Compare And Contrast To Build A Fire And Cast Away

Imagine trudging on the bitterly cold Yukon trail with the freezing wind whipping your face. Your face is numb with frost and you can not feel your toes anymore. Also imagine sitting on a uncomfortably hot beach with your injured leg tied up with a rag. The warm salt water laps at your feet as you try to get out the last of the water from a coconut. This is how life was for the newcomer from Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and Chuck Noland from Robert Zemeckis’ Cast Away. They are both in very different situations, but both of their survival skills are put to the test. The newcomer is an arrogant and overconfident traveler who is trying to go out into the wilderness when the temperature is 75 degrees below zero. His main goal is to get to
On Christmas night, he is on a plane when it crashes in the middle of the Pacific. With the help of Wilson the volleyball and the packages that fall from the FedEx plane, he manages to survive and escape the island back to civilization, despite the unlikely odds. A comparison of Chuck to the newcomer shows that Chuck values companionship and the newcomer does not, and they both value perseverance and time-efficiency. These values affect the outcome of both of their stories, and the survival of the characters.
Chuck values companionship whereas the newcomer is absent of that value. While Chuck was talking to a friend once he got home from the island he says, “I’m so sad I don’t have Kelly. But I’m so grateful that she was with me on that island” (Zemeckis). This statement means that for Chuck, the thought of Kelly helps him survive on the island. Chuck is thankful that he is still alive and the memories of him with her keep him going. In this section of text, Chuck says that “I’m so grateful that she was with me on the island” this does not mean Kelly is literally on the island with him, but instead, he is hinting that imagining about her
The newcomer’s feet are frozen badly when he travels across ice and breaks through, resulting in wet frozen feet. So, he builds a fire so to warm himself again. But, he makes the mistake of building the fire under a tree where he is gathering branches and twigs from. In the tree, one of the branches snapped and brought down a load of snow on the fire. Instead of giving up, the newcomer starts to gather materials for the next fire that he must build to survive. “He made a new foundation for a fire, this time in the open, where no treacherous tree could blot it out. Next, he gathered dry grasses and tiny twigs from the high water flotsam. {..} He worked methodically, even collecting an armful of the larger branches to be used later when the fire gathered strength (10). This statement shows that even though the newcomer is experiencing extremely cold temperatures of seventy-five below zero, he is forcing himself to build another fire and to keep going in hope that he will get to the camp and see the boys. And later, in hope that he can just survive the cold temperatures and escape death. In this statement, the newcomer uses the word “treacherous” when describing the tree that blots out his fire. This is because the fire symbolizes his hope and his survival, and he depends on the fire. Without it, there is no hope that he will make it through this journey. This is significant because people