Preview

To Build A Fire, By Jack London

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
408 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
To Build A Fire, By Jack London
“To Build a Fire” is a story about one character, the man. This man throughout the story doesn’t say one word. He is pretty calm throughout the story. The main man or the only man for that matter seems to be a hard working man but is lacking in imagination. I believe this man has no imagination because he doesn’t think he needs one.
Jack London writes about a man around his fifties or sixties for this story. The only other “character” in this story is the dog that the man runs into. Like the man, the dog has no name. The nameless man seems to be a hard or a tough man that isn’t that well adapted to his surroundings. We can say that he might not have been around these kinds of situations before. For one instance he builds a fire under a tree

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Stories with different theme,plots, mood, tones, and setting is what makes up a story. In the short story “ To Build a Fire” the main focus is setting. Setting is when and where the story takes place. Setting can also have a dramatic affect on characters. For example, the author Jack London has the setting take place in the Yukon Territory, making a dramatic affect on the character. The setting in “To build a Fire” impacts the character mentally, emotionally, and physically.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “To Build a Fire” takes place in the Yukon Wilderness. A gold discovery in 1897 led many to brave the Yukon Wilderness (Murdrock). “Within six months, approximately 100,000 gold-seekers set off for the Yukon. Only 30,000 completed the trip” (Murdrock). The Yukon was a very cold and dangerous place with average temperatures around negative twenty degrees with lows reaching far passed negative fifty degrees (Murdrock). With only thirty percent of gold seekers completing the trip with even less claiming the riches they were seeking.…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story "To Build a Fire," by Jack London, a newcomer crosses the treacherous Alaskan Yukon during the time of the gold rush, in a search to seek great fortune. Unfortunately, his failure to heed to the experienced old timer, as well his lack of knowledge resulted in him being unaware of the danger that faced him from within his surroundings. Thus, the theme of survival is conveyed through setting, sensory detail and characterization.…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published after The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The book was Stowe’s protest against not only to the Slave Act, but to the institution of slavery itself. Henceforth, within the book Stowe gives examples how there is no “good slave owner”, by pointing out the flaws St.Clair and Shelby possess in the act of keeping slaves, even though they are considered to be kind to their slaves. Explaining that there can’t be a good Christian person who owns slaves, since her target audience is mostly towards the religious north. Although throughout most of the book Stowe focuses on the story and not the reader, she would at times break the fourth wall to directly question the reader’s morals directly and address key points in the story…

    • 210 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story “How to Build a Fire” there is a man and his dog traveling through the frigid temperatures of 70 below zero. In the story they never disclose the man’s name and it is very odd to me. The man didn’t listen to his body, dog or anyone for that matter. He was not prepared for the harsh conditions and he was not ready to take on the hardest challenge of his life and it ended up costing him dearly.…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Survival is not about being fearless. It's about making a decision, getting on and doing it, because I want to see my kids again, or whatever the reason might be.” -Bear Grylls, survival expert. The protagonist of “To Build a Fire” by Jack London may have been fearless, but that does not lead to him to survival. He makes several critical mistakes that cost him his life, including, as Bear Grylls talked about, making decisions and taking action.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the book To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee teaches life lessons that show the unfairness of prejudice, the importance of dignity, and the need for respect. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book about the small town of Maycomb and two children named Scout and Jem. Scout and Jem's father is a lawyer assigned to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. Tom was charged with rape. Just because he is black Tom is found guilty.…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    to build a fire

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The bone-chilling cold in To Build a Fire effects the main character, an unnamed man, and inevitably kills him. The unnamed man takes his chances in the wilderness by himself, with a half wild dog, even when told not to by an old prospector. The extremely cold temperature effects the basic motor function of his extremities.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    night by Elie Wiesel

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the novel ‘’Night’’ by Elie Wiesel, Elie describes that many acts were committed against the Jews during the Holocaust, that as still hard to believe in the modern era. ‘’Night’’ by Elie Wiesel, clearly defines the several hardships the Jews endured and also how unfair they were treated as human beings shown in the loss of Jewish faith, death marches and intense hunger.…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I. In Greece the polis of Sparta was the number one military authority for the people and for the time period. There was nothing that the Spartans could not do when it came to war. From the time that Spartan men were born, they were evaluated for their future services to the Spartan society. Each baby was sent to have the ten, ten, one test done on them as explained in the novel, The Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. This test was to check and make sure that there were no deformities. If there were the children were killed because they could not help the military, therefore had no purpose in their society as a whole. Sparta was a militarist state. The other helots and Athenians and so on, looked to the Spartans for guidance and often for overall protection during the times of war. Their society as a whole was very separated from the rest of Greece though. For example in the novel when Xeones talks about his dreams to be a Spartan he knows that he would never be recognized, while his cousin Diomache wants to be an Athenian she knows that is it possible. One could only call himself a Spartan if he was born of a Spartan in Sparta.…

    • 1928 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin was an interesting and very well written book. I found James Baldwin’s account of being black in America to be very honest and blunt. I related a lot with James and his relationship with the Christian Church. I understood his conflict with what he had been taught all his life to believe. I also in some ways felt like James was speaking to me as I was reading his letter to his nephew.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    To Build A Fire Analysis

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The narrator in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, experiences the loss of fire.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Night by Elie Wiesel

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Cattle cars. Burning bodies. Auschwitz. These words are engraved in the mind of every Jewish person on Earth. After decades, Holocaust survivors still have nightmares about these thoughts. One word, one indescribable word, will forever stay with these people. Holocaust. Many people of the Jewish faith realize the power of that word, but many others still need to learn. A man is sitting peacefully in his home; he has no worries, even when Nazi soldiers dragged him into the horrendous ghettos. He also willfully went into cattle cars, and then finally into Auschwitz. This is where that man realized that his life became horrible. Throughout the months in the work camp, throughout all of the suffering, his will to survive surpassed the will to kill of Nazi soldiers. Years later, people know that events like the Holocaust will, and are happening right now, such as the Bosnian Genocide 1992. Education also will get rid of the desire for power in human beings. Educating students about the Holocaust, and other genocides, will help prevent genocides in future generations. Man has the will to survive and surpass evil like the Holocaust survivors, genocides like this will happen again, and education will help prevent genocides in the future.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Night by Elie Wiesel

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I determined That Elie Wiesel Is a Non-Static Character Because of the loss of his childhood, family, and identity. In the Memoir Night By Elie Wiesel, we are told the horrific life experience of how Elie went from a peaceful, religious, young jew to A victim of the holocaust. Elie has his Life turned completely upside down As he is separated from his family, Taken prisoner, and tortured in the process.…

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In the story, the man is traveling with a dog. The dog is somewhat a companion, but for the most part it only views the man as a fire and food provider. The only item the man brings with him is his lunch wrapped in a handkerchief. His ultimate goal is to reach a camp where “the boys“ are. At the beginning of the story, London describes the man as, “ without imagination.” and “quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not the significances.” (London 115) This leads the reader to believe that he thinks about the perils he will have to overcome in his journey to camp, but does not think about how they will come or what his actions will do to provoke them. For example, when the man built his first fire, he built it under a spruce tree. He knew it was easier to pull the twigs from the tree and put them in the fire if it was right underneath, but he did not clearly think of what he was doing. “Each time he had pulled a twig he had communicated a slight agitation to the tree, an agitation sufficient to bring about the disaster.”(London 120) The agitation eventually caused the snow piled up on the tree to collapse right on the fire underneath. The man seemed confident that he would not face too much danger. He did not think about the weakness of human beings compared to the strength of nature. Instead, he believe that all he needed in order to live was to “keep his head”.(London 119)…

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays