Jack London - Literary Analysis

Literary Analysis: To Build A Fire

            To Build A Fire is a story about a man and a dog fighting for survival in the bitter cold temperatures of the Yukon territory. The man in “To Build a Fire” is fighting for survival in an indifferent universe. He was a newcomer, or a chechaquo, to the Alaskan land. He was advised by an old-timer to not travel alone in this kind of weather but did so anyways. His ignorance kicks in and at seventy five degrees below zero he fights for survival and protection from vital body parts going numb and eventually freezing. His first mistake was being oblivious of the freezing cold temperatures and traveling alone. The second was when he fell through the spring and failed to make a fire multiple times for re-warmth of vital body parts. The man fights for survival under the circumstances until he finally freezes to death.

            The man in “To Build a Fire” is the main character. He comes from a generation of foolish and imprudent people that do not completely understand the actual danger in traveling across Alaska and the Yukon especially alone. The old-timer on Sulphur Creek was very serious in laying down the law about no man traveling alone in the Klondike particularly after it being fifty degrees below zero. The man thought that the wise old-timers were ‘womanish’, he thought any man could travel alone if he just kept his head on straight. Unfortunately for him there was a difference between having your head on straight and having a high ego. Traveling in the seventy five degree below zero atmospheres comes into effect when the man started to lose the battle with the frost and realizes that he has no choice but to soon freeze to death. This proves that nature is a stronger force than human beings, we can out smart her but unconditionally she is the stronger force. The man in the story is an example of expressing free will but ironically it is an illusion of what he thinks he is possibly capable of doing. The man thought he would achieve some kind of freedom and liberty with traveling across the Yukon with freezing temperatures but when he realized he would freeze to death that freedom was more of an illusion than reality. The man was ignorant of trying to achieve this, in the end only the wise survived.

The dog traveling with him plays a very important and significant role. The dog instinct tells him how to strive for warmth and life in such difficult extremities. When the man and dog come across a suspected spring the man forces the dog to go across first to check for any possible cracks. The dog suspects what is going to happen and attempts to refuse to go across. The man forced the dog across and out of loyalty he went but the dogs’ assumptions were correct as he partly fell into the freezing cold spring. The dog also knew it was way too cold to be hiking across the Yukon; he wanted to just stay close to the fire or crawl up in a hole and snuggle. The dogs’ thoughts on this reinforce the idea of nature as an indifferent force.

            The story To Build a Fire proves to be a fine example of a Naturalistic text. It consists of all the consistent themes that define naturalism and realism. Jack London is a fine writer and opened many doors for current authors with this piece of work and achievement.