To Build A Fire And The Most Dangerous Game Analysis

The struggle of man versus nature long has dwelt on the consciousness of humanity. Is man an equal to his environment? Can the elements be conquered or only endured? We constantly find ourselves facing these questions along with a myriad of other questions that cause us to think, where do we fit? These questions, crying for a response, are debated studied and portrayed in both Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. Throughout both stories, we see the settings, the Yukon in “To Build a Fire” and an island in the south Atlantic in “The Most Dangerous Game”, both raw untamed wildernesses, take a toll on the main characters in a very different fashion. We see in “To Build a Fire” that the man is constantly
In fear of death, Rainsford “thought of a native trick he had learned in Uganda [,] slid down the tree [,] caught hold of a springy young sapling and to it he fastened his hunting knife” (Connell,13). Instead of losing his head completely, Rainsford looked around him and realized that he could use nature to his advantage. Rainsford, an experienced hunter, knew the power that terrain could have for his survival he declared “"I'll give him a trail to follow,"… and he struck off from the rude path he had been following into the trackless wilderness” (Connell,11). Connell shows that through acceptance of his surroundings Rainsford became a part of nature instead of merely a man in nature. As Rainsford’s danger grew, so did his reliance upon nature, finally, in the heat of pursuit “he leaped far out into the sea. . . [and] swam” since he “found it quicker than walking through the jungle"(Conell,14). Rainsford saw his environment not as a conquerable obstacle, but as a useable tool. When he throws himself of the ledge, he puts all his faith into nature, he survives because of that faith. The portrayal of nature in “The Greatest Game” shows it as the ultimate friend of Rainsford and truly saved his
When Rainsford falls from the boat Connell describes Rainsford’s primal attempt for survival in animalistic terms stating that he “Doggedly… swam in that direction [of the Island] …with slow deliberate strokes” (Connell,3). Rainsford did not swim mechanically, nor artistically or even in a human fashion, in his desperation, he swam like a dog. Connell, by describing Rainsford’s swimming as dogged, shows that in dire circumstances, even the most rational and trained person, here characterized by Rainsford, resorts to animalistic behavior. This assertion becomes even stronger as the story goes on, when Zaroff finds Rainsford for the first time “The Cossack was the cat; [Rainsford] was the mouse. Then it was that Rainsford knew the full meaning of terror” (Connell, 12). Striving to survive, Rainsford thought of himself as a cornered animal, and behaved accordingly, he shows that once man is no longer the hunter but the hunted that we act just like prey by hiding, fleeing or scrambling away from our predator. Finishing his story with what he started, Connell shows that humans, just like jaguars “understand one thing--fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death."(Connel,1). One of the only consistencies we see in humans, is the fact that we will all fight or fly in due to fear. Rainsford, as the personification of humanity, fled his predator, which shows us that we truly