The Existential Theme of London’s “To Build A Fire"
Jack London’s short story, “To Build a Fire,” is the tragic tale of a man who decides to travel alone through the hostile environment of the Yukon in sub-freeing temperatures and falls victim to the unrelenting and unforgiving power of nature. During his journey, the man gets his feet wet as he falls through the ice into the water of a hot spring (London 122). Because of the severity of the cold, some “one hundred and seven degrees below [the] freezing point,” the man’s life depends upon his ability to promptly light a fire to keep his feet from freezing (122-23). After one, half-successful fire-starting endeavor, and several other pitiful attempts, the hopelessness of the man’s lone struggle against the hostile environment of the Yukon begins to become apparent. After a lengthy episode of panic in which the man tries desperately to return the feeling to his extremities by “running around like a chicken with its head cut off” (128), the man at last “grows calm and decides to meet death with dignity . . .” (Labor 66). The story’s central theme is one portrayed by many existentialist writers—that man lives a solitary existence which is subject to the relentless, unforgiving forces of nature; an ever so subtle part of this theme is that it is man’s goal to find meaning in his existence.
The word existentialist, as well as the subject of existentialism itself, evades definition. Davis McElroy points out this problem by comparing the act of defining existentialism to the act of trying “to explain human existence in a single sentence . . .” (xi). For the sake of brevity, perhaps a short, simple definition would be best; according to the American Heritage Dictionar...
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...s artful placement of irony within the story.
Works Cited
“Existentialism.” The American Heritage Dictionary. 3rd ed. New York: Dell, 1994.
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Labor, Earle. Jack London. New York: Twayne, 1974.
London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama.
6th ed. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. 118-29.
McElroy, Davis Dunbar. Existentialism and Modern Literature. Westport: Greenwood, 1968.
Perry, John. Jack London: An American Myth. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981.
Walcutt, Charles Child. Jack London. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1966.
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.
Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” and Modeste Moussorgsky’s “Pictures At An Exhibition” which was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel are both two incredibly composed pieces of music. However, the two pieces have their differences as well as similarities. Although these beautiful pieces are similar because of the effort to represent works of art, “Carmina Burana” and “Pictures At An Exhibition” are different because of the background of the composers, the instruments used, and the influences that led Carl Orff and Modeste Moussorgsky to create these epic works of art.
In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,” the nameless man’s pride cost him his life. Throughout the story, the character exhibits many indications that there is a possibility of his demise. It begins with the character’s inability to ground himself to reality, he observed the events happening around him, but he does not fully grasp the impact they have on him. He is naïve and overconfident, believing he could survive on his own; he does not take advice from an experience man from that country.
Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock, published in 1938, has garnered attention from the very beginnings of its existence. It quickly seduced the initial director and producers with its varied musical styles ranging from classical arias to satirical ensemble numbers. However, this proletarian opera has reached moderate infamy not necessarily because of the quality of its content, but because of the way it reached its premiere performance. What began as a government-sponsored production became a guerrilla effort to perform in spite of government censors. This controversial piece resonated with both performers and audiences, and most of the cast’s sheer determination to present Blitzstein’s work is a source of great fascination. Due largely to the perfect storm created by the lingering tensions of the First Red Scare and the Great Depression, The Cradle Will Rock and the events surrounding its debut contributed directly to the end of the Federal Theatre Project.
Multiple sclerosis, also known as MS, is one of the humankind’s most mysterious diseases. Multiple sclerosis has the ability to affect nearly 3 million people worldwide. This disease tends to be more common in individuals of northern European descent and women are more than twice as likely to develop multiple sclerosis as men are. Of those 3 million people, most of them are between the ages of 20 and 50 years old. Even though multiple sclerosis is a mystery disease, scientists are working to determine the exact cause and treatment.
Multiple Sclerosis is a nervous system disease that affects the spinal cord and the brain by damaging the myelin sheaths that protects nerve cells. Destroyed myelin prevents messages from communicating and sending properly from the brain, through the spinal cord, to internal body parts. In the United States, more than 350,000 people are diagnosed with this disease. Anyone can get this disease, but it is more common among Caucasian women. MS symptoms begin between the ages 20-40 and are caused by nerve lesions being present in multiple areas of the Central Nervous System, symptoms differ on the lesion’s location.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
So what is happening chemically to the people with MS? The disease is an Autoimmune which this will destroy the cells which are in your body. The immune system is going to attack the tissue which it is going to affect the Myelin. When the Myelin is damaged which is when the T cells over react , and cause them to damaged. That is what happens Chemically with MS people.
Primarily, the term MS refers to a chronic disorder that attacks the central nervous system (CNS). It is most common in temperate continents such as Europe and Australia with Asiatic and African continents having a lower risk of the disease (Wiley Online Library, 2013). A search organised by the Multiple Sclerosis Society (2013) has estimated that there are 127,000 people living with MS in the United Kingdom. Further research by Chipps, Clanin, and Campbell (1992, pp. 158-167) shows that MS disorder more likely affects women than men with its symptoms occurring between the ages of 20 and 40 in most cases and is quite uncommon in childhood and old age. The nerve cells known as neurons in the brain constantly transmit and receive signals. They invoke emotions, activities and cognition that constitute the day to day experiences of humans. Under normal circumstances, these signals travel on a protected insulation path known as the myelin sheath. This insulation is vital as it enables signals to reach their target. In Multiple Sclerosis, the myelin sheath gets disintegrated causing the nerve fibre to be damaged leading to a disruption in the abili...
The Redeafined magazine has an information about which is best in between with the institute for the Deaf or mainstream in a hearing school. The mainstream have “curriculum and teaching styles standardized across classrooms” and “signing students communicate through interpreters”. This can be for only few deaf and not many. “May have individual speed therapy”, and this school “will have more practice listening and speaking to communicate during the school day”. “Deafness likely viewed as a disability or medical problem”. “Student labeled as “special education” with IEP required in order to access accommodation”. “Deaf students have to responsible to use hearing aids and implants in the mainstream”. They “return home and school everyday” and not a weekend. Also, they can involve sport, but “based on students body size” and skills.
Wesley implies that people who do not appear to be receptive to their collapsed state. They are totally unaware of their actual spiritual condition. Such sleepers do not possess any notion that the entity they have is the common required entity people are not even able to foresee as feasible. People are completely ignorant of their actual spiritual state. People do not recognize the new birth, an innermost modification of the heart, or the holy ritual that recaptures the image of God in us. Everybody got to see their actual state. People are asleep spiritually. To distinguish themselves as fallen, in addition to the necessity to be rescued, to envision themselves in limbo and want of unharness. A Few people are in this “deep sleep” of thinking they are spiritually alive when they are dead unto God. People declare themselves Christians, yet Jesus Christ is not in them. Until people are awakened from their absentness, they continue lost.
I know everyone has probably heard of the quote, “Nice guys finish last.” I most certainly think this quote is true, well in my life. I always chooses the average guys or the “bad boy” gys over the “nice guy”. Why? I’m not quite sure. Nice guys aren’t so big of a catch. They’re boring. I already know what to expect from them. They’re a gentleman. They’re sweet. They’re caring. They’re giving. Cliché. The cookie-cutter, semi-perfect guy is just not fun to have around.
Klinkowitz, Jerome and Patricia B Wallace. The Norton Anthology of Americal Literature. Seventh. Vol. Volume D. New York City: Norton, 2007, 2003, 1998, 1994, 1989, 1985, 1979. 5 vols.
There are many benefits and many possible drawbacks for the participation in a federal school breakfast program. The USDA sponsors the federal school breakfast program. The relationship between hunger and the ability to learn are very closely related. Of the many benefits to a school breakfast program, one includes the assurance that the children are eating a balanced meal during the school day. In turn researchers believe that eating a balanced healthy breakfast leads children in enhancing attention and alertness, energy and motivation, concentration and self-discipline (Ragno, 1994).
Nowadays, the world is in a permanent change due to the furious progression of science and technology that are reflected in its users’ attitudes and behaviors. It is hard these days to escape the power of technology on every single aspect of our daily life. However, smart phones and advanced gadgets could not survive alone without Instant Messaging applications like Facebook and WhatsApp. Nevertheless, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has acquired WhatsApp.Inc lately to combine two of the most famous platforms with great numbers of users (Bushey, 2014). Although Facebook and WahtsApp consider techniques of social communication, each application has its own daily use and distinctive flavor that attract more users to their platforms.