Wildness Of The Dog In Jack London's To Build A Fire

The theme of Jack London’s 1908 version of “To Build a Fire” is that nature is indifferent to the needs of man and his survival. In the 1908 version, a half-wolf dog was added into the literary work to further the plot and significance of the story, highlighting this central theme of existence. The addition of the dog in the revision helped emphasize the theme by representing the primitivity of nature and providing contrast. By combining these two elements, London asserts his understanding of the tragic and brutal relationship between man and nature.
The brutality and utter wildness of the dog represents the ferocity and unforgivable power that nature has over the man. Nature shapes the fate of humanity, and can quickly overcome “man’s frailty”
(6) because of the ultimate power it has over man. Ultimately, the dog’s wild power and instinct helps it survive over the man and is key to the story’s impact. The animal was brother to “the wild wolf” (7) and “its suspicious nature sensed danger” (12) when the man acted kindly towards him, because it had always been the man’s “toil-slave” and “the only caresses it had ever received were the caresses of the whip-lash and of harsh and menacing throat-sounds that threatened the whip-lash.” (9) The dog was unable to be controlled nor “was [there any] keen intimacy between the dog and the man”, showing that nature is a tough, uncaring thing (9). When the unnamed man died, the animal “turned and trotted up the trail in the direction of the camp it knew, where were the other food-providers and fire-providers” (14), a show of its lack of compassion for the man and nature’s lack of sympathy for humankind. The savagery and lack of empathy the dog treats the man with is a perfect representation of how nature is: ferocious and unsympathetic in the terms of the survival of man. The most intimate and noticeable part of the delicate relationship between man and nature is the utter brutality of it, and this is what eventually led to the man’s death. He did not respect the immeasurable power of nature, just as he did not respect the dog. In “To Build a Fire”, the dog was used to provide a contrast to the man and add harsh characteristics to his character, exemplifying the theme’s impact.
The grating cold and bleak surroundings “made no impression on the man” (6) while the dog became “depressed by the tremendous cold” (7), painting the man as a figure unaware of the severe conditions, arrogant and daunting. He viewed the conditions as “cold and uncomfortable, and that was all” (6), which gave him a tough aspect of character. However, his “tough” qualities did not protect him from nature’s formidable power over his fate. These characteristics illustrate a contrast between the state of the man and the state of nature. The animal also provides a comparison of the ignorance of humans’ instinct in comparison to the animal who understands the ferocity of nature. The man was overconfident and underestimated strength and ability of his environment, while the dog recognized this, and the danger of it. Allowing the environment to kill the man indicates that his instincts were inferior to that of the dog’s, as the animal survived the same harsh surroundings of the brutal Yukon. “The brute had its instinct” (7) and “its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man” (7), because the man was “not much given to thinking”, displaying his obvious ignorance about the ways of nature and how the animal’s instincts trumped his own. Although the man was “keenly observant” (8), he was woefully inept at survival and
despite the man’s tough aspects of character, his utter ignorance and over-confidence in himself led to his demise and allowed nature to shape his grisly end. The wolf-dog was a vital component to the effect of the rewritten story’s theme and it improved upon the 1908 version, creating a larger impact upon the audience. The animal showed how woefully ignorant and foolish the man was, creating a moral lesson and highlighted the amount of power nature has. The addition of the dog furthered the plot and theme of the short story by symbolizing the brutality and instinctiveness of the primitive nature and creating contrast with the unnamed man. Jack London used these creative aspects stemming from the introduction of the dog to enhance the theme and quality of “To Build a Fire”.