Preview

Setting In Jack London's To Build A Fire

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
569 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Setting In Jack London's To Build A Fire
Every story has a setting, whether it be in the Klondike like in ‘To Build a Fire’ or it can even be on the dark, depressing, cold that is space. A setting can set up a story by being both the place, time, and even the main character. The setting can always and will always either be an enemy or a friend to the protagonist, that is if the setting is not the protagonist. In Jack London’s ‘To Build a Fire’ the setting, in the Klondike, is the protagonist and ends up even killing the main character because he did not heed an old man’s warning. The setting of the short story, ‘To Build a Fire’ creates a plethora of problems that the main character who is so ignorantly and willingly put his life in the pot of the poker table, challenging Nature at its own heartless game. The main character soon learns that the game is rigged and the rules are bent in Nature’s favor. The man misjudged how …show more content…
You can see in many places where the setting has shoved the man closer and closer to his truly chilling fate. The setting hardly affects the man’s traveling partner because. Pepper, the dog, was built for that type of setting, but even it knew that traveling in that temperature was a dangerous and foolish thing to do, as put by London. The stories with the most evidence of the setting affecting characters are stories in which the setting is the antagonist. That includes ‘To Build a Fire’ because the main antagonist is the weather. Never once in a story I have ever seen has the setting played no part in the plot. . But there is an instance in which a character is mostly unaffected by the setting, which would the dog in the story ‘To Build a Fire’. The setting is much like ‘If, then, and else’ statements in code. If the setting is here, then this could happen, if else then this will

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Stories with different theme,plots, mood, tones, and setting is what makes up a story. In the short story “ To Build a Fire” the main focus is setting. Setting is when and where the story takes place. Setting can also have a dramatic affect on characters. For example, the author Jack London has the setting take place in the Yukon Territory, making a dramatic affect on the character. The setting in “To build a Fire” impacts the character mentally, emotionally, and physically.…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    What is the central conflict of the story? What is the source of the struggle?…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    An eighteen-year-old named Kai Kloepfer has invented a gun recognition system that has the potential to save lives. This invention, which he has named the “smart gun,” will only fire when it recognizes the fingerprint of the person pulling the trigger. The idea is to make a dangerous weapon like a gun less dangerous by only allowing it to be fired in the hands of someone responsible.…

    • 267 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another example that the setting contributes an enormous part to the story is where Bet lives. She lives in an upstairs apartment which is way too nice and pricey for Arnold and her. The setting sets a struggle for Bet because she has can not take care of Arnold and pay the bills of the house. Therefore her having to send Arnold away. Which implies that the meaning of the work is that we all have to do things we aren't fond of in our…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, the setting is very important in the story. Brian thinks to himself, “There were wolves, he thought, and bears-other things.” The book takes place deep in the Canadian forest and this setting helps create the mood. Anyone trapped in a forest and have no idea where they were would freak out and be scared like Brian is. But if the setting took place anywhere else then Brian would not be scared and there would not be so much tension. For example, if the setting took place in a park Brain would not have to worry about being eaten by bears and wolves. In fact, he wouldn’t have to worry at all. He could just go into a telephone booth across the street and call his mom or dad to pick him up and drive him home.…

    • 167 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ethan Frome Got Some Dome

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages

    An author purposely chooses and includes various details about a story’s setting in order to create and enhance the story’s mood. The mood of a story can be deepened by a setting like…

    • 378 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Jack London is most well-known for his novels Call of the Wild and White Fang. The novels and the short story “To Build a Fire” share a similar theme of survival in the wildernerness. London’s “To Build A Fire” is a story about a man and a dog traveling the Yukon trail. In the story the man is struggling to survive the harsh environment of the Klondike. “To Build a Fire” is a naturalistic story, influenced by scientific determinism as well as by Darwin’s theory of evolution because London was a socialist and a realist. Jack London traveled across Canada and Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. Jack London’s time in the Klondike influenced the setting, characters,…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The setting affects the storyline by deciding what and how things happen in the book. For instance, when Cherry (a girl Soc) was talking to Ponyboy (one of the main characters and a Greaser) about one of Pony’s brother (Sodapop) she asks, “ ‘Didn’t he used to ride in rodeos? Saddle…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Setting - the location and time frame in which the action of a narrative takes place, plays an important part in defining the plot of the story or play. It sets the background and manages the expectations of the reader, as the behavior and thoughts of fictional characters often depend on the environment as much as on their personal characteristics.…

    • 1676 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    What effect does the setting have on the story? (If you changed the setting, how would the story change?)…

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Survival is not about being fearless. It's about making a decision, getting on and doing it, because I want to see my kids again, or whatever the reason might be.” -Bear Grylls, survival expert. The protagonist of “To Build a Fire” by Jack London may have been fearless, but that does not lead to him to survival. He makes several critical mistakes that cost him his life, including, as Bear Grylls talked about, making decisions and taking action.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Did women of the 1920s deserve to have rights or were they merely hopeless beings who needed the help of men to guide them in life? In Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God she touches on the subject of how women of the 1920s were expected to act. Women of the time period were regarded as their husband’s wife and not as individual people. Women weren’t allowed to speak freely for themselves either. The book is a representation of the ways in which the typical American Dream has profoundly failed the women of the time period. Through her significant use of symbolism, Zora Neale Hurston utilises the main character to demonstrate a woman’s expected obligation to the home and her husband and the disrespect that was received in turn.…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The setting of, “The Most Dangerous Games” by Richard Connell is an essential part of the plot, and if not told right, it would intervene with the story. For instance, when Richard Connell describes the island, he describes it as isolated; if the author describes the island as anything else the plot would not work and he would be able to escape, but by explaining how the island is isolated and how there’s no way out except for being General Zaroff’s “animal”, it captures the reader into learning more about the story. Also, Rainford is stuck on the General Zaroff’s island with no way out, “ He was in a picture frame of water, and his operations, clearly, must take place within the frame.” (11). He must…

    • 223 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The setting of a story plays a crucial role on the story it helps determine what type of story it is and if it’s a peaceful or violent story. In “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” Hemingway makes the setting a clean lighted bar. The clean bar is a place where some people might come to relieve his or her stress or just come because they are lonely. In the story, the old man comes to the bar because he is lonely and depressed, but Hemingway makes the setting a clean place in which the old man can enjoy and get away from the depression he is suffering. Later on in the story, the younger waiter is eager to go home because of the time; the setting also helps to determine what time the story took place. In the story, one of the waiters says “This is…

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays