The Call of the Wild and To Build a Fire both show a great amount of instinct and symbolism thorughout. Jack London, who is the author of these two stories, put so much thought behind the process of helping readers understand the facts behind the words of these stories. This essay will be comparing and contrasting these two stories and the symbolism they both show. It will also be showing what sort of story they relate to the best.
To Build a Fire was a story about a rookie explorer who believed he could cross the Yukon by himself with no training. The narator speaks in a third person perspective and displays the main character’s emotion through his actions. The story describes many features about the man as in what he is wearing, how he looks,
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The man character of this story was in fact a dog who has not figured out his purpose in life. Buck, which is his name, lived on a large farm house and didnt fit in with the fancy and uptight living conditions of his master’s family. One day he was kidnapped by some merchants who sent him up to the Yukon trail. Buck would serve the purpose of a sled dog since they needed large muscular dogs to pull them through the very thick snow. He had to earn his way up the ranks of his pack, falling down and getting back up was something he had to get pretty good at. He showed vast amounts of leadership skills and fairness which the current leader of the pack didnt show. Soon enough he challenged the alpha and had won a very hard fought battle. Buck showed his instinct to survive to his sled master when there was an avalanche. His master believed they should try and out run the avalanche by going left. Buck decided to go right because his instinct showed him that there was a tunnel in the side of the mountain they could take to escape from the avalanche
Demonstrated through this story, Jack London showed the inherent instinctual advantage that animals have over humans. The sled masters wanted to go one way and the dogs knew that there was another way out. The pack has learned how to adapt to these terrains and situations, and are able to look at every option and not make a rash