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Comparing 'And To Build A Fire'

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The short story “To build a Fire” by Jack London and the poem “The Peace of Wild Things” by Wendell Berry both have unique perspectives of nature. Which shows the true nature of nature? Berry’s “To Build a Fire” shows the impartial yet serene beauty of nature which guides life as it is. He uses Imagery to show the struggles of life and the strong power of nature, along with the figurative language to show the peacefulness of nature. Tone is also used by London to influence his depiction of the power of nature.
Continued, The authors use imagery to describe ever changing nature. For example, from “To Build A Fire” paragraph 1, “It was all pure white, rolling in gentle undulations where the ice-jams of the freeze-up had formed.” This describes the peaceful side of nature, with ‘gentle’ hills and ‘pure’ white snow.
While, “The Peace of WIld Things” states, “I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.” He feels the serenity of nature which frees him from ‘captivity’. Though they both show the calming sides of nature with imagery, “To build a fire” describes true examples of nature's traits without bias. In conclusion, Berry more accurately represents the serene moments in nature. …show more content…

Influenced by good connotation, the poem only describes one side of life (the positive side). Likewise, From London’s poem “The Peace of Wild Things” it says, “I feel above me the day-blind stars.” The metaphor embraces the hidden beauty of nature, with the example of the stars hidden in the day. “To Build a Fire” tells a different story, “as he chuckled he noted the numbness creeping into the exposed fingers.” Nature didn’t have mercy nor enact anything worse, nature is unforgiving yet unbiased. Finally, the short story by London uses the truth of nature's impartial traits without using only one

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Imagery is one of the crafts that is very well used. I think that as a reader and our culture always view fire as a bad thing because it have the power to destroy a lot on its path such as we see here in the Desert when we have wildlife fires but ice has the opposite effect. It is supposed to bring peace and beauty. At Christmas, many around the world eagerly await snow to fully bring the season of the joy. I think the same is said in this story.

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In Mark Twain’s novel The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn, Emerson’s essay Nature, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, Minister’s Black Veil, nature causes skepticism within society. These texts show that skepticism contradicts the presence of nature. Society in these texts feel as if nature is pulling them one one rather than another. Mark Twain shows this concept through essence of natural law. Emerson believes that the views of nature and the beauty of nature can only be understood by a man when he is in solitude.

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But, nature does not exclude humans, human excludes themselves from nature. Within the “mists of [the] chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand and one items to be allowed for”(277). He uses clouds and storms and quicksands to convey that civilized life includes the same negativity included in the connotation of those conditions, but nonetheless, those too are apart of nature. The purpose of utilizing imagery is so evoke images people already have to connect with them on that level to make them understand that they must find a harmony and balance in the world. So, in order to restore order within one’s individual life, one must defy the social norms that distance themselves from nature to find harmony with it.

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Wordsworth and Muir express their fascination with nature using imagery and mood. In “Calypso Borealis”, John Muir states that he finds himself “glorying in the fresh cool beauty and charm of the bog and meadow heathworts, grasses, carices, ferns, mosses, liverworts displayed in boundless profusion” (Muir). The words “boundless profusion” appeals to the sense of sight and helps us imagine the scene and all the bountiful natural beauty of the place. The image shows Muir’s relationship with nature because it demonstrates his overwhelming, nearly spiritual, experience with nature. In the poem “I wandered lonely as a cloud”,

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841 Words | 4 Pages

Naturalism, or the belief and understanding that the strongest species will thrive is an important practice for the author, Jack London. London wrote many stories featuring naturalism, but two stories strongly use naturalism. The story, “The Law of Life” by Jack London is about a old man who is about to die, telling the reader that life is about naturalism. The story, “To Build a Fire by Jack London is a hiking adventure which shows the main character dying because he failed to start and keep a fire running. Both “To Build a Fire” and “The Law of Life” by Jack London show the idea of naturalism throughout the stories.

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He notices “…the trees separating from the shadows…the sweet scent of the air…the smell of the sun firing buds and opening blossoms” (193) He states: “This was nature.” (193). The reiteration of this statement in contrast to the night portrays to the reader the narrator and his friends evolving character. The young men go from the chaos of the night, and their juvenile thoughts and actions, and are forced into their new perspectives of their lives brought with the new

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The Impact of setting in “To Build a Fire” Nature often tests man’s limits. Sometimes man can overcome these tests and win; however, there are times when man just simply fails. In Jack London’s “To build a Fire,” a man faces trials which tests his limits. Unfortunately, through arrogance and a lack of purpose, the man ends up facing nature and struggles to survive. In “To Build a Fire” the setting affects the characters , plot, and symbolism.

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In ‘To Build a Fire,’ London repeatedly shows how the man does not have free will and how nature has already mapped out his fate. Indeed, both times the man has an accident, London states ‘it happened,’ as if ‘it’ were an inevitability of nature and that the man had played no role in ‘it. ’”(Edison Jasmine 1) Therefore, it is important for people to protect and respect to our environment. People should keep respect to the

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Their perspectives of nature, however, are vastly different due to their circumstances regarding companionship and affection from companions. Victor Frankenstein describes nature as calming and it brings him great happiness when he is surrounded by nature because he himself is happy and adored by friends who surround him. Frankenstein has friends whom he holds strong bonds with where “harmony was the soul of [their] companionship, and the diversity and contrast that subsided [their] characters drew [them] nearer together” (29, Chapter 2). He is surrounded by companions that give him plenty of love and affection that in turn, bring him happiness and a favoring outlook on nature. Victor takes pleasure in wandering through various scenes of nature, feeling accepted by it, therefore, he can portray it as full of life and “awful and majestic” (82, Chapter 10).

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When creating a story, every writer has different motivations and goals. Some writers describe psychological changes within the characters, others bring up different styles relating to what is occurring in the real world, and some discuss the region surrounding the area of the characters that they are creating. Through the analyzation of different naturalist’s texts, one can find different portrayals of nature and human interaction with the natural surroundings. Though the story The White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett and To Build a Fire by Jack London, two different interactions of humans and their natural environment are portrayed. One of these interactions is where human fits into the natural world and the other where the natural world is far

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Two scholarly writers brilliantly conveyed nature in their own opinion, an essay written by John Miller called, ”The Calypso Borealis," and a poem by William Wordsworth called, "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” Both authors created work that acquires their idea of the beauty of nature while showing their compassion and love for nature. They each endured the essence in their own way. Each author also used their memory as descriptive imagery to creative share the scenery and amazement of their experience. Each individual has their own personal opinion about nature and how they decide to express their feelings can be diverse, and both authors, John Muir and William Wordsworth, expressed their compassion and love for nature in their own way.

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Leilah Smith Dr. Cothren English II G March 1, 2018 Behind the Scenes: The Blissfulness of Nature Nature is a pure and natural source of renewal, according to Romantics who frequently emphasized the glory and beauty of nature throughout the Romantic period. Poets, artists, writers, and philosophers all believe the natural world can provide healthy emotions and morals. William Wordsworth, a notorious Romantic poet, circles many of his poems around nature and its power including his “The World is Too Much With Us” and “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.”

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However there is a deeper connection between romanticism and nature all together. Many poets consider nature as the source of human ideas and emotions. “Henry David Thoreau says a poet who lived in a cabin on Walden Pond for two years, believed that people were meant to live in the world of nature”. Although the work of nature is characterized by search for self or identity, the poet William Wordsworth getting inspiration from Coleridge and nature wrote of the deeper emotions. Romanticism and nature are connected because the artists and philosophers of the romantic period romanticized the beauty of nature, and the power of the natural world.

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The short story, To Build A Fire by Jack London demonstrates the man’s powerlessness compared to the forces of nature. It is the man’s ego that prompts him to challenge nature by embarking on the journey while he understands well that he will encounter the full wrath of extreme weather condition. Additionally, the man 's powerlessness is seen in the setting of the action, his lack of identity and the author 's depiction of the mightiness of nature. Besides, the protagonist effort to overcome nature is faced with equal efforts from the latter to defeat him as seen in his failure to light a fire. It is for these reasons that this paper maintains that the story, To Build A Fire by Jack London, is a true manifestation of the conflict between man and nature and which although the former initiate he losses to the latter in

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959 Words | 4 Pages

Nature is one of the most powerful and mysterious forces of the universe that influences man greatly. Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of nature and soul. It controls all the living, non-living, human, non-human, organic, inorganic and visible, invisible things. It rules over the universe like a monarch and man can’t escape from the influence of nature; he is influenced by both nature and culture. To man nature is the pure and original source of happiness.

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