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To Build A Fire By Jack London Analysis

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Imagine Lack of Imagination One would not think that imagination would be vital in the numbing Yukon, however in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”, the narrator proves just how much even a puny amount of imagination will help a man in the extreme cold; through ignoring old advice, lack of common sense, and inexperience with nature’s instinct, one man will face death’s door in the cool dark depths of the Yukon. Before the man departed for his journey, he had visited a wise old man (who had taken the journey across the Yukon before) for advice about the trip. The man had said to travel with a partner and to not underestimate the cold, but the man had laughed at his advice; now that he was in the Yukon he was literally freezing to death: “Perhaps …show more content…

The man did not listen the the elder’s advice, and once he realized, dumbfounded, that the old man was right, he realized how foolish he was not to bring a partner because he thought he could be independent, and the journey would be a walk in a (moderately cold) park. As the man walks through the Yukon, he decides to peel off his mittens and unzip his jacket to eat a quick lunch and quickly realizes that was a bad idea: “That man from Sulfur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in the country. And he had laughed at him at the time”(10). The man does not realize the significance of cold, and just how dangerous it can be when mixed with stupidity and absolutely no common sense. After the man builds his second fire (the first fire was for comfort, this fire is for survival), his only companion, the fluffy dog, wants to stay by the fire and not start to walk again because he knows exactly how deadly the frigid cold can be: “But the dog knew [about the cold]; and all its ancestory knew, and it had inherited the knowledge. And it now that it was not good to walk abroad in such fearful cold”(11). The man ignores the dog’s earnest motions to stay by the fire and moves on anyway, even though any man with a bit of knowledgeable mind would stay by the fire with the dog for

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In the below-freezing temperatures, he encounters challenges that are associated with survival of the fittest. He is left with no strength to fight for himself and perishes at the hands of nature's ruthless and unforgiving power. Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” demonstrates the goal to survive in the cold while using naturalism, realism, and foreshadowing in the fight for survival. London presented an understanding of what might happen in the future of the book. The foreshadowing tactics he used gave us an insight into what is going to happen next: “Usually

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Unfortunately for him, at the beginning of his journey, the cold did not bother The Man. He states, “it was cold and uncomfortable, and that was all…it did not lead him to consider his weaknesses as a creature affected by temperature” (London 2). The man knew it was extremely cold, but failed to recognize the intense gravity of his situation: he did not process it as a viable threat. Eventually, this lack of fear caused his unfortunate demise. As the story goes on, his environment begins to

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In additional, The Man is a completely layman for the life in the wild, he is keeping making mistakes. Jack London tells, “It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open. But it had been easier to pull the twigs from the brush and drop them directly on the fire”(605).

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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,

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Charles Moreland English 2 p. 7 8 February 2023 Dr. Swenson Is a lack of knowledge bad? How important is knowledge of the natural world? The natural world is everywhere. Most of the time however we are not affected by whatever it must throw at us. However, in Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire” the main character seeks out the harshest extremes of nature in the extreme cold of the Yukon.

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The Limitations of Ignorance Ignorance is a flaw that is engraved in the human psyche. This trait is exemplified in Jack London's short story “Building a Fire”. The protagonist's ignorance is his final grave mistake, other things were involved in his death, yet, his demise was encapsulated by his ignorance. By underestimating the uninviting and ferocious nature of the desolate Alaskan Tundra, the protagonist is faced with his imminent demise. London proves living in a state of ignorance and not using available resources is only going to be harmful.

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To begin with, Jack London argues about the dangers of using scientific knowledge over instinctual knowledge, as shown by the man’s ignorance of the dog’s instinctual knowledge. As the man walks along the trail lined with tall spruce trees, a big native husky trotted alongside him, depressed by the bitter cold: "The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. “It knew that there was no time for traveling. "Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment" (London 9). This quote speaks to how the dog is smarter than the man in this situation.

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He stops to build a fire to dry out his wet clothing, and at first it goes well and leaves us relieved and full of hope. Sadly fate decides to take a cruel twist though, and the man’s fire is blotted out by the falling snow of the tree that he built his fire beneath. He almost loses all hope, and by this time you could see why; his hands have gone nearly dead with the cold, his feet are no longer with feeling, and he has a sense of dreadful panic gnawing at his brain. He scolds himself for being so idiotic as to build his flame beneath a snow laden

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The narrator describes the Yukon Territory as 75-degrees below freezing and being a highly treacherous for anyone to travel alone (2). By introducing this hostile environment, London creates tension in the reader as they begin to question the man’s safety in the freezing cold temperatures, After the man falls into the river and starts to freeze to death, he builds a fire in order to survive. As the fire grows and the warmth spreads, the snow on a tree falls, knocking out his fire. Through struggles such as this one, suspense is created due to the severity of the danger the man faces and the risks involved in the

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The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.

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Stories are all told from different perspectives and told from several points of view. In some stories, the story is not told by any of the characters, but rather from an omniscient viewpoint. In literature, choosing a point of view is one of the most important pieces in telling a story. It is through the point of view that the readers experience a story. In Jack London’s short story, “To Build a Fire,” he utilizes an omniscient point of view in order to add to the impact of his story.

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They may think that the man and dog never think the same because in the text it said “The man did not know the cold; But the dog knew” This is showing that the man and dog had different perspective on the coldness. Some people may think that the man and dog always think the same. They may think this because in the film it showed the man and dog getting along, especially when they were having to cross rivers. This is showing, that when the man and dog had to cross the river they were both smart enough not to walk over it until the man pushed the dog on to the river. Although some people may think this, it is not true because the man and dog show think differently in some situations like when the man was trying to kill the dog and similarly in other situations like warm fires.

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The first reason I believe this is because he made a rash decision to go on a journey into the wild and did not prepare himself adequately. Yes, he may have been a smart man but nothing in his life had prepared him for his journey. The book states, “People from Outside... they’ll pick up a copy of Alaska magazine, thumb through it, get to thinkin’ ‘Hey, I’m goin’ to get on up there, live off the land, go claim me a piece of good life.’

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If man were to face nature, man will always lose if not accompanied by another. The powers of nature are much stronger than a single human body. Sometimes nature can be cruel, and other times it can be beautiful. In the story of, “To Build a Fire”, the character faces nature head on, alone. He had no company other than the dog that followed him around.

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