Summary Of To Build A Fire By Jack London

“To Build a Fire” is a short story written by Jack London, published in 1908. The story takes place in the Yukon when a man mistakenly ventures off the main train during the freezing winter with only a dog, who he shares no bond with, as a companion. His goal in to meet up with some friends who have set up in an old camp on Henderson Creek by 6 o’clock that night. It is seen from the beginning that he is incredibly inexperienced and overly confident when he underestimates the dangers of the treacherous weather even though he has been warned by a more knowledgeable old man on Sulphur Creek. It is not until it is certain that he will die that he truly realizes how much dangler he foolishly put himself in. This man ignores multiple warning signs
It is nine o’clock in the morning when he looks at the sky. He sees there is no sun and even though the sky is clear, he does not expect the sun to rise because of its absence over the last couple of days. This fact combined would worry most people, especially if they are alone, but it does not even phase this man. He is so confident in himself that he falsely believes doesn’t need the sun even though this is his first winter in this land. He also sees the fifty degree below zero temperature as “uncomfortable, and that was all” (London 65). He does not truly understand what fifty degrees below zero means because “50 degrees below zero was to him nothing more than 50 degrees below zero” (London 65). He knows the temperature means he has to wear warmer clothes to protect himself against the frost but that is it. Even when the temperature got to seventy-five below zero he thought to himself, “What was a little frost? A bit painful, that was all. It was never serious.” (London 68). The man believes that he is invisible to the weather and nothing will seriously affect him in any way. He is not even phased when he discovers that the water freezes before it hits the ground and he is unable to spit his tobacco out of his mouth because his lips, along with the rest of his face, are frozen. As his journey continues he finds his fingers have become
The first is the fact that the train he takes is rarely taken on a good day let alone during the harsh conditions of winter. He makes his journey even more difficult by choosing a train that is not well marked and that collected several inches of snow since the last sled went by. He even continues to walk along a frozen stream them no one had been by in at least a month. When locals who are familiar with the land stop taking a certain trail, there is usually a good reason why. Unfortunately, this man neglects to recognize this fact which leads to him falling through the ice into the Henderson Creek. Of course this does not bother the man at first because of his ignorance he believes this will only set him back a few hours which is a huge underestimation because this mistake is what ultimately leads him to his