Jack London — To Build a Fire

To Build a Fire was extremely long, and took quite a while to read and digest. However, I think that the story was most likely naturalism, as I mean, the guy is trying to survive in extreme temperatures while traveling along the Yukon, with temperatures near negative 75. That seems pretty extreme to me, and also insanity on the guy's part. Plus, he brings his dog with him, which could be a good idea, but if he had seen Empire Strikes Back when the taun taun dies, I think he would know better than to go out in those majorly extreme temperatures where his dog and himself could just drop dead at any time because of the cold. Which, the man almost does, and is ready to accept his death, after failing to make a fire, and thinking about killing his dog. Lucky for the dog, the man decides against killing his dog, and instead lays down in the snow, eventually drifting to sleep and dying in his sleep because of the cold. Naturalism is at work in this short (but not really) story, because the man is battling against the forces of nature, but also against himself and his dog; he is trying to decide whether he should just keep pushing on, or just lay down and pray for death, which is what ultimately happens. He tries using nature to help him survive, but he is just not prepared well enough to battle the forces of nature, and in the end, it gets the best of him, resulting in his death (London 603-614).



One thing I did like about this story was how London gave a great background to the story, all the way to the end of the man's life. We get an insight as to what exactly the man was going through, making it seem like we could have almost been there ourselves. However, I do not know if I would actually want to be placed in those conditions, because they seemed quite brutal. The realism in the story did help me to better understand it as well, since I knew what to be looking for, and how to analyze the story given the characteristics of the story. The hero is obviously the man, although it could be argued that nature could be the hero by the end of the story. Because, even though the man is trying to survive and be the "hero" against big bad nature, he does not end up succeeding, no matter how you look at it. I mean, sure, he died sleeping so he was at rest for some of it, but at the same time, I think that he could have prevented his death in the first place by not even going out when it was so cold, or even, being prepared when he went out. So, it is not surprising that the guy ended up dying, as he was unprepared for the harshness of nature, and everything that was about to happen to him, whether it was because of fate or not. Everything happens for a reason.



Works Cited:

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." American Literature Textbook. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 603-614. Print.