Jack London Fire Essay

Jack London uses setting to show how human pride cannot overcome the indifference of nature. He tells a story about a man traveling alone with his dog in the cold weather to present this. The man is trying to get to camp before dark and believes that he will succeed without listening to anyone else’s advice. In the end he is wrong because pride cannot overcome the indifference of nature. Throughout the story, Jack London illustrates this with the cold and the fire. Jack London uses fire to represent strength and survival. Within the story the author says “there was the fire, promising life with every dancing flame.” The heat that the fire provides saves the man from the cold and from freezing to death. Therefore, the man views the fire as his rescuer and knows he needs it to survive. Later in the story the author says, “With the protection of the fire's warmth he ate his lunch.” The man

The author shows this a lot throughout the story, specifically when Jack London explains that the man, “...had a good growth of hair on his face, but that did not protect his nose or upper part of his face from the frosty air.” Since the man's face was not covered it shows how unprepared the man is and that he didn't even wear appropriate clothes for the weather he is traveling in. The man expected to be at camp before dark, but didn't prepare for if he got delayed or if the weather got colder. If the man would have prepared better he wouldn't have had to spend so much time on making fires every once in a while. The weather in the story is described as “75 below” and that the “freezing point is 32 above zero.” This is extremely cold weather where people can die, although that didn't seem to bother the man who came very unprepared. The man knew there were freezing temperatures outside but his ignorance kept him from preparing better and dressing