Character Analysis: To Build A Fire

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Ryan Bingaman
Professor Gay Claiborne
English 102
26 October 2016
To Build a Fire: Poor Decisions are Mans Undoing
In Jack London's To Build a Fire nature shows its power, but it is ultimately the man himself that causes his death by underestimating nature and overestimating his abilities. He decides to leave the main trail for an untested route to gain time and meet his friends. He dismisses the frigid temperatures and even admits to himself that he forgot to prepare his cheeks properly for the temperatures. He ends up becoming wet, cannot eat his lunch due to his frozen beard and "scoffs" at advice that he received in how to deal with the cold. He packs a small snack instead of a heartier food supply, chooses not to use a sled, and does …show more content…

The narrator describes the Yukon as “bleak,” “cold,” “gray” and as an “indescribable darkness” (London 64). The lack of sun is highlighted numerous times, and it is noted that “it had been days since he had seen the sun” (London 64). The narrator also expresses the barren and frigid temperatures that exist as the man sets off on his journey “the Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice” “as far as his eye could see, it was unbroken white” (London 65). The man’s spit freezes before it hits the ground (London 65) and the narrator states that it is “Fifty degrees below zero” (London 65). The man dismisses this life-threatening reality and considers it as “cold and uncomfortable, at that was all” (London 65). In the face of the overwhelming deadliness of the Yukon, the man “was not able to imagine” (London 65) that the effects of the winter could end his life. The man’s poor decisions stem from his underestimation of nature. He dismisses the frigid temperatures because to him they are nothing more than a numerical indicator of temperature and not a reality of the brutal environment that he is traveling through. The man further underestimates the risk that exists when he leaves the trail knowing that there are hidden dangers under the snow. He knew that Henderson Creek was just below the ice and snow but decided to

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