To Build A Fire, By Jack London

As the chilled winter snow stretches miles past the destination of the left fork of Henderson Creek, the protagonist’s body feels numb from head to toe. The man and his dog walk miles in the bitter cold trying to stay alive. Walking aside from the main Yukon trail in the cold winter midday, without the sun beating down giving the protagonist heat, he feels frozen as if he has not seen the sun in days. Jack London, the author of To Build A Fire, goes into immense detail throughout the story to draw his readers into the setting of the crisp winter chill. London’s vast description of the environment allows his readers to picture every single object throughout the mountains as if the reader was experiencing the exact situation. As the protagonist travels miles to reach his destination where his friends await him with food and fires, the setting intensifies the man’s conflicts and influences making the journey longer.
The setting serves as an essential element in the story because even though the old-timer at Sulphur Creek told the protagonist not to travel alone under fifty degrees below zero, he traveled alone, which causes conflict for himself later.
As the snow accumulated, the protagonist noticed no man had come up or down that silent creek in a month. Although, the man pushed on. The protagonist, traveling next to the stream, must watch out for springs of water that are not frozen yet. If skeptical of spring waters, the protagonist would make the dog go ahead to test the ice. However, the man saw no sign of springs for a half of an hour and then out of nowhere, he falls in water and halfway up his knee is frozen. The setting of the cold spring water froze his leg, which makes the man delay his journey by more than an hour because he must start a fire to
survive. The objects within the environment serve as an advantage for the protagonist’s survival. The location of setting is essential to the man because gathering wood for fires is crucial to start a successful fire. Throughout the story, three fires were attempted to be set. Providing heat, at seventy-five degrees below zero, allows hope for the man and the dog. The first fire set was strong and steady, which allowed the protagonist to eat his biscuits and the dog to relax as close to the fire as possible. Starting a successful fire granted hope to the man to travel miles more across the crisp winter snow on the Yukon trail. Miles later, the protagonist is forced to start another fire. However, objects within the setting cause difficulty for the man to start another steady fire. The second fire failed because snow collapsed destroying the hopeful fire of life. In need of heat, the protagonist forces himself to start another fire, although, difficulty arises once again. The man uses all seventy matches at once to start the spark of hope again, seconds later, moss smothered the fire and hope was lost. With essential elements absent, the protagonist feels fear for the first time. Possessing fear because of objects lost influences the man to run in the snow that stretches miles across the Yukon trail. Running on the crisp white snow gave the man warmth that he has not felt in hours. Although, the cold air becomes too much for the man and he must rest, even though the dog is not phased. As the protagonist rest, he becomes shameful of himself for cowardly running. At the end of the story, the man wishes to face death with decently and freezes to death. The environment leading up to the protagonist’s death is critical because the setting pushes himself to death.
The relationship between setting and the man have connections throughout the story; such as, the protagonist was purposely not given a name so that the white snow that stretches miles across the mountains becomes more important than the man possessing a name. The setting and the protagonist possess indifferences also; even though the environment is dark and cold, the man maintains calmness throughout the story. The environment causes the man, traveling alone throughout the mountains at seventy-five degrees below zero, to come upon conflicts and influences making a twist at the end of the story. As the man laid in the cold frozen snow, he believed dying in dignity surpasses running of foolishness.