To Build a Fire Essay

The main theme of London's "To Build a Fire," is man versus nature. The unnamed man wanders into the forest with a native dog hoping to make it out alive. Unfortunately the wrath of mother nature prevents him from getting any further leaving him dead. "The theme consists of a double movement - downward toward disintegration and death and upward toward reintegration and life, but life greatly enriched" (Peterson, 15). The theme in the story is in a downward shift. Throughout the entire story, everything

made the journey before making it. The traveller in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” ignores any advice given to him by the wise man on how to survive the journey through the Yukon, he ignores any instinctual signs the dog shows off, and even ignores something simple as the weather and how cold the temperature must be. The traveller’s ignorance plays a key role in his death. London uses character development in “To Build a Fire” to imply that the man’s ignorance causes his

Jack London, in his short story “To Build a Fire,” details man’s attempt to prevail against the wrath of nature. In London’s story, the man, the protagonist, embarks on a dangerous ten-mile journey on the main Yukon trail during a harsh winter. Although the man shows knowledge of his snowy surroundings, his lack of sagacity, arrogance, and disrespect of nature result in his defeat in a battle between him and nature. London describes the man as one who is “quick and ready in the things of life...and

Creek. This man story is told from the third person omniscient point of view. At no point is the story told from the dog's perspective. That means that the narrator knows the thoughts, actions, and feelings of all the characters; in this case, "To Build a Fire" the narrator's characters are the unnamed man and the dog who accompanies him. London description of this man and his surrounding gives the readers a visual image of how the Alaskan wilderness looks like. It was cold freezing and cold. The man’s

In To Build a Fire by Jack London, a man travels through very cold temperatures, negative 75 degrees Fahrenheit, in the Yukon territory with his dog. In Powder by Tobias Wolf, a boy and his dad drive through heavy snow to try to get home in time for dinner while the main character thinks about his father and mother's relationship. The theme of Powder is to have trust in your family while in To Build a Fire, the theme is perseverance, two totally different themes, but despite this, they both have

the forces of nature. Naturalism was used because it shows how objects are and describes things so that you could really picture what the author is conveying. Other literary devices such man vs nature, man vs self and imagery were used in “To Build a Fire.” According to “4 Types of External and Internal Conflict in Literature “,” man vs. nature finds the story’s characters in a struggle against their external environment” (Morgan). In addition, “Literary Terms” states that imagery includes figurative

To Build a Fire In “To Build a Fire,” Jack London presents the story of a man against nature as he tries to survive in the harsh winter of the Yukon in the early 1900’s. He begins a nine-hour hike through, temperatures as low as -75 degrees Fahrenheit, and he plans to meet up with friends in the area. With him is a local husky, with whom he has little companionship. The narrator builds a fire to warm himself. However, as the fire starts to reach a good warming point, snow falls and douses the fire

In the short story To Build a Fire shows a significant amount of realism. Realism is the attitude or practice of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it accordingly. Realism is a very big part of the story To Build a Fire because of the many events that happened. The hiker never tries to act out of character. He does everything that is humanly possible. The man behaves in the ordinary way. His feelings and reactions represent reactions and thoughts of usual people. He

How Mood Intensifies the Story “To Build a Fire” The short story “To Build a Fire” has many moods that change throughout the story. There are three moods that really stand out and help to tell Jack London’s story. Jack London conveys these three key moods as gloominess, danger, and desperation in “To Build a Fire”. These moods help convey how hard it is to survive in Alaska's harsh environment. Gold prospectors like the one in this story tried to brave this climate just for the chance to find

Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” is the story of a nameless hiker traveling with his dog who has gone into the Alaskan winter with only enough to make fire, and one meal. He is making his journey by foot to meet up with his friends at a camp that lies a day ahead. He has prior experience with cold temperatures but his overconfident manner doesn’t allow him to make reasonable decisions throughout his journey. As the weather gets colder his confidence in survival quickly decreases causing him to regret