To Build A Fire, By Jack London

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 not their meanings;” thus, showing the man’s lack of sagacity. The man does not think about the repercussions of his actions so he begins his journey with the thought that “50 degrees below zero [would be] nothing more than 50 degrees below.

The man exhibits quite a bit of self-reliance and pride similar to McCandless. The man seems to do everything he can to make his journey successful, but he failed before his adventure began. No one really knows how dangerous nature can be until one has experience a near death experience. The man regrets not listening to the old-timer, thinking: “All this the man knew. The old-timer on Sulphur Creek had told him about it the previous fall, and now he was appreciating the advice.

They would argue that he was capable of bearing the cold (until he gets wet, that is), and capable of building a fire. Additionally, the story implies that the man is not just some spoiled person, and that previously he has some experience with nature, just not to this extent. Additionally, even in times of peril, the man tends to stay relatively calm—until he realizes that his attempts at making a fire, and thus his survival, are futile. The counter of this is simply to look at the conflicts mentioned. Had the man followed the Old-Timer’s advice, he would not have had to face the perils thrown at him. He would have had a hiking companion, or better yet could have avoided traveling such distance in the cold. In fact, the man himself even realizes this late in the story, as he is nearing death. If the man had only realized the danger of his overconfidence, he may have survived. Additionally, London shows readers through the husky that the man’s lack of survival instincts is a detriment, whereas the husky survives simply by having these survival instincts. The man’s lack of survival instinct and his overconfidence lead to his

In Jack London’s classic story, “To Build a Fire” the main character learns an important value on pride and arrogance. Unluckily, he learned this lesson by losing his life. His pride and arrogance led him to arctic conditions that limited him from building a fire resulting in his death. Had he listened to the wise man and to others, by not traveling out into the deathly conditions, he could’ve survived.

Since the man could not get a fire started, he began to run. The dog was close beside him every step. When he fell he became upset with the dog, “The warmth and security of the animal angered him, and he cursed it till it flattened down its ears appeasingly (page 1067).” The cold started to overcome the man and he lost the battle with the cold. He told himself that he should have listened to the old man at Sulphur Creek right before he died; but he should have also paid attention to the

The power of nature is not something humans can overcome. Nature shows its power through harsh weather, and we must be smart about it. The message Jack London creates in this piece of writing is that pride cannot overcome nature; nature will have its way. The man shows too much pride to listen to others about the dangerous temperatures but only listens to himself as it costs him his life. In “To Build a Fire” Jack London shows us how dangerous it is to assume victory in the the battle of man v. nature.

Vicious cold at 75 below; much colder than your average winter. “Spittle crackled in the air before it reached the snow.” This is what the man experienced in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”. He is lost in a relatively unknown landscape, the Yukon territory in northernmost Canada and Alaska. Traveling alone with his dog. This story could have had a happy ending except some setbacks, that were almost totally avoidable. Seemingly, the man could still be with us today if it were not for his negligence of the old man’s advice, didn’t build his fire underneath a tree, and went with a trail mate on his journey.

Navigating the unforgiving Yukon trail, where the cold and dangerous conditions will make each step harder and harder as you traverse through. In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” written in 1908, an unnamed man travels through the frigid Yukon Trail with his dog. Despite the warnings about the cold, the man underestimates the severity of the nature around him and embarks on his expedition alone with his dog. The man's journey will ultimately end poorly for him, and the ignorance in his decisions will cost him his life. London conveys in his writing that facing severe conditions in nature, one must swallow their own pride and oblige to the warnings of nature in order to ensure their own survival.

Usually when a person is given advice from an older and wiser person, they accept and use the advice. This man refused the advice given to him by the man from Sulphur Creek. He recollected when the old man told him how cold it got sometimes, and the man laughed at the thought. Once again, after he fell into the freezing water, he remembered the old man telling him that no man should travel alone in 50 below 0 weather or colder. After escaping the cold water, he had made a fire to warm himself up; all was going well. This made him think how “womanish” the old man was and how much of a manly man he, himself was (London 553). Soon, thereafter, his fire was put out by the snow on a tree because of his recklessness when gathering sticks for the fire. After that he realized

In “To Build a Fire”, the author Jack London uses three fires to express the overall theme of pride. The unnamed man goes on a journey in freezing temperatures which leads him to make stupid decisions. The first fire the protagonist creates restores his pride he has in himself. London states, “for the fire was beginning to burn with strength”.

James E. Faust once said, “Unfortunately, some of our greatest tribulations are the result of our own foolishness and weakness and occur because of our own carelessness or transgression.” In To Build a Fire by Jack London, a man is on a journey to get to his camp but the problem is that it is seventy degrees below zero, and he is travelling only with a dog to help him. The man, unfortunately, dies at the end of the story from frostbite after falling into an almost frozen creek and not being able to make a fire in order to warm himself up. One cause of his death is the man’s arrogance. The second cause of his death is his carelessness and hasty decisions. The man makes terrible decisions leading to his death, it is not nature’s fault.

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)

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.

To build a fire is a short story written by Jack London. It is a story about an individual’s choice. The main character’s self-centeredness overcomes him, as he tries to survive the wintery weather in his travel in the Yukon Trail. He made a choice of ignoring the weather warnings, which evidenced danger in his journey. There were warnings like the absence of fellow travelers due to the cold season, but his egoism made him still embark on the journey alone, despite the warnings. The protagonist’s pride and arrogance leads to a regrettable outcome, as it leads to his downfall. The protagonist made the wrong choices because of his egotism, and arrogance and they led to his downfall. He defied nature due to his lack of logical judgment, and

One of the most prominent facets of the man’s personality is his overwhelming arrogance. The man is a newcomer to the Yukon territory or “chechaquo”, and is inexperienced in the customs of the land. The man believes that he will be unaffected by the harsh conditions and does not seem to grasp the grave reality of the situation. This characteristic is displayed early in the story, when the man rebuffs the old timer’s warning advice and later mocks the old man and his caution of the danger of traveling in the freezing temperatures, especially without a partner. “Those old-timers are rather womanish, some of them, he thought” (1210). Despite the likelihood that the old-timer has spent his lifetime in the area, the man considers his advice to be weak and believes, arrogantly, that he is superior in his masculinity and abilities. Eventually, the man realizes that he should have listened to the words of the old man in Sulphur Creek. Further, the man’s arrogance is displayed again when he ignores the warning signs that the environment is not suitable for such a long solo trek. Despite the incredible cold, the man fails to comprehend just how miniscule he is compared to nature. “…the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all made no impression on the man” (1205). It is this arrogance that limits the man’s ability to grasp how insignificant his life is compared to the great power of