Essay on To Build a Fire

      “No man should travel alone after fifty below,” were the words of the old-timer on Sulphur Creek. Although he had warned the man, he wasn’t going to listen. The man was simply too arrogant. In this short story, called “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the man is traveling along the Yukon trail with a dog. There are many conflicts in this story, but the main conflict is that it is incredibly cold. Although the man is well equipped for the extreme weather, he still has doubts in the back of his mind about making it back to the boys. The man simply gets so cold and frostbitten from the weather conditions that his body isn’t able to take it anymore. He should have listened to the old-timer and not gone out in the -75°F weather in this irony.  

     This story is an irony because it begins with chaos. The man and the dog are  traveling in very cold weather conditions and are freezing. The conflict gets very serious, for it is a matter of life and death. The main character, the man, is weak in power. Mother Nature plays the part of the evil, which is the frigid air. Because the man ends up dying, nature is certainly the dominant force. This book can also be classified as an irony because it makes you realize that your life is not so bad.                                                                                                                

     Although the man’s name is never mentioned, you can tell a lot about his personality. He does not act very caring towards the dog, and you can tell that he doesn’t have a “man’s best friend” relationship with it. He seems to be very arrogant, and thinks that he can handle anything. An example from the story is when he is thinking, “Those old-timers were rather womanish, some of them. All a man had to do was to keep his head, and he was alright. Any man who was a man could travel alone” (London). Those thoughts only exist until he actually gets out on the journey. He gets very cold and frostbitten, and soon wonders if he will make it to camp with the boys. Although the man learns his lesson, his stubborness costs him his life.                                                                                         

     In addition to the man being cold, the dog shows need for heat as well. Dispite its fur coat, it gets very uncomforable when it is not by fire. It looks upon the man as the “fire provider” (London), but that is about the only reason that he stays with the man. The man’s voice threatens it to whip lashes, and so it obeys him. The dog does not treat the man like his owner, for the man does not treat the dog well in turn. An example is when the dog gets pushed out by the man onto the ice when the man is testing to see if he would fall through it. This shows that the dog is not well cared about by the man. Although the dog is not treated so well, he is very brave and smart.                                   

     The man in this short story should have listened to the old-timer. He ended up not making it because he was too stubborn to consider the advice. He started hallucinating and died from the cold. The dog was loyal and stayed with him, and eventually started back to camp. Although the man should have listened to the advice, he also could have made the right choice by taking a chance. It was possible that he could have made it if he had been more prepared for the weather. What do you think he should have done?