. The result came about because of many factors, mainly the man's lack of psychological perserverance on the journey, as well as the harshtemperature and surroundings. If there was any hope for the man to survive these conditions, it would rely wholey on his persistance and motivation. The man expected his fate after it was too late to change it, weighing all the variables and realizing there was no probable way to escape his prediciment. The man's fate was...show more content...
He constantly decided how cold it was and how he didn't like to be as cold as he was. Inevitably, the psychological factors wore his mind and soul down to make him only think how cold he was. By the end of his situation, any warmth, whether by the sleep of death or fire, was all the man could think about. Without any imagination to focus his thoughts elsewhere, the man helped himself collapse into his final doom.
When the time came to build a fire to survive the first accident in the water, his irresponsibility essentially cost him his life. He forgot to build a fire promptly after he got wet, which made it extremely difficult build one after it. His fingers got numb and rigid, making it hard to even light a match. Eventually, the man gave up hope when the last of his matches were snuffed out. Even when it was too late to start a fire, the man's condition of his hands prevented him by his last resort to kill the dog he was with for warmth. Ultimately he knew his only option was to lay down and go to sleep. The cold had gotten to him so bad that he didn't mind laying down at the very end of his life. The satisfaction he got when he fell to sleep was much needed by him after his cold journey that day.
Although the circumstances nature thrust at the man were immortaly dangerous, the man's deficit of imagination and negligence innately led to his death. Psycologically, the man was no match for the treacherous conditions around
'To Build a Fire';
In Jack London's, 'To Build a Fire';, it is obvious to see that as the story progresses, the man becomes more bestial. However at the same time the dog seems to gain the human quality of good sense. This quality of good sense, which the dog acquires, allows it to away from the same fate of the man. There are many examples of how this is portrayed as the story makes headway. The first example of how the man becomes more bestial occurs after his first fire fails. After his fire fails, his hands are too cold to allow him to pick up matches. He was trying everything in order to warm up his hands, but nothing was working. Then he came up with a crazy and savage ...show more content...
These characteristics such as sense allow the dog to steer clear of the man's fate. 'But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge. And it knew that it was not good to walk abroad in such fearful cold...'; The dog knew that they should not be out in the extreme cold. However, the man did not listen to anybody and insisted on proceeding in the brutal cold, which led to his death. Nevertheless, the dog used his sense and was able to stay alive. Once its master was dead, it knew it had to get to shelter. Thus, it immediately headed for the cabin. Another example of the dog's turn to human characteristics comes when the man has the crazy idea of killing the dog in order to keep his hands warm. When the man called the dog, it knew something was wrong. The story read, 'Something was the matter, and its suspicious nature sensed danger. It knew not what danger, but some where, somehow, in its brain arose an apprehension of the man...'; This is another example in which the dog uses its uncanny senses to avoid the fate of the man. It seems as if the dog now has more human characteristics then the man had.
As you can see in Jack London's story, 'To Build a Fire';, as the story progresses the man's human characteristics diminish and he seems to become more bestial. Get more content
"To Build A Fire", by Jack London was a story about a man who's job is to ship logs in the springtime. The author uses the 8 aspects of fiction to reflect his point of view that it takes brains to survive. The characters in the story are used to keep the story going and help the author come across to his audience. The plot is the storyline in which the story it self takes place. The setting is the environment in which the story takes place. The suspense is when the author keeps information back from the reader so he/she will continue reading to find out what will happen.
Foreshadowing is the readers way of telling what will happen in the story. He/she does this when the author gives out clues in the story. Fantasy is, "the suspension of...show more content...
He just does them hoping they will work the way he thinks they will, his way.
The story is one of the main aspects. Now it starts out like this. The man is traveling part of the YukonTerritory, He is looking for a way to get out logs in the stpring from the islands in the Yukon, but the weather is very harsh and he has trouble doing his job. The man later begins to freeze to death, and he tries to make a fire but he doesn't and he then at the end tries to fall asleep and die.
The plot is mainly exactly the story made into an easier way to read. The plot goes like this: 1. He beings journey, 2. He was running low on food, 3. He tries to run around a tree to raise his body tempture, 4. Tries to kill and eat dog, 5. Then at the end he tries to fall asleep and die because he can't stand the cold weather.
The setting is taken place in The Yukon Territory, In Northwest Canada. It's winter and the tempture is 75degrees below zero. Now the setting is made to give you a picture of the scene, can you picture a cold, freezing place, with dead trees, and snow everywhere, well that's the kind of picture I get when I think of the setting. The suspense builds when he tries to build a fire. The reader(s) want to know if he succeds in making the fire or not. Now this is what happens, he builds a fire right under a Get more content
I chose the story 'To Build a Fire' by Jack London. I chose this story because it was the one that caught my attention the most. As I was reading it, I really wanted to know the fate of the man at the end of the tale. This short story is about a man who sets out on a journey through the Yukon trail. He goes on the trip all alone, only accompanied by a dog despite the warnings of the locals that going alone on a journey with such freezing weather is dangerous. At the end, the man realizes he should have heeded the warnings as he slowly dies of hypothermia from the cold weather. I enjoyed this story very much. From the start, we are told that the man was mistaken to set out on this journey with this weather "The animal was worried by the great Get
The short story "To Build a Fire" by Jack London is about a man who wants to get to the mining camp at Henderson Creek. The story starts off with the exposition, which is basically explains the situation. The man starts his journey without realizing how cold it is outside. The only one who is traveling with the man is a dog who seems to know that it is not safe to travel in those conditions. As the man starts to feel his cheeks cold he stops to build a fire and get warm. But only for a while then he starts off again but the dog wants to stay near the fire. Hinting that he fears of the weather ahead. Next, is the rising action , which is the building of conflict. As the man is traveling he gets his legs wet so he builds another fire. When
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"To Build a Fire" is a short story written by Jack London. It is viewed as a masterpiece of naturalist fiction. "To Build a Fire" features a miner who is traveling to the Yukon Territory with a dog as his companion. The miner is the protagonist and the dog companion is called the foil. The dog plays off of the traits of the protagonist. "The central motif of "To Build a Fire" concerns the struggle of man versus nature." (Short Story Criticism) The most argued point in the short story is the reason of the protagonist death. "Some critics believe that it was his lack of intuition and imagination that lead to his death, while others say that he dies because of panic." (Short Story Criticism) The protagonist in "To Build a Fire" struggles in...show more content...
The miner attempts to start another fire in the open but his efforts are futile." (London 9) The miner thinks about killing his dog companion for the warmth but is too weak. "The man then panics and begins running until he can run no longer." (London 11) The man dies shortly after many attempts to run to the camp. These facts lead some critics to believe that the protagonist dies as a result of panic and the failure of his rational faculties. (Short Story Criticism) The protagonist meets his demise because of his lack in intuition and imagination. (Short Story Criticism) The miner heads out to the miners camp after being warned to not travel at such cold temperatures. The miner displays his lack of intuition many times throughout the story. The miner proves he lacks in instinct when he says "fifty below zero is just uncomfortable and cold." (London 1) "The protagonist travels against the advice of experienced prospects, thinking that he will make it successfully." (Short Story Criticism) He shows his inexperience further when he thinks it is "fifty below when it's actually seventy–five below zero."(London 2)The recurring motif of man versus nature supports the lack of intuition theory. The secondary main character displays the instinct traits the man does not have. It shows how the wolf–dog senses the severity of the climate while the miner just views it as uncomfortable and cold. The miner further proves his lack of Get