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How Does Twain Show The Challenges That It Takes To Survive In The World?

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Charlie Storhoff Hour 2 English 11 These three works show the challenges that it takes to survive in the world. “To Build a Fire” shows an actual challenge and the level of difficulty that some problems present to people. “The Lowest Animal” shows the extremes that people go to to survive, and The Fish shows the reward for overcoming these challenges. In “To Build a Fire” Jack London shows that there are many challenges that come up, and they may seem impossible to overcome but that is just the way it is. He uses a real life example a man trying to survive in the Yukon territory. In the story London says “It was a steep bank, and he paused for a breath at the top…” (London 331). This quote may not seem like much more than just a sentence in …show more content…

Twain uses real life examples of ridiculous things that people do to ensure their own survival without thinking about what it does to others. He says, “I was aware of men who accumulated more millions of money than they could ever use… and they have not scrupled to cheat the ignorant and helpless out of their poor servings…” (Twain 374-375). Twain exposes the fact that people would do anything that they can to ensure their own quality of living before thinking about what it means to anyone else. Twain uses logical situations in his story to show the ridiculousness with which some people handle their problems and tough situations. Finally here is a story that shows the reward for your hard work. In The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop she uses a fish to show that the way to overcome the problems that we face every day is to be tough and never give up, and the rewards and success will come with the work. In the story she says, “and then I saw.. That from his lower lip… hung five old pieces of fishing line… and victory filled the little rented boat… and I let the fish go” (Bishop 402-403). This shows that if you work and overcome all the challenges that you face you will earn the respect of others and the challenges you face will become easier and easier. Overall these texts all have one common theme and it is survival. Mankind will work really hard to

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The struggle of man versus nature long has dwelt on the consciousness of humanity. Is man an equal to his environment? Can the elements be conquered, or only endured? We constantly find ourselves facing these questions along with a myriad of others that cause us to think, where do we fit? These questions, crying for a response, are debated, studied, and portrayed in both Jack London’s “

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