What Is The Tone Of To Build A Fire

To Build a Fire takes place in the cold and grey, no sun, colder than fifty degrees below zero, Yukon Territory in Canada. Knowing where this story takes place is important to the story because it defines the conflict within the story. “The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow. It was all pure white, rolling in gentle undulations where the ice jams of the freeze-up had formed (London, 1127-128).” The author wants the reader to know about the flaws of human nature. The man’s human nature is his own downfall because of his inexperience and lack of respect for the weather. As the course of the story goes on it begins to seem more like a ‘what not to do’ manual that tells a story of the mishaps that could occur.
Reading through the story, the tone that starts to show is that the author has no sympathy or compassion for the man. The Old Timer represented common sense and wisdom. The author, Jack London, displayed no sympathy towards the man. London seemed to make the character arrogant and disrespectful to both his environment and elders. All of the good characteristic were given to the dog within the story. From the reader’s point of view, it would seem as if London likes the dog more than the man. “The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in
the significances (London 128).”
Next we get to the irony. In the story we see two types of irony, situational and dramatic. The situational irony occurs when the man expects to breeze through the harsh weather of the Yukon Territory and ignore the old man along with common sense. Another example of situational irony is when the man got the fire started, and the snow from the tree branches fell on him and the fire causing him to start over. “...Before he could cut the strings, it happened. It was his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open. But it had been easier to pull the twigs from the brush and drop them directly on the fire. Now the tree under which he had done this carried a weight of snow on its boughs. No wind had blown for weeks, and each bough was fully freighted. Each time he had pulled a twig he had communicated a slight agitation to the tree, an imperceptible agitation, so far as he was concerned, but an agitation sufficient to bring about the disaster. High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow. This fell on the boughs beneath, capsizing them. This process continued, spreading out and involving the whole tree. It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out! Where it had burned was a mantle of fresh and disordered snow (London 133).” The situational irony helped move the plot because the fire went out and the man would had to rebuild another fire.
In conclusion had the man listened to the Old Timer about traveling when it was fifty degrees below, the man would have avoided all his mishaps.
“‘You were right, old hoss; you were right,’ the man mumbled to the old-timer of Sulphur Creek (London 136).”

Works Cited
London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. 12th ed. N.p.: Pearson, 2013. 127-137. Print.
Gioia, Dana. "Types of Narrators." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing. By X.J. Kennedy. 12th ed. N.p.: Pearson, 2013. 28.
Print.