Hope Wilhite
Myers
EN H 4th
30 January 2016
To Build A Fire Literary Analysis To Build A Fire is a short story that shows the true unmerciful power of nature. A man's foolish decision to think he could defeat nature ended with the taking of his life. The story takes place in one of the coldest expanses of land in the world, Alaska. An Alaskan winter one of the most brutal environments the human body can endure. The temperatures range from fifteen degrees to bellow zero. The main character in the story had no idea what he was getting himself into when he decided to walk outdoors that day. Nature truly has no mercy. This unnamed, foolish man was a newcomer in the Yukon and had absolutely no business the be alone outside trying to reach a
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There are hot springs in the creek that heat up certain places on the ice making it thin and almost watery. The man uses the dog and pushes it out onto the ice only for the dogs hind legs to fall through. To warm both of them up after the mishap, he builds a fire. He sits until he sees fit, gets a bite to eat, and then they continue on their journey. Unfortunately, he breaks through the ice himself and must stop to make another fire to warm his feet and dry his shoes. He stupidly build they fire directly under a tree causing the snow to fall on top of the fire. He begins to panic slightly calming himself, but finally realizing he may be in trouble. His second attempt at this fire is disastrous, his hands are too cold to pull out a match so he had to use his mouth. When he lit the fire the smoke went directly into his lungs causing him to cough uncontrollably. Next, he gets annoying and grabs all the matches and lights them only for his numb hands to drop them all over the cold winter ground. Now he found himself alone, frozen, and with no fire. He panics and begins to sprint as best he could in the deep snow in the direction of the mine. He feels his body begin to warm up, but his dying body can not continue running in the snow. He feels foolish because he he did not face his fate with dignity. He lies down into the snow accepting his fate. As he is dying, he has a vision of himself. In the vision, his friends that he was meeting
Next thing he knew he was picked off his feet and thrown into the water, the moose repeated this twice more but much more viciously. The tornado that had hit him saved him because out on the water was the tale end of the plane, he then remembered the survival bag in it. There was an emergency transmitter, when he pressed the button nothing happened but later that night he heard a plane engine coming towards him, the plane landed on the water and after fifty-four days in the wilderness, he had been rescued.
At the end of the story though the main characters instincts are not strong enough and that is what ends up killing him. In reality he is unaware of the many things waiting ahead for him in that freezing forest. An elder man tried to tell him that it is dangerous to go alone
The word comes to mind because the man is determined to take this dangerous journey across the Yukon territory of Alaska to Henderson Creek although it is about 50 degrees below zero. During his journey the man builds a fire and eats his biscuits. After he ate he starts to walk again for a while longer, but the man breaks through the ice and has to stop and build a fire all over again to dry his boots and warm his feet. As he builds a new fire, he thinks about an old man who told him that people should never travel alone in the Yukon when it's colder than fifty degrees below zero. The man thinks the old man should man up.
“I don’t know why I did it. I was just so sad. I don’t know why” (276). In The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon, Brent tells the story of his heat of the moment decision to attempt suicide at the age of 14 years old. His brother, Craig, is the first to discover him engulfed in smoke after Brent douses himself with gasoline and lights a match.
“It was a pleasure to burn,” especially for Guy Montag, the fireman in Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451. Fire is a recurring symbol of the book, usually showing up with Montag when there is trouble or change. By examining to the novel and its deeper meaning, the reader is shown how Bradbury provides two different meanings of fire, and can learn how truly significant fire is. Bradbury uses the symbol of fire to represent both powerful destruction and beautiful creation. From poetic phrases to simple statements, fire is shown in two different lights, both of which show the true character of the element.
Throughout the beginning of the novel, Ralph is the leader of the fight to keep and maintain the fire, but he is starting to give up hope and lets the fire die. Lastly, fire symbolizes hope during the end of the novel. Jack and most of the other boys have turned on Ralph and want to “hunt” him. They decided that the best way to get Ralph to come to them on the beach was to light the whole forest on fire so Ralph would be forced out to the beach. Ralph was trying to run out of the forest as “the roar of the forest rose to thunder and a tall bush directly in his path burst into a great fan-shaped fan.
“As it flamed he held it with his teeth to the tree bark. But the burning smell went up his nose, causing him to cough. The match fell into the snow and the flame died” (75). The saying “by the skin of your teeth” was used literally in this portion of the story. Winning but by a small margin, he was able to light the match to hopefully create a large fire, but he soon dropped the match due to its fumes.
Seen in "To Build a Fire," also London portrays the man's futile attempt to survive in the cold of the Yukon. The man is shown as being at the mercy of natures cold “That showed one must not be too sure of things. There was no mistake about it, it was
Even though an old timer from Sulpher Creek warned him, that he should not travel the Klondike alone, a man set off on a journey with his husky wolf dog to meet up with some friends. When he started the journey he was excited, and as a newcomer in the Yukon, the cold did not faze him at all. As he got further into the journey he realize that he was not protected enough to withstand the cold, but the anxiety he had within, he didn’t pay much attention to it. Not knowing how dangerous of a situation he was putting himself into, along with his dog, he was just focused on meeting up with his friends. Has he continued along the journey to his surprise what he thought was a safe spot was his plunged entrance into a concealed
“You were right, old fellow. You were right” (London, 1902, p-79). made me thought that the man on the journey through Alaska ignores the advice given by the old man makes him pay his life. And I was right, after reading the story I fell like the man on the journey to Alaska did madness to go out on such a cold temperature which was almost 50 degrees below 0. After several
In Jack London 's "To Build a Fire," London reveals how a man walks through a tough winter in one of the many forests found in Yukon, Alaska. Facing a myriad amount of obstacles along the way; he depends on how he should tackle his problems when they appear during his journey instead of thinking ahead rationally and beyond the obvious. Before the nameless man leaves off to his harsh expedition he was forewarned by an elderly that “no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below"(London). The man decides to ignore the elders warning and continues his path. If he would of listened to the wise man, he would have avoided all the sticky situations that would soon come his way and ultimately lead him to his demise.
His saliva turns into ice before hitting the ground, and he knows this means that it is more than fifty degrees below freezing. Despite the obvious danger and forewarning from an older man, the man and dog continue along the trail. The temperature is the main factor resulting in his death. The human body has limits,
To build a fire. The man and his dog got on the Yukon Trail. They were headed towards Dyea and Darwon. They faced much colder weather than expected. The dog knew what was going to happen to the man, he was going to die.
If man were to face nature, man will always lose if not accompanied by another. The powers of nature are much stronger than a single human body. Sometimes nature can be cruel, and other times it can be beautiful. In the story of, “To Build a Fire”, the character faces nature head on, alone. He had no company other than the dog that followed him around.
“To Build A Fire”, a story by Jack London, talks about man’s attitude towards nature’s natural state and human’s superiority. The man in the story tries to fight the coldness without coming properly prepared, thinking he is beyond nature That, however, does not work in his favour. This story is a perfect example how, when a man messes with nature, it most likely won’t end well. No matter how much the man tried to fight the freezing weather, the constant drop of temperature, without proper equipment, and with no one beside him, he did not succeed.