In Jack London 's "To Build a Fire," he reveals how a man goes through a harsh winter in the forest facing multiple obstacles along the way. He has to depend on what he thinks he should do when problems arise instead of thinking intuitively and beyond the obvious. Before the unnamed man left on his expedition he was warned by an old timer "that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below" (London 238). If the man would have listened to the old timer in the beginning of the story he would have never had to be in any of the situations. But because the man likes to think for himself, it costs him his life. London shows readers that the outcome of events can change drastically if actions are analyzed with instinctive insight. London states, "The trouble with him was that he was without imagination" (231- 232). This tells us that in order to make it through hard times you have to use your imagination and think of creative ways to get yourself out of the situation you are in. London wants readers to understand that the man didn 't need just warmth and fire but he needed to build this fire where it wouldn 't be doused. Through tone, theme and characters, in "To Build a Fire", Jack London reveals the man 's struggle against nature and how mankind in general no longer trust their instincts to think beyond the surface of life and its situation to survive in a world where man in less significant than the forces of nature.
As the reader first begins the story they will