To Build A Fire: A Literary Analysis

The difference between survival, and being alive, is living the life you choose. The stories our class has read this semester have lead me to various interpretations of different literary movement’s ideals and themes. Comparing “Farewell to Arms” to stories such as “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “To Build a Fire” is tricky considering that some of these stories came from different literary movements such as Realism and Naturalism. Yet, somehow they all show many relevant themes throughout their pages. Stories even from different movements show similarities through their character interaction and the standards of time that shape their themes.
Despite differences of conflict, characters of Naturalism and Realism literary movement followed a general
The literary analysis theme talks about not letting the influence of others drive your decisions while the “Farewell to Arms” theme talks about the effects of listening to outside sources. The themes have a lot in common pertaining to the idea that you should not you should not let others, group of people or individual, affect decisions that are yours. Other people will make decisions that affect you, but ultimately you determine the outcome that you create or choose. This is seen in “Farewell to Arms” when Catherine Barkley tells Lieutenant Henry to say I love you;”I knew that I did not love Catherine Barkley or had any idea of loving her. This was a game, like bridge, in which you say things instead of playing cards (p30).” Lieutenant Henry choose to give in to her request. Giving into this request leads to a whole an argument revolving around the idea that their “love” isn’t love but is just a distraction from the war. Yet, Lieutenant Henry made the choose to go along with her charade because they both benefited from the
This stories relate to each other because not only do they share main characters who are driven to create their own making, but also because these characters push to be outside of the social normalities of their time and make their own path for themselves. The period of time that the story was created does in fact play a large part in the theme, considering social norms and proper behavior, but the actions the characters partake in all lead of to a single theme, don’t let other’s judgments control the outcome of your