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.…
“Hunters in the Snow” by Tobias Wolff, shows how essential the cold and frigid weather is to the actions of the characters and the situations that they are involved in. Towards the beginning of the story, it seems that Frank and Kenny have established a vigorous relationship leaving Tub out of the relationship. On the day of their hunt, Kenny and Frank left out their companion Tub forcing him to struggle in the heavy snow. The two men utilized the heavy snow to leave behind their friend. As the story continues it seems as if the snow has become a type of correlation with events that happen in the story. The snowy and frigid temperatures allow for the audience to assume a tragedy may occur as Tub shoots Kenny. Nevertheless, Tub and Frank seemed to initiate a relationship through the misfortune of Kenny. The transmutation of climate in Tobias Wolff’s astonishing short story,…
“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.…
A person has wants and needs, but usually dwells on the wants though it may be out of reach or unrealistic. By ignoring the obvious signs of the fated end and continuing to their goal, they get the results that has already laid out for them, instead of what they wanted. In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome and Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”, both Ethan Frome and the “Man” are striving to their goal even though there are obstacles in their way, which they ignore. Ethan and the “Man” fall harder in their disappointment of the outcome when they disregard the signs, causing disillusionment when it was too late.…
Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” is a story about knowing your surroundings, and listening to your instincts, just as the dog in this story did. London’s human character, who is nameless in the story, is more like a foil; with the main character being the harsh landscape of the Yukon, where the story takes place amid -75 below temperatures. The man shows how arrogant and inexperienced he is when he travels to the Yukon Territory without proper clothing, the use of a sled, or companions. He has no camping gear, insufficient food supplies, and his surroundings appear insignificant to him. These vital mistakes not only cost the man anger, but eventually a slow, agonizing death due to stubbornness, and a lack of knowledge in the harsh realities…
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…
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.…
Anne Bradstreet once wrote, – “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” Have your emotions been affected by the changing seasons? Have you reacted according to the weather conditions? Sometimes, the surroundings have a stronger effect than what people may think. They affect human beings’ behaviors and actions in such a way that most of what people do and feel goes accordingly to them. This can be overwhelming, so imagine how it was like for pioneers who came to America during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Seasonal circumstances captivated Willa Cather’s imagination and motivated the creation of the master piece My…
In the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, good weather is Bronte’s tool to foreshadow positive events or moods and poor weather is her instrument for setting the tone for negative events or moods. This technique is exercised throughout the entire novel, alerting the readers about the upcoming atmosphere. Jane’s mood is determined by the weather mentioned. For example, after Jane was publicly and falsely accused of being a liar by Mr. Brocklehurst, an upcoming positive event was predicted when Jane described her surroundings: “Some heavy clouds swept from the sky by a rising wind, had left the moon bare; and her light streaming in through a window near, shone full both on us and on the approaching figure, which we at once recognize as Miss Temple”…
"The civilized man has built a coach and lost the use of his feet." The civilized man is so conformed to the grid and society that he wouldn't be able to survive in the wilderness without man-made technology. A civilized man is so attached to technology and society that they wouldn't know what to do in the wilderness without it.…
In Jack London's To Build a Fire the setting of the short story plays a significant role. Jack London uses specific techniques to establish the atmosphere and tone of the story. By introducing his readers to the setting, London prepares them for a tone that is depressed and fear-provoking. Isolated by an environment of frigid weather and doom, the author shows us how the main character of the story is completely unaware of his surroundings. The only world the man is actually accustomed to is the world he has created for himself. Since many of us have never been exposed to such a harsh climate, London's account that the environment is the determining factor of his survival paints an accurate picture. Anything that the man and his dog come into contact with creates an expectation for disaster in the story.…
In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,” the man in the story finds himself in a battle against nature and an indifferent and deterministic universe. This man started out believing that he could brave and survive the cold and that the old man’s advice about travelling with a partner was “womanish.” Although without a human partner, the man is accompanied by a dog. The dog represents nature and the opposition to the human condition which is the struggle to maintain a “veneer of civilization.” At the beginning of the story, it is obvious that the man has belief in his ability to survive the rugged, frozen terrain. The man contemplates the lunch that is under his shirt and even smiles thinking about the biscuits being smothered in bacon grease. Also, he continues to chew tobacco despite the effects that it has on his facial hair and lips. Meanwhile, the dog is aware of the seventy-five below zero temperature through its natural instinct and questions every movement the man is making that is not towards shelter or fire.…
ideas. A reader of A Man for All Seasons, by Robert Bolt, may not be accustomed…
In the poem “Nighttime Fires” the speaker of the poem is remembering the speaker father’s wild obsession with burning houses at night and how the speaker had to go with the father to these burning houses with the family. The father is a casualty of the rough economy and this anger toward his bad luck is the reason he loves seeing these macabre scenes. The speaker in “Nighttime Fires” vividly illustrates the lasting impression that the fires and his father’s fascination with them, had on his childhood and the relationship with the father.…
Not just storm, the other hard circumstance where the poet examines this positive feeling of hope is the snow covered chilly lands, and the deep strange sea where one can easily wander and get lost. In other words, one should keep the will power high filled with this feeling of hope even in the extreme of extremes situations.…