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Naturalism in building a fire plot by jack london
Literary analysis of "to build a fire
How does jack london incorporate naturalism into building a fire
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At the time when Jack London composed "To Build a Fire" he grasped the thought of naturalism since it reflected the occasions of everyday life. Naturalism indicated how people must be cautious of the fact that at any moment could result in death, expecting them to commit an error and surrender their lives. He used naturalism, the most reasonable literary movement, to show how brutal and cold blooded nature truly is and how regardless of what you do nature will deliberately arrive. London further displayed the fundamental thought of Darwinism and survival of the fittest, essentially if you are idiotic you will cease to exist. For the most part, London used naturalism to show how as a part of life, people can rely on upon only themselves to survive. …show more content…
At the point when the man had a little fire that was starting to burn the disruption to the tree led to the snow to tumble to the ground and smother the flame. "It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open." That minor factor of the basic situation of the flame conclusively cost the man his life. The third fault the man made was that he took off his gloves for a lengthy period and his hands turned out to be fully numb. While the man was attempting frantically to relight the flame he took off his gloves and lost all sense in his grasp. On the off chance that he had tried to avoid panicking and reflected on his situation he may have had an opportunity to survive. Nature demonstrated no kindness when the man tried to relight the flame using just his palms, and he broke down. "He was losing his battle with the frost. It was creeping into his body from all sides." The man's disastrous mistakes cost him his life and nature felt no empathy for him. He was simply one more man who neglected to beat nature for one more day. In the event that the man had …show more content…
Just as the man chose to overcome the hazards of the Yukon he was not wise enough to bring a companion with him on the off chance that something transpired. He just wanted to return to camp before it got to be dark outside. He didn't follow his hunch when he was crossing the icy no man's land, yet plowed ahead carelessly. The man was bound to die from the begin of the story. He didn't pay consideration to the climate, or to the guidance of a man acquainted with the land and thus led to his destiny. The man further failed his survival test when he started to freeze as the second fire ended. He appeared just as he had lost all information of his basic instincts. He reflected upon murdering the dog and strive in its steaming internal parts for shelter from the cold. "The sight of the dog put a wild idea into his head. He remembered the tale of a man, caught in a blizzard, who killed a steer and crawled inside the carcass, and so was saved." When the man understood that the dog would not give him a chance to come close he was forced to come up with another arrangement. His thought was that in the event that he ran the distance to the camp, he would have the capacity to survive. Shockingly, that arrangement failed too and the man died wide open to the harsh elements,
The man was so confident that he thought he had many protecting to keep him warm and last through the hold snowy trip. ”He held on through the level stretch of woods for several miles, crossed a wide flat of rigger-heads, and dropped down a bank to the frozen bed of a small stream. This was Henderson Creek, and he knew he was ten miles from the forks. He looked at his watch. It was ten o'clock. He was making four miles an hour, and he calculated that he would arrive at the forks at half-past twelve. He decided to celebrate that event by eating his lunch there” (London par. 8 ). This shows that he was confident that he would last through the whole trip with what he is just wearing. He was also confident because he was moving fast and he thought he was traveling fast but he was not traveling quick enough. “He was. pleased at the speed he had made. If he kept it up, he would certainly be with the boys by six. He unbuttoned his jacket and shirt and drew forth his lunch. The action consumed no more than a quarter of a minute, yet in that brief moment the numbness laid hold of the exposed fingers. He did not put the mitten on, but, instead struck the fingers a dozen sharp smashes against his leg.” (London par. 14). He was confident on how fast he moved and stopped and relax to enjoy his frozen
The short story "To Build a Fire," written by Jack London, is a tragic tale of an overconfident, inexperienced man traveling through the brutal, sub-freezing conditions of the Yukon with only the companionship of a dog. The man, un-named in this story, arrogantly decides to break from the main trail to take a less traveled route against the advice of the seasoned old-timer of Sulfur Creek, who warns of traveling alone in such severe conditions. The man is described as being without imagination and not aware of the significance of the things around him, how frail his life is. As his journey prolongs, his confidence builds as he continually cheats nature, but the temperature extends lower and lower below freezing. He inevitably is caught by the fierce cold when he breaks through some ice and is wetted, in dire need of warmth and to dry his moccasins, the man must build a fire. Successful in his attempt, the man’s ego grows but the unforgiving antagonist of the story steps in and snuffs out the flames, as melted snow falls from the branches above. The man’s overconfidence starts to dwindle as his hands become unresponsive due to the extreme cold, and the cruel reality of death sets in as he fails to ignite another flame. As his limbs become rigid, he wrestles with the idea of killing the dog to thaw his unmoving hands, but once within his grasp, his frigid hands prevent him from drawing his knife. In a last ditch effort to not freeze to death the man begins to run in a panic, fighting the cold for his life. Then it happens, the realization, in an epiphanic moment the man comes to grip with the fact that his end is near and rather than flailing about like a fool, he decides he wo...
Before going on his trek alone into the Yukon wilderness, an “old-timer” had given the protagonist in “To Build a Fire” advice. He told the protagonist not to travel alone in the frigid Yukon territory because it can get dangerously cold.. The protagonist chooses not to follow this advice and comes to regret it as he freezes to death. Towards the beginning, the protagonist even looks down upon the old-timer, believing the old-timer to not be as manly as him. The protagonist initially thinks, “Those old-timers were rather womanist, he thought […] Any man who was a man could travel alone” (21). Not only does the protagonist ignore the advice of the old-timer, but he even thinks of the old-timer as being inferior and weak. The protagonist completely overlooks the fact that the old-timer is a veteran to the unforgiving land and he is merely a newcomer with little knowledge of the land. The protagonist soon realizes that the old-timer was right. The narrator acknowledges the wisdom in the advice of the old-timer once the cold has set in on the protagonist: “That man [the old-timer] from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth […] and he [the protagonist] had laughed at him at the time!” (15) The protagonist had once laughed at the old-timer, thinking the old-timer was just weak, but he now sees the wisdom in the old-timer’s advice. The protagonist comes to realize that the old-timer was right but by this point it is far too late. Christopher McCandless also ignored the advice of others throughout his adventure, the most distinguished advice given to him from an “old-timer” of Alaska directly preceding McCandless’s final journey into the Alaskan wilderness. Jim Gallien picked up McCandless outside of Fairbanks, Alaska and immediately noticed McCandless’s unpreparedness. After McCandless told Gallien of his plans to survive in
In literature, the faintest of details gives insight to very complex themes, ideas and narrative
Jack London’s To Build a Fire follows an unnamed protagonist, who’s only referred to as “the man”, as he travels the Yukon Trail during a severe snow storm. Along with his husky wolf-dog, he determined to meet friends at an old junction by six o’clock. The man, who was warned not travel in the Klondike alone, presses forward through the terrain’s harsh weather. He later falls through the snow in what looked to be a secure spot. With his feet and fingers soaked, he starts a fire and begins drying himself. The man constructs the fire under a spruce tree in order to take its twigs and drop them directly onto the fire. Each time he pulled a twig a branch overturned its load of snow, eventually blotting out the fire. He grabs all his matches and lights them simultaneously to set fire to a piece of bark; it soon goes out. The man decides to kill the dog and use its warm body to restore his circulation, but is unable to kill the animal and lets the dog go. The man attempts to run from the thought of freezing to death but he quickly falls down. He decides he should meet death in a more dignified manner; the man falls off into a calm sleep.
When the narrator introduced the main character of the story, the man, he made it clear that the man was in a perilous situation involving the elements. The man was faced with weather that was 75 degrees below zero and he was not physically or mentally prepared for survival. London wrote that the cold "did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold."(p.1745) At first when the man started his journey to the camp, he felt certain that he could make it back to camp before dinner. As the trip progressed, the man made mistake after mistake that sealed his fate. The man's first mistake was to step into a pool of water and soak his legs to the knees. This blunder forced the man to build a fire to dry his wet socks and shoes so his feet would not freeze and become frostbitten. When the man began to build a fire he failed to notice that he was doing so under a large, snow laden spruce tree where he was getting his firewood. When the man had a small fire that was beginning to smolder the disturbance to the tree caused the snow to tumble to the ground and extinguish the fire. "It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open."(1750).
Obviously that was not the situation which was meant to occur. The cold served as a lesson to be taught to all explorers who would set foot into the never-ending winter from that day on. The continuous efforts that the man made to start a fire symbolize his will to survive. No will however is match for mother nature. The suffering man took on the role as a great teacher and hopefully preserver of life for generations to come.
London, Jack. "To Build a Fire, by Jack London." The World of Jack London 2012®. Web. 02
...teristic of naturalism is presenting a viewpoint that is detached from the main story, or in a 3rd person omniscient viewpoint. The author of “To Build A Fire” does this by not assigning names to any of the major characters such as the man or dog. This creates a detachment which helps the reader focus on not only the character, but the plot as well. The man in the story is seen as representing all of humanity, rather than as one individual. The concept of man versus nature is prominently at work here.
...ezing, cold weather. The two types of conflict in “The Open Boat” and “To Build a Fire” are: man vs. self and man v. nature which are common in naturalism literature. London uses naturalism to show how harsh and indifferent nature really is and how no matter what, nature will always be there. He furthermore presented the basic idea of Darwinism and the survival of the fittest, ultimately if you are not the strongest you will not survive. London showed us that we only can depend on ourselves to survive in this world or in the Yukon of Alaska. "To Build a Fire" illustrates that the closer to death the character comes, the plot declines. As the story advances, the man's ambitions go from making it to camp, to staying warm, to just simply surviving. When reading, you can sense the lack of effort on the man's part, only brings him closer to a freezing, unavoidable death.
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.
Jack London brings man versus nature discussion into his story. The environment, however doesn't play against him for say, but does warn him from the very beginning. The audience can conclude that just like “the man” everyone is alone in the world - fighting for ourselves and the things we wish to acquire. The character created by London is isolated from the universe and fooli...
...e of them fell through and got wet. Since both of these situations had consequences, the reader can foreshadow that this expedition is not going to end well for the man. The man not being on the dog’s side and listening to it got him in the last situation. He built his last fire underneath a tree and the snow melted and fell onto the fire and put it out. His ignorance and overconfidence in his survival skills and not trusting the instincts of the dog eventually led him to his death.
Jack London starts early in the story to set a foreboding feeling: "Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little traveled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland." (London) It is this feeling of doom and gloom that accompanies us throughout the reading of the story, and also is typical of the wonderful language of the story. With this London is foreshadowing the ending of the story where the man dies, a victim of his own pride and stupidity. Also creating the dark and dreary theme is London's "ability to create a gripping narrative based on realistic detail and on a sense of atmospheric gloom reminiscent on the work of Edgar Allan Poe." (Hogge) The manner in which London tells his story is what makes the story great.
Karen Rhodes analyzed to build a fire in a cultural context. He believed "London's works were written so that he could survive in a world he increasingly came to see as "red in tooth and claw""(1). It is obviously the story of a man fighting the stresses of Nature. According to Rhodes, to build a fire was drawn from the year London spent in Canada's Yukon Territory. London depicted arctic and very cold conditions throughout the story. Rhodes believed to build a fire represented London's Naturalistic Flavor. "It pits one man alone against the overwhelming forces of nature"(Karen Rhodes, 1). He also believed to build a fire can either be interpreted as the Pioneer American experience or can be read as an allegory for the journey of human existence (Karen Rhodes, 1). According to Rhodes, there are two versions of to build a fire; the first one was written in 1902 while the second one was written in 1908. We are studying the 1908 version." It has come to be known as everyman trekking through the Naturalistic Universe"(Karen Rhodes, 1). To build a fire is indeed the story of a man trekking through the universe alone except for his dog. The man's death at the end was the culmination of the story. " His death came through no lapse of observation, no lack of diligence, no real folly but the nature of himself and his environment" (Karen Rhodes, 2). I think his is a fine criticism of London's to build a fire. London had made use of his life experiences in writing the story.