Vol. 49. Gale Cengage, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 22 Jan, 2010 build-fire-jack-london> London, Jack “To Build a Fire” Paperback, Bantam Classic & Loveswept, 1990
She is a decoy for the wolf pack, remarks Henry, luring the sled dogs away as food for the pack. After much discussion, the men decide it would be prudent to use some of the remaining ammunition to take care of the troublesome she-wolf. Left with only three dogs, the men start out the next morning only to meet more catastrophe as the sled overturns on a bad price of trail. Stuck between a tree trunk and a large rock, the men are forced to unleash the dogs to straighten the sled.
Significance of “Dying” and “Death” in "To Build a Fire" The significance of the words "dying and death" in Jack London's 1910 novel, "To Build a Fire" continuously expresses the man's dwindling warmth and bad luck in his journey along the Yukon trail to meet "the boys" at camp. London associates dying with the man's diminishing ability to stay warm in the frigid Alaskan climate. The main characters predicament slowly worsens one level at a time finally resulting in death. The narrator informs the reader "the man" lacks personal experience travelling in the Yukon terrain. The old-timer warned the man about the harsh realities of the Klondike.
To Build a Fire by Jack London The short story "To build a Fire" by Jack London, tells about the relationship between man and nature. The story takes place in the Yukon during one of the long night. The main character who is unnamed travels with a dog along a small trail to a mining camp. The man leaves against the advice of a local and after a short time realizes that he should have waited. The temperature is extremely cold because the mans spit freezes before it hits the ground.
Unfortunately for the man, he slipped into the icy water which instantly caused his legs and feet to turn into ice. Getting a fire started is his only option to save him. He made two attempts to build a fire, but the weather condition and the snow made it impossible. The cold caused excruciating ache and throbbing pain in his fingers, hands, and feet and he is unable to start another fire because of his hands becoming numb and with the inability to move them. Russell Hillier in Crystal Beards and Dantean Influence in Jack London 's "to Build a Fire (II) states “In his last ditch effort to destroy man 's best friend and use its very lifeblood and vital warmth in order to save his own skin”.
Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,” is a story about a man who travels only alongside a husky through the frigid conditions of the Yukon, and becomes a victim to Mother Nature. The man was warned before hand by an old man that he should not travel alone through the frigid Yukon. He ignored the old man’s advice and tried to prove to him that he would be able to cross the Yukon on his own. As the man traveled he was able to recognize the dangerous conditions around him and notice what it was doing to his extremities. Still he made no effort to slow down which resulted in his death.
Author Jack London wrote "To Build a Fire," the heart-wrenching story of a man's struggle to overcome the power of nature in the most extreme temperatures. Throughout his journey along the trail in the Yukon, he underestimates nature and overestimates himself. Almost immediately his fate is revealed when London writes, "But all this---the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all---made no impression on the man" (977). The man is new to the area and he does not realize the danger of this journey. Despite the man's carelessness, the reader hopes his rescuers will come.
Use of Devices in London's To Build A Fire Jack London uses the devices of plot, setting, and characterization in this short story "To Build A Fire" to convey his message that humans need to be social. London sets an average, middle-aged logger in a deserted Yukon trail during a wintry season. The temperature is seventy-five degrees below zero and the logger and his husky are traveling towards Henderson Creek, about ten miles away, where the logger's companions are located. London places the man in this Yukon environment to symbolize that in this cold, cruel world, we need to learn how to benefit from each other. Prior to embarking on his journey, the logger is given advice from an old-timer at Sulfur Creek that "no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below".
In the autobiography Never Cry Wolf written by Farley Mowat, the main character (Farley Mowat), journeys to the Canadian tundra to study the much-feared wolf. There he discovers the fear brought upon by men, and how it can result horribly for the wolves. The human race was so frightened by the unknown species that they began to blame the wolves for cold slaughters, portrayed them as vicious killers, and because of the fear of the unknown tried to exterminate wolves all together. When Mowat journeys to the tundra to research the wolves as the culprits for the massive caribou killings, he is surprised at how many people actually despise the wolves simply because they don’t understand them. In the beginning of the book Mowat starts to believe what everyone else did, that wolves were scary, dangerous animals.
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.