To Build a Fire
Siužetinės Linijos Tekstas
- There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance.
- I GOT THIS! I'M SO COOL THAT I DON"T LISTEN TO ANYONE!
- ONE OF THE WORST IDEAS YOU'VE EVER HAD, CHIEF.
- The dog is obedient to both the man and nature.
- WALK ACROSS THE LAKE. NOW!!!
- BUT MY 100 IQ TELLS ME THAT I REALLY NEED THE FIRE!
- The fire in the story represents life and survival.
- The man is vain, has a big ego, and this causes him to be arrogant. He is also an overconfident person because he ignores all the warning signs that tell him if he goes on the journey, it would definitely lead to his demise. He didn't turn back even when he fell through the ice, didn't listen to the old man at Sulphur Creek, because his pride got the better of his wit. This condemns his final hours to be filled with pain and regret.
- Nature is inherently cold and unforgiving.
- SHOULD'VE LISTENED TO THAT OLD MAN, BUT OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T!!!
- The dog is the antithesis of the man in the sense that the dog listens to nature's warning signs and is cautious. This is contrasted to the man's ignorance. On multiple occasions, it tries to access shelter by digging, longs for fire, and senses the dangers of the harsh temperatures outside. The dog is obedient to nature. However, the dog is also obedient to the man because not only is the dog scared of the man, but he is obedient to the man because he is of use for making fires, and the dog recognizes that. Once the man dies, the dog realizes that he is no more of any use and abandons his corpse.
- The setting that Jack London creates sets the mood for the story and raises the stakes of survival.
- Fire symbolizes life in the story because it is often seen as a security blanket along the man’s journey. It represents the thriving of life because the man’s inability to light the fire displays his lack of human knowledge, companionship, and skills— skills required to facilitate life. Moreover, fire represents the unpredictability and cruelty of nature. The man constantly struggles to light fire throughout the story and the fire briefly burns him when he finally lights it. The man never succeeds in his goals and is eventually subdued from the cruelty of nature
- In the end, regardless of the man's abilities, he cannot do anything because of his overwhelming fears.
- BRAIN.EXE HAS STOPPED UNEXPECTEDLY!!!
- I TOLD YOU SO!!!
- Through the dark and cold setting that London portrays, the cruelty of nature is further touched upon. For instance, the freezing temperature provides relentless challenges for the man to face. When the man begins embarking on his story, his hands and feet immediately freeze up. This poses a major challenge for him through too the rest of the story, as the cruelty of nature constantly sets him back from his goal. The story portrays nature as relentless and unforgiving even to those full of pride. Nature does not spare anyone.
- Jack London establishes the setting as a cold tundra filled with lush pine trees, yet at the same time, the setting is described as a place void of life. In addition, the thin ice through which the man falls, frostbite occurring as a result of the mindblowing temperatures create suspense and tension within the reader throughout the story as to the man's fate. The vast emptiness of the setting raises the stakes for the story combined with all the odds against the man.
- When the snow falls on the fire and extinguishes the fire, the man finally realizes the gravity of the entire situation and tries to remedy the situation by trying to light all the matches at once at the expense of his hands getting burned. After this, he got desperate. Regardless of the man's skills and experiences in surviving harsh conditions like the one he faced in this story, skill and experience didn't remotely matter because the man didn't know how to stay calm. He let fear cloud the rational side of his brain. If he didn't allow fear to overwhelm him, he could have gotten himself out of the sticky situation that he was to be blamed for in the first place.
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