Compare and Contrast
The stories, "To Build a Fire," and "Powder" aren't written by the same author, yet they are more alike than you'd think. "To Build a Fire" is about a man and his dog trotting through the harsh winter weather and a few struggles they had on their way. On the other hand, "Powder" is about a boy and his father trying to make it back in time for dinner so the father could be trusted to have the boy's company.
In both "Powder" and "To Build a Fire," the snowy weather is an obstacle. In "Powder" the boy and his father attempt to head back home from their skiing trip, but the road gets blocked due to a large amount of snow covering the roadway. As if it weren't bad enough, the father already had to beg the mother to let them go. He even promised to get the boy home before Christmas Eve, but the trooper told them, "It might get cleared, it might not." This caused the father to panic and ignore the trooper's notice by driving off when he had driven away. This is similar to the problem in "To Build a Fire" where a man and his canine companion are trudging through the snow to reach a campsite with his male friends. This was especially difficult since it was 75 below zero which told us that there were 107 degrees of frost. (Jack London)
…show more content…
For example, there would be a difference in temperature since I doubt the father would take the boy out in weather anywhere near -75 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus in "Powder" the boy and his father are in the protection of their car whereas in "To Build a Fire," they are physically walking through the snow nearly frozen to death. Their situation in "To Build a Fire" is quite serious due to the fact that it is life or death. Unlike Jack London's excerpt, Tobias Wolff's is not as drastic since the story is regarding the trust between two