The Bass, The River, and Sheila Mant by W. D. Wetherell, and Lamb to the Slaughter by Ronald Dahl display a theme of acting on impulse. This relates to our lives in many ways, In our everyday lives many things trigger us to act on impulse; when our parents chose to fight with us, we tend to ‘snap’ back, not thinking about how our actions could affect us in the long run. These stories share the theme of ‘acting on impulse’, even though they have different characters, settings, and events.…
“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 the short story, “How to Build A Fire,” and the short dialogue titled, “ Survival is the Ultimate Goal in World’s Toughest Sled Dog Race,” there are many differences while at the same time there are many similarities. To begin the two have many similarities. One is that they both are in the same general parts of Alaska. In the article about the dog races it says, “Crossing to Dawson City-the old Klondike gold rush town that marks the Quest’s halfway point.” This is where the short story’s, “How to Build A Fire,” setting took place. This means that the articles both take place in the same spots of Alaska in the cold winters. In the same articles (story) there are even more similarities. Another one is that, in both of the articles/stories one of the characters in…
In “Fahrenheit 451,” firefighters rush to homes and start fires, rather than prevent them. Ray Bradbury’s story depicts a futuristic society where fire has become the matter of a significant dispute. On one side, fire is seen as almost a cleansing tool used to purify the thoughts of ordinary citizens by protecting them from reading “dangerous” works of writing by burning all copies of forbidden books. The government tells its people that reading books would be terrible for the common good but truly know that allowing people to read books would lead to the people’s questioning of the government’s authority. From an opposite perspective, however, fire is a destructive tool used by the government to…
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.…
The protagonist did not think about his actions, analyze what he was about to do, or plan his way through the woods thoroughly (Gonzalez 96). One example of these shortcomings is when he left the first fire he made prematurely (London 83). The protagonist is so focused on moving on that he does not…
How often do you get a gut feeling that something is right or wrong? Do you follow your gut? In the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, a boy named Huck always trusts his instincts and follows his gut, but doing so sometimes leads him into trouble. Huck basically raises himself, not relying on parental guidance to do what is right. In the novel, Huck follows his gut feeling of right or wrong, which subsequently leads him to accept the norms of society through guilt and family.…
The natural causes to the reactions of humans by default are influenced through the culture and society in which the individual is exposed. Acting a certain way, thinking in a particular way, or even saying an opinion in a selective manner are all reflective toward the background of the displayed public. In comparison to behaving along the common good of the people, the attitudes and personalities of human nature can affect the lifestyle of the beholder and the surrounding population. Often times, without thought put into the spoken words or acted activities, the impulse of reacting in a decided way can frequently disturb and harm the community all together. Thus acting upon the repercussion of the personage, by human nature, the community will respond in a defensive and assertive stature, displaying behavior emulated through the inconsiderate activity of others. In the novel, In Cold Blood, Truman Capote utilizes rhetorical devices such as diction, syntax, and tone to address that by human nature, assumptions automatically are drawn from the presented first impression.…
Instincts for Nietzsche are one of the most important things that one should possess in order to stay true to who we are as humans. If we are to use reason every day in order to get things done than we are not being ourselves, we are fake. He states that the brain is the latest and shallowest development in our evolutionary time period that we humans have tracked through. If we go deeper into where we used to be before our brain, before our reason was established, all we have are our instincts. That’s how we got to where we are today. Every animal has their own set of instincts. Instincts are not taught to you, they are known from the time you are born. If you follow them then you will live. Instincts are basic survival knowhow’s of…
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.…
Instincts…..What are instincts? Instincts are what we possess as an organism something that is passed on from generation to generation. Instincts consist of knowing not to touch hot items or to look both ways before crossing the road, these instincts are there to stop you from harm’s way or imminent threat but one that lurks in our mind is the “fight for survival”. Fighting for survival as a human being is to the point that anything will be done at any cost to live; whether that is to sever you’re arm to get dislodged from a rock or to kill and eat a human being to survive. In the “Lord of the Flies” the civilized group of British kids turn from what was a…
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)…
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.…
Instincts are argued by some to be reflexes. “A instinct should distinguished from a reflex…
An instinct should be distinguished from a reflex, which is a simple response of an organism to a specific stimulus, such as the contraction of the pupil in response to bright light or the spasmodic movement of the lower leg when the knee is tapped. Instincts, in contrast, are inborn complex patterns of behavior that must exist in every member of the species and that cannot be overcome by force of will.[2] However, the absence of volitional capacity must not be confused with an inability to modify fixed action patterns. For example,…