Survival. That is the main theme in the two stories “To Build a Fire” and “The Interlopers”. “To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a short story about a man who is traveling through the freezing temperatures of the Yukon. He is unable to build and keep a fire going, so he eventually freezes to death. “The Interlopers” by Saki is a short story about two men who have been feuding over a piece of forest land all of their lives. One night they are trying to hunt each other down in the forest, and a tree falls on both of them. They think that their men are coming to save them, but the wolves come first and kill them. Both stories have a setting that sets the conflict and a similar mood, but have different symbols. In “To Build a Fire” and “The Interlopers”, the setting sets the conflict. In “To Build a Fire”, the setting is in an extremely cold environment, so the man is just trying to survive the cold. If it would have been a nice, warm environment, there would have been no conflict at all, and the man wouldn’t have froze to death. In “The Interlopers”, a tree falls on the two men and they are stuck with nowhere to go. In the same type of situation as the the man in “To Build a Fire”, if the tree wouldn’t have fallen on the two men, they wouldn’t have been killed by wolves. Both short stories have an important setting to them. …show more content…
“To Build a Fire” starts out by saying “Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray”. This sets the mood instantly that it is not going to be a very happy mood. “The Interlopers” begins with “In a forest of mixed growth somewhere on the eastern spurs of the Carpathians, a man stood one winter night watching and listening, as though he waited for some beast of the woods to come within the range of his vision, and, later, of his rifle.” Just like the other story, this story has a start like it is coming out of a horror movie. Each story has a very dark and gloomy
There are many similar between Zaroff and Gradwitz. Zaroff and Gradwitz both enjoyed hunting on their land. They both hunted human on their own land. In Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game” and Saki’s “The Interlopers,” the main characters General Zaroff and Ulrich von Gradwitz are alike in the following ways: both me hunted on his own land, both men hunted, and both men owned land.
The imagery of fire continues in the story; the building of their fires, how the man molds the fires, and how they stoke the fire. When the boy gets sick the father is referred to many times of how he builds and rekindles the fire. This actual fire is a symbol for the fire that the man and the boy discuss carrying within in them. The man fights to save his son and the fire within the boy
How can we ever be rescued, except by luck, if we don’t keep a fire going? Is a fire too much for us to make?”(80). In the beginning of the novel, the way that the boys maintain the fire is a sign that they want to be rescued and return to society. When the fire burns low or goes out, the boys have seemed to lose sight of their desire to be rescued and have accepted their savage lives on the island. In this way, the signal fire functions as some sort of indicator of the boy’s connection to civilization.
This tells us that the boys voluntarily became savages, so this represents not only the loss of a civilized society, but also the betrayal of it. When the fire goes out, it also signifies the loss of hope. If the boys believed that they would be rescued, then they would not allow the fire to go out. Again, because of the fire being let out voluntarily it also represents the betrayal of hope. When the fire goes out, the boys no longer want to be a part of civilization or be rescued by it.2. The beast from the air is a dead man, who is attached to a parachute, falling from the sky.
One is that both of the stories end with the death of the main characters. In The Interlopers this is proved to be true as the author writes that wolves ungraciously approach the two trapped men(3). In ‘Story of an Hour’ Mrs. Mallard dies because of of disappointment and of heart disease--or as the doctor put it, “the joy that kills”(2.) Another similarity is that in both stories the antagonist is the reason for the situational irony at the end of each story. In ‘The Interlopers’ the wolves, being the newest antagonist are killed the Ulrich and Georg right after they defeated the late antagonist, which the inner-conflict of both men. In Story of an Hour, Mr. Mallard walks in the door after everyone thought he was dead, and Mrs. Mallard’s heart was lifted in spirits that she was no longer bound to him or so she thought. Mrs. Mallard’s death was thought by the other characters in the story to be the result of heart disease, but because the Doctor says she died of the joy that kills, the reader knows that she died because Mr. Mallard burst of Mrs. Mallard’s impression of
Christopher McCandless had always admired the works of Jack London. He even went as far as naming Jack London “king”. McCandless relished the naturalisitc elements of London’s writings, elements that he chose to ignore in his own life. Jack London often depicted men as being controlled by their environment and being unable to withstand any heavy circumstances. He depicted themes about the frailty of man and man’s inability to overcome nature. But McCandless clearly did not take away any of the valuable lessons from these stories. He hailed London as “king” but never truly learned from London’s stories, dying in a tragically ironic way when he came to meet the same fate as the protagonist in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”. Christopher McCandless
In the course of human history, man has managed to do some really dumb things. Whether it’s because we lack sufficient knowledge, make a mistake, or are just too stubborn to use sound judgement, dumb decisions are made every day by everyone. However, none have a greater level of stupidity than the choices made by the man in Jack London’s To Build a Fire. This is a story of pride, ignorance, and stupidity, which ultimately leads to the downfall of its main character. This short story is a caution against over confidence and unpreparedness, showing the harsh effects of both. Ultimately, it is an issue of man’s pride versus the harsh conditions of nature. It shows that one cannot simply overlook nature, because doing so can lead to the destruction
The setting in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” has many similarities and differences to the setting in “The Interlopers”. Though the settings differ in many ways, for example the danger of them and their contents, they are also similar in their mystery and vitality to the plot. These two pieces of writing hold many of the same ideas, but they also are original works that portray them in their own way.
"I am absolutely confident that beyond the motif itself, there is no similarity of treatment whatever" (544). Jack London, writing in December 1908, was responding to an inquiry from the Richard W. Gilder, editor of Century Magazine. Gilder, having just published "To Build a Fire" in his magazine, was worried when he came across another version published 6 years earlier. London's explanation was that the first story was for boys and the new one was for men; the only similarity being the motif itself. Through careful analysis of the two stories, in light of this letter to Gilder, and another letter to Cloudesly Johns, it is apparent that although London claims no similarities (besides the motif), they definitely exist.
The major theme of the novel, being individuality goes along with the use of the symbol fire. Fire is a huge part of the novel, and acts as many different things throughout the story, and changes as it goes along. Individuality acting as the main theme in this novel, is emphasized by the use of the symbol fire, and acts as a very important piece to the novel.
In “To Build A Fire”, the main conflict throughout is man versus nature although it would be inaccurate to say that nature goes out of its way to assault the man. The fact of the matter is, nature would be just as cold without the man's presence regardless of him being there .The environment as a whole is completely indifferent to the man, as it frequently is in naturalist literature. The bitter environment does not aid him in any way, and it will not notice if he perishes. In the same way, the dog does not care about the man, only about itself. Ironically enough though, as the man was dying he was getting upset toward the dog because of its natural warmth, the instincts that it had, and its survival skills and those were the elements that the man lacked for survival. It is ironic that the man had to die in order to find out that man's fragile body cannot survive in nature's harsh elements, regardless of a human’s natural over-confidence and psychological strength.
In the short story “The Interlopers”, two men under the pressure of a lifelong rivalry over their land seek to end one another, only to be pinned down by a tree and later killed by wolves. Throughout this story the main characters (Ulrich and Georg) face many conflicts, not from each other but from nature. The two are not only pinned down by a tree, they are trapped in the middle of a storm, in the bitter cold, with limited visibility and wolves in the area. I believe that the author, Saki, decided to let nature destroy the men rather than have the men destroy each other, not only because of the irony, but because this incident also reveals the theme. Holding grudges are pointless, they lead to petty quarrels and rash decisions.
The external conflict of man against nature and the internal conflict of man against himself play a huge role in the whole story, leading to the fateful outcome of the man. The man fell victim to the struggles the conflicts presented, majorly impacting the story. "To Build a Fire" encompasses the idea of man becoming his own enemy and people remaining insignificant to forces of natures. The conflicts presented in the story embody the aspect of nature as an unstoppable, unpredictable, and powerful force that easily overtakes man. That thought shows how one man has little effect on nature, and in the end, does the most harm by subjecting oneself to nature's fury. The story, "To Build a Fire" by Jack London truly shows how weak an unprepared person compares to the unruly forces of nature.
Providing the separation between survival and death. setting was the most important factor in "Building a Fire" by Jack London. Works Cited and Consulted Hendricks, King. Jack London: Master Craftsman of the Short Story. Logan: Utah State U P. 1966.
I agree with Karen Rhodes observation that to build afirecan be interpreted as the story of a man in the journey of human existence. However, I think her view of to build a fire as an American experience comes from the fact that she is an American. I agree with her theory that the Man's death in the end was due to the nature of the man and his environment. The protagonist in to build a fire did nor have any grasp of the danger he was in. he tried to reason himself through it all. He thought, " Maybe, if he ran on, his feet will thaw out; and anyway if he ran far enough, he would reach camp and the boys. (Jack London, 157).