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Comparison Of Jack London's To Build A Fire

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Jack London has written numerous stories, many of which take place in the Yukon of Canada. The location of these stories plays a crucial part in the outcome of it all. He uses this location mainly due to his work he did there. After working in the Klondike of Alaska, London returned to his home and started to publish books. His characters were most often males with a sense of adventure. It is sometimes said that his characters embodied everything he wanted to be (biography.com). His many famous novels include: The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Martin Eden. It was from his use of writing techniques like the use of setting, characters and theme that propelled London to become of the most famous writers of all time. In addition to being written by the same author, the settings of both stories are quite similar in terms of area and even climate. In the story “To Build a Fire”, a man and a dog make their way through an immensely frigid part of …show more content…

In “To Build A Fire”, the man, as he is called, is trying to make his way back to camp in freezing temperatures (London 65-66). He never really seems worried and it’s easy to see why. The man is far from helpless when it comes to life and death situations, even if he is a bit big-headed. It seems almost as if he has been trained on what to do in that specific situation. The reader later finds that it doesn’t matter in the end how resourceful he is as he ends up succumbing to the elements. This proves that even the strongest characters have their own fatal flaws. Compared to Koskoosh, the character from “The Law of Life”, the man is an absolute god. Koskoosh is about as weak as they come because of his failing eyesight, hearing, and, well, everything. He is even described in the book as forlorn and helpless (London 2). In the end, it seems to not really matter for either of these two. They both meet the same fate in an icy

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