Analysis Of Christopher Mccandless In Jack London's To Build A Fire

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The short story, “To Build a Fire’ by Jack London is a devastating tale of a man who makes the foolish decision to go off the Yukon’s main trail. The story starts off saying “Day had broken cold and gray”(First Paragraph), as the man further travels off the path he gets into extremely cold temperatures, “The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow”(Second Paragraph). This man, this exceptionally foolish man who has never had a winter still continues to walk further upon the trail. However, this man was foolish but he was also simple, he looked at things in simplicity, he realized even though it was 50 degrees below freezing that the frost bite could be avoidable with mitten, hats, …show more content…

On Christopher journey he decided to enter the Alaskan turran with basically nothing, on his journey to Alaska people stopped him along the way offering him items to help insure his safety in the upcoming winter. Chris was foolish like the man he did not prepare as much as he needed to while coming into winter. While, Chris was on his journey he came across a trailer and decides that is where he was going to reside for the next couple of weeks. He was foolish and simple only bringing one bag of rice to help in survive in the wilderness, little did he know he was going to be stuck there for awhile. While Chris was adventuring out in the turran, the the river he crossed to get to the trailer (where he lives) started to get higher and was fericing flowing with water, making it impossible to cross. Chris started to run out of food and realized his simplicity might be the death of him, however, he did have a shotgun and a edible plants book and was able to carry on with eating meat he caught and plants he found. Sadly, even though Chris had a book of what not to eat and what to eat, he ‘misstepped’ and ate the wrong plant. A plant he thought was edible was actually a plant that would make it impossible for him to digest anything, furthing leading him to starve to death. Chris and the man were both simple men that travel into the …show more content…

On his flight, the pilot has a heart attacks and dies, while this is happening the plane is advancing downwards, and crashes. “Exhausted, terrified, and hungry, Brian struggles to find food and make a shelter for himself. He has no special knowledge of the woods, and he must find a new kind of awareness and patience as he meets each day's challenges. Is the water safe to drink? Are the berries he finds poisonous? Slowly, Brian learns to turn adversity to his advantage--an invading porcupine unexpectedly shows him how to make fire, a devastating tornado shows him how to retrieve supplies from the submerged airplane”(Paulsen). Unlike the man in To Build A Fire this boy was nowhere prepared to take on the journey of living in the woods alone, he had no background knowledge and everything he had to do was off of gut feeling, he was never sure. However, the boy was resourceful just like the man and was able to find ways to further prolong his living. The man in the short story made sure the dog went first so he would know when the ice was too thin, the boy in this story had things help him along the way like the tornado and porcupine. Yet, if they boy hadn’t of made the decision to go visit his father he would have never been in the position he was in. He made a wrong choice and it almost caused him his