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How Did Jack London's Message In To Build A Fire

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No one plans or even wants to lose their life due to an unfortunate mishap. Wouldn’t it be better to check twice, and to think ahead? No wonder our mothers ask so many questions before we leave the house. Jack London’s “To Build A Fire” causes distress in readers’ minds and makes them wonder how a simple topic can turn out to be so horrific. In “To Build A Fire” the central message is survival of the fittest in the world. He died because he was not able to make it back without freezing to death. The man didn’t care, and he didn’t realize how serious it was. The man thought he was powerful and could beat nature, but that’s not what ended up happening. Like the author said, “ Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt... “ (London 332). The dog knew how cold it was and wanted to go back, but the man had no sense of the danger they were facing. “ He was quick and alert in the things of life but only in the things, and not in the significances” …show more content…

When talking about his theory throughout the essay he says “They killed seventy-two of those great animals and ate part of one of them and left the seventy one to rot.” (Twain 374) This quote proves that human beings are wasteful, and only care about themselves. Humans just kill for fun, and instead of cleaning up after themselves they just leave it there to rot as if the animals were never alive in the first place. Twain proves that not all animals behave like humans by saying, “The grateful reptile immediately crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay back satisfied. It showed no further interest in the calves and no disposition to harm them.” (Twain 374) Although humans believe to be the highest animals, their actions prove otherwise. All of these negative and selfish actions make man the lowest animal. “The Lowest Animal” shows the real colors of humans in

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Man is the only living thing that has done evil acts for their own purpose of pleasure and to gain power over others. Man is the only one that commits acts of torture. He is the only one that uses pain as a method of punishment. Not only do men use pain as punishment but they also use it to gain an advantage over others. According to Mark Twain’s satirical essay, “The Lowest Animal”, he expresses “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel.

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This is a simple strategy to use in this essay because people have feelings towards animals. The “growing human population often pushes the giant beasts off their grazing lands” (par.7). This was an effective way of making the readers feel guilty of their actions. The amount of animals being killed also makes the audience feel bad. To many’s shock, “one elephant is slaughtered by poachers every 15 minutes” (par.10).

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Unfortunately for him, at the beginning of his journey, the cold did not bother The Man. He states, “it was cold and uncomfortable, and that was all…it did not lead him to consider his weaknesses as a creature affected by temperature” (London 2). The man knew it was extremely cold, but failed to recognize the intense gravity of his situation: he did not process it as a viable threat. Eventually, this lack of fear caused his unfortunate demise. As the story goes on, his environment begins to

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“It was a pleasure to burn” (Bradbury, P.1)”. How can today’s society today be compared to this dystopian world? The book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a prediction of what modern society would be like in the year 2081. In this society book are burned to limit information and to keep people from thinking. These people that burn books are called firemen.

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Twain use rhetorical appeals and techniques to prove that mankind is the lowest of all. Mark Twain says that he placed animals and cage to create scientific experiences and to shorten this he stated that animals act preferable than human therefore they should be considered the higher animal. Among Twain's argument are humans are never satisfied and are always avaricious toward everything they have. He also demonstrated with examples how man acted in certain situation, an animal with knowledge ,with regard to this an example that can be considered is how animal only accumulate what they need while human are never satisfied , humans accumulated excess of what they can ever consume. Man is by nature avaricious the more they have, the more they desire

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“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.

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He begins his essay by stating, “Man is the religious Animal” and contradicts later in the essay when he states, “Next, in...from wapping”. By including this example he demonstrates how people from different religions, all share the disliking of the concept of hate and violence, yet when put to the test they failed their gods. They were placed in the same area for a short period of time they murdered one another. Twain includes this to demonstrate that there is much tension between people of different religions, cultural backgrounds, and countries. This helps the audience understand that animals are the precocious creatures due to the fact that they can learn to live and love one another in a tranquil

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I completely agree with the main idea of Twain’s essay. I also believe that humans are not the highest of the animals. How could the highest of the animals be so willing to kill and do wrong the way humans do? “The cat plays with the frightened mouse; but she has this excuse. She does not know that the mouse is suffering… she only scares the mouse, she does not hurt it; she doesn’t dig out its eyes, or tear off its skin, or drive splinters under its nails) man fashion; when she is done playing with it she makes a sudden meal of it and puts it out of its trouble” (Twain 3).

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Argumentative Essay In “To Build a Fire,” the story of an unnamed man traveling along the Yukon Trail with a dog is told. Throughout the story, the man’s death is foreshadowed. The husky that he is traveling with has a natural instinct and understands, seemingly more than the man, that traveling the Yukon Trail in the freezing cold temperatures is extremely dangerous. The man soon learns how cold it is when he spits.

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The Lowest Animal by Mark Twain shatters the illusion that the human species is superior in every way to animals. The essay satirizes that animals are superior to the human species through the use of made up experiments. Twain utilizes these experiments to demonstrate the parallels between the behaviors of animals and man. These experiments showcase how animals are the “higher animals”. Even more, the experiments are attempting to prove how we, as man, have descended from these higher animals only to lose a few of their favorable traits.

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Jack London’s use of third person narration in telling the story allows the reader to be privy to information surrounding the unnamed man of which he is unaware. In using third person, London builds anxiety by foreshadowing the dangerous events that are about to happen to the man. In the story, after falling into an ice-cold stream, the man builds his new fire under a tree. As he begins to pull the branches from the tree above his fire, other snow-covered branches begin to shake (12). The reader, knowing about something that the man does not, builds suspense as they

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The man plans to meet a group of boys at a mining camp and he does not let the cold keep him from traveling to his destination. The narrator contrasts the man’s thoughts with the dog’s thoughts. Unlike the man, the dog “knew that it was not time for traveling,” (630). The omniscient point of view allows us to get into the dog’s mind to see what he is thinking. We are also clearly able to see the main difference between the man and the dog.

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In “The Lowest Animal”, Mark Twain explains man’s morals and ethics as they compare to the “higher” animals, while in the poem “Ethics” by Linda Pastan, a simple situation is given to show what a person believes is right and wrong; both works reveal the theme hope. Mark Twain takes an interesting approach to explain human nature in his work, “The Lowest Animal”. For example,“[h]e is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it” (Twain 538). People understand that hurting another human being is wrong, whether that be physical or mental abuse. However they sometimes do it anyways for the satisfaction that the action provides.

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From this you can see that the man and dog share many different and similar thoughts on their journey through the Yukon Trail. The man and dog think differently in some situations like when the man or chechaquo(New comer) was trying to kill the dog. The man and dog also think similarly in other situations like, they both have the same idea of survival. For example, the man and dog both think the same about the fire. Therefore, the man and dog have different and similar thoughts while strugglings to get to the other side of camp were the boys

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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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