To Build A Fire

April 3rd, 2012

[Jack London: To Build a Fire]

11b4 111150 Ho InHee

The 1930’s was a period of worldwide depression. Most of Europe, the whole of America, and several other countries around the world suffered from a great economic crisis. It is not strange that ‘Naturalism’ was a dominant trend back then. Even before the 20^th century, naturalism was a popular idea among many philosophers, writers, and artists. Naturalism basically takes the ‘law of nature’ as an essential operating factor in the universe, and further regards nothing as more important than environment. Naturalistic stories therefore primarily focus on conflicts between men and nature, while discounting supernatural entities.

Jack London’s [To Build a Fire] follows this naturalistic philosophy. The protagonist, an unnamed man suffers unbearably harsh weather for several hours while striving for a simple goal: to get to the mining camp. The motivation or reason for getting to the camp is not specified in the story. Instead, London focuses on describing the fierce weather the man had to face. The description is very detailed, but it is not too sympathetic to the situation the man is in. London takes a third person’s perspective and remains an objective onlooker throughout the story. He thereby implicitly speaks as Nature, which naturalists think is indifferent to humans. This indifference also works efficiently in describing how brutal the weather is in the story. (Parts like ‘Nose and cheeks were already freezing, while the skin of all his body chilled as it lost its blood’ shows this.) But the most important thing is the character of this unknown man. Throughout the story, the man bears severe cold but haughty and optimistic about his circumstances. He barely does ‘thinking’. He acts with extreme hubris. Yet he uses some basic human intellect for his survival, too. Accompanied by a dog, he makes the dog walk ahead so that he can keep from stepping on thin ice and getting wet. He builds a fire with twigs, and later makes an attempt to use matches. Yet despite all his best efforts, he ends up running desperately for survival, and finally meets his death in the freezing weather.

It is not immediately apparent what Jack London’s message is in this story. Unlike with most other novels and novellas, it is hard to pinpoint a clear theme here. Certainly, there isn’t anything to emulate in the story; it is not a morally didactic story. The protagonist fails to overcome his obstacles. Nor does he give any guidance on how to survive his predicament. His general attitude and behavior isn’t very suitable as a role model. It’s hard to identify what there is to be learned from this story.

However, lessons don’t always have to be taught by example. The man’s harsh travel across fierce weather does tell us something. Though it is unlikely for us find ourselves on such trip alone and facing -75°F weather, we might face similar difficulties, symbolically if not in actuality. Environment-both natural and social-can bring about devastating consequences at any moment. Natural disasters (such as typhoon, tsunami, earthquake, and volcanoes) and manmade disasters (such as political, religious, or regional conflicts that might even cause a worldwide war) can ruin human lives. It also seems like all these rapid social changes are nothing but a result of our thoughtless and reasonless actions. Human history has been about the pursuit of our own good. We are self-confident and imagine ourselves quite ‘civilized’. But we face new problems and conflicts everyday and often times fail in dealing with them. In other words, we are so engrossed in seeking out conveniences and handling urgent personal problems, that we don’t see a larger picture. In this manner, Jack London might be telling us what human are missing to see.








{Comments}

Nuri Kim: Hi Inhee :) I liked how you made a short summary in your essay, but I think you could develop your ideas further.
1. You talked about the great depression in your intro., and so I was expecting that you'll write about how this 시대적 배경 was an influence to 'To Build a Fire'
2. In your first body paragraph (second paragraph), I couldn't really grasp the main idea. At first I thought you were summarizing the story, but you seemed to analyze some parts as well. If you were intending to summarize + analyze, I think it'll be better to make your analysis related with each other, for example, analyzing points which depicted the man's weakness.
3. In your second body paragraph (third paragraph), you used the word 'animal-like'. I understand what you were trying to say, but after reading this story, I think you should use this word to show the dog, because usually the word 'animal-like' refers to instinctive action. In this story, it is the dog which is portrayed as a show of instinct. I think using the word thinking shallowly or thinking only of his basic needs would be a better word.


Rhee Jiyoon: Hey InHee! ㅎ_ㅎ
First of all, I liked how you pointed out that the man is 'animal-like'. While reading the whole story, I felt that I could not sympathize with the man, but didn't know why, but after reading your analysis, I think it was because the man is being too simple. If I were in the situation, many other things would pop up in my mind.. Something like "I miss my mom" "I had to be more kind to my family" and things like that...
My favorite sentence in your essay is the underlined one. [Naturalism basically takes the 'law of nature' as an essential operating factor in nature, and further, regarding the environment as ...] & [Nay motivation or reason for getting to the camp is not specified in the story.]
Ooh running out of time
I loved your analysis and I look forward to your revised version! <3<3<3