Analysis of the short story “to build a fire” by jack london.

Analysis of the short story “To build a fire” by Jack London.

To build a fire presents a situation in which an ordinary man struggles to survive in an extremely threatening environment. Throughhis detailed description of the setting and the characters’ feeling, emotions and thoughts in such a difficult situation the author attempts to transmit his ideas about the role of mankind insertedin nature. The meaning we can grasp from the main character unavoidable final fate is that in a context in which the man has no control over the circumstances affecting him, his intellect and theknowledge gained living in civilized societies are useless in his struggle for survival.
The events narrated in the story as well as their resolution, transmit the idea that instinct is survivor’sgreatest ally when being affected by climatic risks. The main character fails in his intent to defeat nature because, in that context in which he lacks free will (because he cannot control thecircumstances affecting him) his resources and intellectual strategies are useless. He knows perfectly well all the temperature measures, he can determine which is the exact level cold he is feeling usingnumerical values, he can read his map and locate himself using exact coordinates and he carries his matches with him which would make it much easier for him to build a fire and warm himself by the heat, butnone of those advantages allowed him to reach salvation. On the other hand, the character of the dog, whose only resource was its own innate tendencies to act in a certain way in order to survive,took all the right decisions and behaved accurately, perceiving all the potential dangers surrounding him and acting in accordance. In the final paragraph of the page 122 of the text, the authorillustrated the superiority of the “brute” over the “rational creature” in that particular setting when he wrote that “All the time, in his consciousness, was the knowledge that each instant his feet were...