mother nauture and fought the battle of life
mother nauture and fought the battle of life
One of the tools many authors use in writing is imagery. Imagery is a concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea which appeals to one or more of our senses. There are five types of imagery implemented in literature which appeal to each of our five senses: touch, hearing, smell, sight, and taste. They are termed tactile imagery, aural imagery, olfactory imagery, visual imagery, and gustatory imagery. In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire”, he uses imagery to support the point of the story. The point of “To Build a Fire” is man’s naive notion that he is strong enough to overcome nature’s harshest obstacles.…
“To Build a Fire” is a naturalist’s view of the harsh peril that the Yukon can hold. The characters were all in the Yukon and each had different fates due to the willingness to accept the rules of such a harsh climate. The tone and mood help set up such a naturalistic story where one should not trifle with nature. Throughout the story the main character fights himself and the elements to try to survive. “To Build a Fire” by Jack London shows how the dismissal of knowledge and experience due to self-confidence creates arrogance.…
In “To Build a Fire”, by Jack London, the man is unable to withstand the unyielding Yukon climate because of his inability to recognize danger and his lack of imagination. In the beginning of “To Build a Fire”, the man is trekking in the snow covered Yukon hoping to reach camp by nightfall when he spits and it solidifies mid air, due to the below freezing temperatures. When he spits into the air, “There was a sharp, explosive crackle that startled him” (8). The man fails to notice that he should not be traveling in such cold weather, even after his own spittle freezes. Subsequently, the man does not succeed in sustaining a fire because his hands are numb and a piece of moss extinguishes the fire, when he thinks about killing the dog for…
In the story London describes the harsh weather that he had experienced.London describes the weather as being -75 degrees, and the dangers of that weather. The man is travelling from one area of the Yukon to another camp. He is traveling alone except for a dog. London writes “The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all” (To Build a Fire 27). The man does not understand the danger of this setting. Jack London’s time in the Klondike also influenced the conflict in “To Build a Fire”. Which is man vs. nature. The man has to get to camp before he freezes to death. He gets his feet wet, and can not start a fire. The man lacks the instincts and experience to survive, and he eventually freezes to death. “It did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man’s frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold, and from there it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immorality and the man’s place in the universe” (To Build a Fire 27). The man does not even think about what can happen to him in this environment, and he does not even think he can die in this…
Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” is a story about knowing your surroundings, and listening to your instincts, just as the dog in this story did. London’s human character, who is nameless in the story, is more like a foil; with the main character being the harsh landscape of the Yukon, where the story takes place amid -75 below temperatures. The man shows how arrogant and inexperienced he is when he travels to the Yukon Territory without proper clothing, the use of a sled, or companions. He has no camping gear, insufficient food supplies, and his surroundings appear insignificant to him. These vital mistakes not only cost the man anger, but eventually a slow, agonizing death due to stubbornness, and a lack of knowledge in the harsh realities…
Deepak Chopra once said, “The masculine energy was about survival. The male was the hunter who risked his life and had to be in the fight-flight mode.” When pertaining to survival, the main character in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London failed to follow three main steps in Laurence Gonzales’ nonfiction trade book, “Deep Survival.” The main character failed to stay calm, to think, analyze, and plan, and to never give up during his trek through the pure, untrampled white snow.…
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.…
Arthur Schopenhauer once said, “Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.” All of the characters in the stories learn the significance of what the things they once had. One similar theme that runs throughout those three works, “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop, and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin is the loss of something significant. Each story or poem has a different way of ending peacefully and handling the loss.…
Jack London's short stories, "Love of Life" and "To Build a Fire", both tell amazing tales of surviving in the wilderness of the Yukon. In "Love of Life", a man is left on his own to survive with a sprained ankle after his traveling companion, Bill, abandons him in a river. This unnamed man travels across the Yukon in search of a hidden cache that contains food and ammunition for his gun. Winter begins while he looks for his cache and he has to resort to eating live baby birds and minnows; he also has to give up his 15 pounds of gold. After a close run-in with a wolf that ends in the man biting the throat out of the sick animal,…
Crossbones was an eye opener that shows how the daily life in Somalia is like. The author has used his creativity to make us understand of the Somali culture and also made us think of what it means to walk the streets of mogadisco or Bosaso in putland.…
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.…
“To Build a Fire” demonstrates numerous examples of the philosophical theory of naturalism that “the universe is indifferent to human beings, and people are at the mercy of natural forces over which they have little control”. According to this statement, human life is very fragile. The fact that this story takes place in the Yukon region, one should know that the natural forces are at its strongest. This would cause an intelligent person to prepare, but not in this case.…
In “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the main character, also known as “the man”, is the protagonist. The protagonist is “the central character in a literary work and the character who initiates the main action of the story.” (Kennedy 2080) The man is a dynamic character whose lack of instinct, thoughtlessness and determination leads him to his own death.…
Ice collects. Death is near. In the story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the man in the story is in quite a predicament. He is freezing to death travelling along the Yukon while trying to get to the boys at the camp. While he tries his best to make it to camp, the cold gets the best of him, and he dies from the cold. Since he does not survive the trip, a question arises. What led him to that fate? There are several mistakes that led to his demise. The three worst mistakes that led to the man’s death were that he fell into an ice covered spring trap, he failed to make a fire through several attempts, and he travelled alone even though he had no experience.…
The term surviving means different things to different people. The definition of surviving means to remain healthy, happy, and unaffected in spite of an occurrence or struggle. In the story 'To Build a Fire' by Jack London, the main character is seen as a survivor; or a person who is unaffected by an endeavor. He has the skirmish with nature in this story, and he loses that battle. He doesn't meet his objective of reaching the cabin in Henderson Creek where he has the conception of meeting the boys and having dinner.…