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Jack London's Like The Burning Fire

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This is a story about a domestic dog surviving in the Wild. A naturalist tale by none other than Jack London himself. A dog fighting to survive horrible tragedies. Like the Burning Fire, a man named Buck is faced with the North Canada climate. Where the cold temperatures can get down to below zero quick. Buck, a beautiful St. Bernard/Scottish Shepherd mix, Buck is quite a massive dog with stocky shoulders. In the first part of the story Buck is living in Santa Clara California (London, Jack). Buck is a prized dog that Judge Miller owns. However around this time period gold has been discovered in the northern part of Alaska (London, Jack). One day Buck is stolen by one of Judge Miller's gardeners. The Poachers sell dogs for a good amount of money up in Alaska (Book Rags). At this time it's almost like the drug cartels. Buck is used to being pampered and spoiled, but now he has ropes tied around his neck and pretty much beaten into slavery. As soon as Buck arrives in Alaska, Buck is forced to adapt to his surroundings (Book Rags). Buck has to obey his masters and if not he will suffer terrible consequences. The …show more content…

Death is a common theme in some of London's works as we saw in To Build a Fire, where the man with no imagination had frozen to death when it was 75 degrees below zero! London was always eager to find ways in himself and his characters. In a Naturalist story the main character must find ways to look inside him and survive, or be killed off. Jack was an oyster pilot on the pacific, a deep sea sailor and an Alaskan prospector who did multiple jobs in life while rigorously writing many short stories and novels. Jack London became the highest paid and most popular novelist of his day in time. Jack London was also a public speaker who almost became a mayor (Irving, Shepard). Jack London would spend 13 to 14 hours a day working at a hard manual labor job while only making 10 cents an hour (Irving,

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The short story “To Build a Fire” is a daunting story that follows a man’s journey in the cold Yukon with his dog. Author Jack London keeps readers on their toes and builds suspense with his powerful use of setting, theme, and imagery. London uses these elements to depict the man’s struggle to survive and overcome the obstacles he faces. First of all, the setting is arguably one of the most important aspects of “To Build a Fire” because it is one of the central focuses in the story. Set in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, the story allows us to see into the life of an average man who flocked to Canada to strike it rich without any knowledge of the climate or terrain.

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696 Words | 3 Pages

The novel The Call of the Wild is a story based on a dog named Buck who is a four year old part Shepherd and part Saint Bernard that lives in Santa Clara Valley, California. Buck is taken from his home to be a sled dog for delivering Alaskan mail. He goes through many transforming and unrealistic experiences that take him from being a dog to being a wolf. Buck meets many other humans and dogs and wolves in this story that all play a part in Buck’s transformation. It is overall a naturalistic tale about the survival of the fittest in nature and reality.

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368 Words | 2 Pages

Jack London use of clear sensory language makes evident the deterministic view of the short story “To Build a Fire”. In “To Build a Fire” a man and his dog go on a dangerous journey in hope of making it to “the boys” and face obstacles on the way. The man and his dog go on hoping to defeat the odds the harsh reality of nature 's

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747 Words | 3 Pages

From the beginning of the story the character is in a part of the world where temperatures can fall to minus seventy-five degrees and occasionally the sun may not rise for multiple days; this man is at odds with his setting. The very place the character is in is what destroys him, it's the very thing that takes away the most valuable thing the man has, his life. Jack London uses his style to make this idea of man versus nature much more real, he paints the setting in a way that shows a true beast of a setting that is the tundra of the Klondike. While the character doesn't have enough awareness of his surrounding, the author uses his style to demonstrate how frigid and relentless the setting is through the eyes of the narrator, using a form of writing called realism. Realism is “the quality or fact of representing a person, thing, or situation accurately or in a way that is true to life.”

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1806 Words | 8 Pages

London's ability to have complex psychological with his direct writing style is crucial for him to emphasize that the man's realization that he is close to death underscores the natural obligation that human beings must confront their mortality and accept their place in the natural world. "The landscape in 'To Build a Fire' is as much a character as the man and the dog... The descriptions are sparse and unadorned, but they have the power to create a sense of dread and danger” (Scott). The writing style of London illustrates the enviorment as a character, putting an emphasis on how important nature is and the natural obligation to respect it. Additionally, both quotes put an emphasis on how London's writing style conveys the harshness and danger of the Yukon wilderness through its sparse and unforgiving descriptions along with the feelings described with the

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253 Words | 2 Pages

Once there was a dog named Buck. Buck had a comfortable life. He lived on an estate in California and was the owner's pet. But that all changed when he was kidnapped. Buck was brought to the Yukon in western Canada.

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1365 Words | 6 Pages

Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" is the tragic narrative of a man who decides to travel alone through the hostile environment of the sub-freezing Yukon and quickly finds himself tied up in the harsh power of nature. The man accidentally falls through ice and into numbing water, drenching his feet for the remainder of his journey. Because of the severity of the cold, his life depends on whether he can build a fire immediately to avoid frostbite. After one partially successful attempt to compile a fire and several other pathetic ventures, the hopelessness of the lone man's struggle becomes apparent. After a period of panic, the man desperately tries to regain feeling in his limbs by running a great deal, but the man decides to face

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439 Words | 2 Pages

Within the book Call of the Wild, by Jack London, you follow a story about a dog named Buck. You follow him through the story in a third person point of view. The book is a fine work of realistic fiction. Even though it is most likely not ever going to happen in real life. It is in California, and in a part of Canada near Alaska.

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408 Words | 2 Pages

With every situation comes careful thinking and skillful actions. Buck comes from a wealthy background and isn’t used to the wild. Despite this, he learns quickly from his surroundings, the other dogs, and his owners. As he stays longer in the Arctic, he learns more and more about himself and his capability as a half-breed St. Bernard and Scotch shepherd. He gains his natural instincts

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1059 Words | 5 Pages

When Buck first arrives in the Klondike Gold Rush he is a domesticated dog unused to the harsh conditions of the wilderness. He soon adapts to his environment very quickly, becoming stronger and more resilient. Francois once said “ he was as strong as a man and as fleet as the swiftest deer”(54). Buck's strength is also seen in his ability to endure physical punishment. Despite being beaten and mistreated by his human captors, Buck never loses his spirit or his will to survive.

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2201 Words | 9 Pages

To the primitive world of dogs and Alaska came an allegory of human life. It was also an allegory of man’s condition in the society of London’s time as well as a revelation of the deepest emotions London’s felt about himself and that society. The novel has three levels, the first and narrative one the story of a dog, Buck who reverts, learns to survive in a wolf-like life, and eventually becomes a wolf. The second, or biological level, reveals London himself lived and felt climbing out of the abyss of poverty and deprivation to prestige as a writer and wealth.

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312 Words | 2 Pages

Jack London was a lifelong dreamer. The first money he ever received as a professional writer was for the science fiction story "A Thousand Deaths" printed by The Black Cat in 1899. Thirteen of his 188 published short stories and four of his twenty-two novels fall willingly into the category, and other stories contain fantastic elements. London explored numerous styles of science fiction: pre-history, apocalyptic catastrophe, future war, scientific dystopias, and technocratic dream land. Running through most stories are the ideas of social evolution, racialism, and anti-capitalism.

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1180 Words | 5 Pages

Jack London 's writing is harsh poetry. He describes scenes in such detail. Reading his work makes you picture how the scenes look in your head. He shows a deeper meaning in the events of his stories(Napierkowski). The point of view of the story is third person limited omniscient.

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705 Words | 3 Pages

Buck is a dog from Santa Clara Valley, a dog who lived in a huge house. He was the king of the property and was petted, fed well and treated like a loved and cherished dog. Buck was living a pampered life, where he had everything he want until the day where he was stolen, sold, and brought to an unknown environment. Buck has went through a change where he had to adapt quickly for survival. A place where he had to steal to eat, defend himself in order to survive.

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789 Words | 4 Pages

The dog had no idea how cold the actual temperature was yet it knew what needed to be done to survive. This shows that it is not facts alone that create knowledge, but the understanding of the situation and the imagination to create a better one. The combination of the need for imagination, natures indifference of humans’ survival and Jack London’s upbringing and beliefs lead to the death of the narrator. Jack London was born into a life of poverty but by the time he became an adult he found himself bellow where he started (Williamson). This is similar to that of the life of the nameless man in the story “To Build A Fire.”

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