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Analysis Of The Cremation Of Sam Mcgee

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A promise is a jail sentence; once it’s placed upon one, there is no way to get out of it. In the narrative ballad, “The Cremation of Sam McGee” by Robert Service, Cap, a Klondike gold miner, loses his sanity over a promise. Even though he kept his word, the reader learns that promises may have dire consequences because Cap goes insane by being overexposed to the harsh conditions and experiencing extreme isolation.
In his attempt to keep his promise, Cap encounters Klondike’s bleak environment. As he travelled through the forest, he describes the weather as, “Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail” (Service 14). Such weather can contribute to mental illness and instability. Since Cap is going for so long in these temperatures, he will certainly be mentally unstable by the end of his journey. In addition, Cap’s food supply was diminishing. Even though he was tired, Cap would not abandon his journey to find a suitable crematorium …show more content…

Another reason Cap’s mental health was slowly deteriorating was that he had no one to keep him company; and, “[he’d] often sing to the hateful [corpse of Sam], and it hearkened with a grin” (Service 40). Being without company for so long has driven Cap to sing to Sam’s corpse for entertainment. The isolation messed with his head so much that he thought it smiled at him. After Cap had put Sam in the furnace to be cremated, he left to go clear his head. When he came back, Cap apparently saw, “Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar” (Service 57). This is definitely not possible because Sam was definitely cremated, and Cap distinctly remembers doing so. Because of this, a situation like this is not possible; Sam sitting in the fire looking calm. In the end, Cap has gone insane by burdening his promise with the lack of moral support and only having a corpse as his

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