To Build A Fire Theme Essay

There was nothing more isolating then traveling alone in the Yukon in temperatures under 75 degrees bellow zero, with no cell phone, no nose guard to keep his nose and face warm, and simply not enough warmth. The story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London has several themes that was covered throughout the story about a man that decided to travel the Yukon trail followed by a wolf dog. The traveler was given advice and warnings from an old man from Sulphur Creek but simply didn’t take it into consideration. The traveler overcomes numerous emotions throughout his adventure such as the five stages of grief, which is, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance that centers his survival. He goes through a combination of emotions as he faces near death situations, therefore resulting the main themes of the story which is firstly, ego and pride, secondly, denial and anger, and lastly, bargaining and acceptance.

The most important advice given to the traveler was to not
travel alone. His ego drives him into conditions that someone with experience, like the old man, would have avoided alone. Being a newcomer in the land, his pride comes to battle as he proceeds into the cold. After walking several miles, the traveler starts to feel numbness of his face and nose. This becomes his first realization where he feels sorry that he had not worn a nose guard to protect his face. However he ignored his beginning symptoms of hypothermia and continued his trail where he came to several dangers such as almost failing through ice. This incident brought the old man into his thought and stated, “That man from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in this country. That showed one must not be too sure of things”. His next effort was to build a fire, which was a success and as a result regained his confidence to continue traveling the trail. Immediately after regaining warmth, the traveler continued the trail for half an hour when unexpectedly broke through ice and once again was extremely cold. He now has frostbite and is suffering hypothermia. He begins to curse loudly and is angered by the continuous incidents and the fact how the wolf dog was warm. Once again, he must start a fire to regain consciousness in his feet and hands but has trouble due to the numbness of his fingers. He was lucky enough to successfully start his second fire and began drying his clothes. This time when he built the fire he carelessly did not look around to make sure the placement of the foundation was correct. The weighed down snow from a high tree branch dropped down and discontinued the fire. This was another factor that proved to him that the old man was right about having a companion and not being alone. His feeling of denial started to slowly sink into his prideful mind.

Without delay, the traveler had his last attempt to spark up a fire with whatever dry objects he could gather.
His feet, face, and hands practically frozen, the man is unfortunate in his last attempt of fire. He states, “The old man on Sulphur Creek was right…After 50 below zero, a man should travel with a companion.” Coming to his senses of regret of not acknowledging what the old man warned him about, he becomes bargaining due to the desperateness. He thought about killing the wolf dog and sheltering himself inside the dead body. To do so he would need to use his hands, which unfortunately was not operational. At this point of his condition, the man accepts his danger and foolishness. He feels fear and death as he tries to run to camp, even though the old man warned him about running with frozen feet. His desperateness overcame his ego, pride, denial, and anger. He was hopeless and accepted his death. Before his last breath he said to himself, “You were right, old fellow. You were
right.”

The unfortunate death of the traveler could have been avoided if he didn’t underestimate the old man’s wisdom. He faces nature’s warnings and with pride ignores them. The story made me feel that you should be open minded and take advice from people that are giving you useful information in something that is new to you or even if you have some knowledge of it. Having a closed mind might put you at risk of losing a valuable survival fact. Just like the traveler had said, “That showed one must not be too sure of things”.