Personal Narrative: To Build A Fire By Jack London
When I was a senior in high school, I thought I was invincible. I had signed myself up for as many clubs and extracurricular activities that it became too hard to function. My mother constantly told me, “When a person is stretched thin with many activities that the body’s immune system weakens”. Did I listen to her wise words? Well did the man in To build a fire listen to the old-timer from Sulphur Creek? No. Although I do not die in my story I felt as though I came pretty close, all because I thought I was better than the advice that was given.
Two weeks before Christmas I had a heavy plate at school and at home. It seemed as though every club I was in either had a rally or a meeting that I needed to attend. My friends and I were …show more content…
The main character stupidly travels across the Alaskan tundra after an old wise man told him that, “…no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below” (London 132). The Yukon man did not listen. He thought he was better than the advice given, just as I had with my mother. For example the man gets his feet wet while crossing a soft patch of ice, yet he is able to start a fire to stave off frost bite. While the fire was warming the man up, he thinks back to the warning the old man told him of not traveling alone across the tundra. The traveler laughed at the flashback of the old man’s warning stating that, “old-timers were rather womanish” (132).That is until, the wind blows and drops enough snow on his fire that it extinguishes. Try as he might he never gave up trying to start another fire and every attempt failed because it was too cold. Had he had another person with him he could have had some help. He ultimately paid the price of not listening to critical advice and died a cold and slow death with his last words being ““You were right old hoss; you were right’”. Sometimes it pays to listen to good advice it could mean life or death. Unfortunately there are people like the traveler and myself who have to learn the hard way for us to truly
Two weeks before Christmas I had a heavy plate at school and at home. It seemed as though every club I was in either had a rally or a meeting that I needed to attend. My friends and I were …show more content…
The main character stupidly travels across the Alaskan tundra after an old wise man told him that, “…no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below” (London 132). The Yukon man did not listen. He thought he was better than the advice given, just as I had with my mother. For example the man gets his feet wet while crossing a soft patch of ice, yet he is able to start a fire to stave off frost bite. While the fire was warming the man up, he thinks back to the warning the old man told him of not traveling alone across the tundra. The traveler laughed at the flashback of the old man’s warning stating that, “old-timers were rather womanish” (132).That is until, the wind blows and drops enough snow on his fire that it extinguishes. Try as he might he never gave up trying to start another fire and every attempt failed because it was too cold. Had he had another person with him he could have had some help. He ultimately paid the price of not listening to critical advice and died a cold and slow death with his last words being ““You were right old hoss; you were right’”. Sometimes it pays to listen to good advice it could mean life or death. Unfortunately there are people like the traveler and myself who have to learn the hard way for us to truly