Jack London's To Build A Fire

In Jack London’s to Build a Fire, an unnamed man travels through the cold winter in Yukon. He is a newcomer to Yukon and does not care about how terribly cold it is. He is not bothered by the freezing weather or the fact that there is no sunshine. An old-timer warns him about traveling alone especially while it’s fifty degrees below zero however, the man shrugs off his warning and calls him womanish for saying this to him. The man’s careless decision unfortunately costs him his life.
After dismissing the old-timer’s warning, the man decides to carry on with his trip to Henderson Creek to visit some friends. The man is traveling alone alongside his native husky, who also does not like the idea of traveling in such cold weather. It is below fifty degrees and there is not one soul out on the road. The man has nine hours of hiking ahead of him and the temperature is only getting colder. He did
not grasp the idea of how, “fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and must be guarded by the use of mittens, warm moccasins, and thick socks.” He was oblivious and only thought of the temperature as cold and uncomfortable but nothing more of it.
Furthermore, as the man is traveling through the snowy night all he is thinking about are his friends waiting for him with a warm cozy fire and a hot supper.
He spat into the air and it froze before it even hit the snow. Deep down he realizes how intense the temperature really is but moves along anyway. The native husky, was upset with the man’s judgement to travel in these conditions. The dog however, remains on the man’s heels hoping he soon comes to a stop to build a fire; and so he does. When they finally reached Henderson Creek, the man notices that the creek is frozen and he is now walking on ice. After the dog breaks through the ice and wets his legs, the man decides to stop and help the animal dry his fur by building a fire. The man eats his lunch and they continue walking on the ice but this time the man is the one who breaks through. Realizing now how cold it is he thinks back on what the old-timer told him and wonders if he should have listened in the first place. As he tries to build a new fire he feels his fingers growing numb and unfortunately fails at doing
so.
Moreover, the man begins to panic because he cannot hold a fire and gets a crazy idea that if he can kill the dog, he can use its fur to keep his fingers and body warm. He soon after realizes that he has no energy left and that he cannot kill a dog if he can’t even lift his fingers to hold a twig. The man feels hopeless and comes to the conclusion that he is going to die. All of this could have been avoided if the man had simply listened to the old-timer’s warning and traveled at another time when it was not as cold. He felt like an idiot for thinking he can actually travel through the frost bite weather alone and make it out alive.
To conclude, as the man began to panic he decides to start running thinking he’ll make it. However, his body was icy and there was no warmth left inside of him so he lays down on the snow and accepts his fate. The dog watched him from a far and did not know what was going on at first but he eventually caught the scent of death. The dog howled loudly and later trotted away towards the camp where he knew there was a warm fire and food waiting for him. The man’s foolish decision left him dead. If he would have listened to the warnings of the old-timer and the dog he could have survived. But his careless ways got the best of him.