we have yet to discuss the symbolism behind the fire in the short story. this is my favorite aspect to talk about because there seems to be so many possibilities. The fire comes and goes in the short story, ultimately leaving the man to his death. the fire itself can represent many things and ideas, but choose one and develop a thesis statement around the literary element of symbolism. challenge yourself and use every blog opportunity to develop your skills for the final two essays of the 4th marking period.
this is due wednesday by midnight
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Fire is an element discovered by cave men because they needed a way to survive. In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire”, man is almost reduced to his bare instincts, where he contains barely any man-made resources. Luckily, this man is in a more productive time period than cave men were, because he is blessed with little pleasures, such as an instinctive dog and long, wooden matches. The man’s fire lights, and then goes out, periodically throughout the story, until it ultimately leaves him to breathe his last breath. The fire in the story symbolizes science and technology. The man puts his life in the fire’s hands, so to speak, without paying an ounce of attention to the dog, which is the only living thing around that understands that the cold is the final step towards decease. Humans rely on science, it is a fact. Without science, people today believe that the human race will cease to exist. For example, this is the base of the crisis concerning the year 2012. People want science to save the world. Any problems of the people, science can cure it. This is the same concept with the fire. The man wants the fire to save his life, so he ignores the cold and continues on his journey to “find the boys”. Ultimately, the fire gives out, yet the man cannot deal solely with his ‘bare necessities’, as the cave men did, especially in the white nightmare of everlasting snow. He needs the fire to comfort him and give him the security that he is not ‘mortal’, and death is not in the near future.
In Jack London’s short story, To Build a Fire, the main character is constantly relying on the idea of fire to keep him going. Building a fire is his goal; he knows that it will help him escape the otherwise inescapable cold. However, the fire provides the man with false hope. Once the man builds a fire, he and his dog bask in its warmth, momentarily forgetting about the frigid conditions beyond the flames. The man found that “for a moment the cold of space was outwitted,” but he soon faced the weather again, becoming closer and closer to death. While building the second fire, the man took extreme caution, for he realized that the fire was not a completely reliable safety net. He took care when adding twigs, and eventually the fire was “snapping and crackling and promising life with every dancing flame.” With one mistake though, all of the snow fell down from the tree, putting out his fire and erasing all hope of warmth, and ultimately, life. Although the fire inspired the man to keep going for his destination, it only teased him into thinking that he would live through the cold.
Many people hold onto hope until the moment they die. In Jack London's "To Build a Fire" the fire symbolizes the main character's hope. He sees fire as his means of survival, his way to make it through the cold alive. When the snow falls on the fire and it is extinguished, he immediately attempts to light a new one, trying to hold on to his last shred of hope. When he fails to rekindle the fire, he has lost all hope. First, he goes into denial and panics, refusing to believe that he will die. This connects to the naturalistic theme that hope is only an illusion to distract from the inevitability of death. This same theme is exhibited in Ambrose Bierce's short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." As long as the man had the fire, he did not see death as a distinct possibility. When the fire went out and the man lost hope, he realized that he would die and not even the fire or hope could stop it.
In the short story, “To Build a Fire” by Jack London symbolism is to reflect the theme of the inevitability of death. One such symbol is that of the fire, in the story the fire is symbolic of life. The flame of the fire can be equated to the breath of life, and when the man cannot keep the fire going it is said that he has, “heard his own death sentence.” This statement can be interpreted both figuratively and literally. In the literal sense, it is freezing and the man needs fire to survive. However, figuratively the lack of the man’s ability to maintain the flame can be interpreted as the lack of mans ability to maintain perpetual life, and that ultimately nature will take its toll and put out the flame of life, symbolizing that death is inevitable. The role of nature in this life process is symbolized by the snow in the story (also in the figurative and literal sense). This is the literal representation of death because it is ultimately what kills the man; he freezes to death in the cold. However, when analyzed for further meaning, it is the snow with which the flame is quenched, “it grew like an avalanche and it descended,” putting out the flame signifying life. By putting out the flame the snow shows that life is an illusion that can and will be ended, because ultimately death is inevitable.
Although most individuals in civilized societies take fire for granted, fire is what motivates the main character in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London to endure his journey. Jack London wrote about how the main character’s warmth throughout his body fades throughout his travels along the Yukon trail; his destination is to reach “the boys”. The physical action of building a fire symbolizes the man’s effort to remain alive in the frigid weather. When the man attempted to create a fire with matches during the story, he was ultimately unsuccessful due to the challenge to find fuel in an area that is unfit. Similarly, he was challenged to reach his destination by staying alive in his surroundings that were unequipped for human survival. In addition, the fire represents hope. The man’s fate will most likely be better when he reaches “the boys”. As a result, it is implied that once the fire is successfully built, his chances for living long enough to actually get to the camp are greater. The sparks in the fire that the man created are comparable to the perseverance in every step that the man took because both things gave him promise while they lasted, but after the thrill, the spark and perseverance died out and nothing was secure.
In the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the man’s yearn for fire symbolizes men’s yearn for wealth in a capitalist society. Before writing this story, the author had visited the Yukon in a gold rush and observed men savagely brawling to gain wealth. A socialist, it would make sense that he would want to use the fire to represent the damage caused by a capitalist society. The man in the story knows that “when it is seventy-five degrees below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire- that is, if his feet are wet,” (London). One could relate the man’s feet being wet to an economic crisis. If one is in an economic quagmire, one cannot afford to make one financial mistake.
After the fire is blotted out by the snow, the man frantically gathers twigs and scrambles in an unwieldy manner to attempt to build a fire. All the while, he is losing the feeling in his hands and feet, at one point not even realizing that his hand is burning. All of this frenzied effort is aimed towards reaching his final goal: to live long enough to reach “the boys.” If he had not been so concerned with reaching the camp, he would have been able to focus on what is going on at present and would not have built the fire under the tree in the first place. During economic hard times, men tend to senselessly scramble to reach the final goal of wealth. The dog looks to the man as a provider of fire. “All the while the dog sat and watched him…for it looked upon him as the fire provider,” (London). Similarly, many women during the late 1800s looked to their husbands as a provider for the family income.
In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”, the fire represents mankind’s eternal hope, whether futile or not. Although it takes time before the man realizes the true dangers of the bitter cold, he knows that the fire could help save him from hypothermia. The first time he successfully lights a fire, he believes that “he was safe”, but within a short amount of time it is put out by a rush of snow from the tree above it. His hope is gone for that time being, thinking “he had just heard his own sentence of death”. However, the man doesn’t waste any time to start building a second fire, but can’t light the matches because of his numb fingers. In a desperate attempt, he lights all “seventy sulphur matches at once”. This fire, built in the open, “he cherished” because he thought “it meant life, and it must not perish”. Evidently, the man saw the fire as hope for survival and returning to “the boys”. While trying to maintain the fire by shifting around pieces of moss, grass and twigs, the man eventually extinguishes it once again. Regardless of his optimism of his survival, the man dies from his lack of intuition, which had also put out both previous fires.
Jack London's short story, "To Build a Fire", attributes several different emotions to nautre. The man traveling in the story passes through seemingly endless feilds and forests of snow. His anxiety and despair seem to be somewhat calmed when he attempts to start a fire. The fire symbolizes the unpredictability of nature because the fire was warm and he was supported by it, the man did not think that something so vital to his survival would disappear. The man felt the reprocussions of building a fire under a spruce tree, since the falling snow caused the flame to extinguish. Instead of the man manipulating nature, he should have been learning from it and because of this, the man's ultimate downfall comes from nature. "At a place where there were no signs,...the man broke through(p.487, London)" the snow; the thin ice the man broke through makes him numb throughout his body and mind. The unknown solidity of the ice and the unpredictable extinquishing of the fire give the man an excuse to attribute villany to nature. The villanous nature allows the man to realize that death is inevitable especially when nature is "against" you. The symbolization of the unpredictability of nature is witnessed in the man's fire and can be conclusively seen in the death of the man, when he experiences "what real cold was(p.493, London)" and a strange warmness before he enters "the most comfortable and satisfying sleep he had ever known (p.493, London)."
In Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" the main characters main priority depends on him creating a fire to ultimately save his life from the harsh elements he faces. The fire in which he desperately tries to create represents the idea of hope. Hope of knowing there will be something after death. The fear of death drives man insane when faced with a life or death situation. Creating a distraction from this reality helps ease the mind. Creating the fire developed hope in the characters mind that it will keep him alive. When the fire goes out he begins to realize his mortality. Realizing death throws people into a panic because they ultimately feel that they need significance. Man can not accept the facts of death or surrender to it. By creating hope for ones life they are mentally delaying death from happening. When something challenges their ideas of reality these obstacles cause them to distract oneself from death rather then accept and cause less panic. Such as in "The Open Boat" the boat itself can represent hope by giving an aid to the minds of the men who are trapped on the boat fighting for their lives. They hope the boat will bring them to safety before they die and loose their egos, becoming nothing.
In To Build A Fire by Jack London, symbolism is used by the author at various points in the story. To exemplify the theme of humans are insignificant in comparison to the universe, the fire symbolizes man's sense of purpose. During the introduction of Darwinism, man's sense of purpose is threatened and they feel insignificant. The vast snow fields represent the universe and the small fire is diminutive in comparison with it. In this perspective, man's purpose is diminutive in comparison with the universe. Throughout the story, the fire is threatened by various elements and man's ignorance. The main character forgets about the fire when he is supposed to use it to thaw out his food. The time period in which Darwin's theory was presented, man occasionally forgot his purpose because he felt so insignificant. Also, when the character is building the third fire he feels confident that it will prosper despite the fact that it is 75 degrees below zero and his hands are frozen. He ceases to realize how his "purpose" is threatened by the nature that surrounds him. Human insignificance in comparison to the universe is portrayed through the fire symbolizing man's sense of purpose in To Build A Fire by Jack London.
Jack London provides nature’s non-living attributes with philosophical and thought-provoking symbols. In “To Build a Fire,” fire symbolizes the idea that one should live only for the present. As the fire burns it does not contemplate on nature’s ability to end the miraculous occurrence. Nor does it concentrate on what the next moment shall bring, or what the previous moment brought. The focus remains genuinely on the actual beauty of burning; the fire cherishes the moments given by using as much energy as it contains to produce wondrous flames. London writes, “Toes and nose and cheeks would be only touched by the frost, for the fire was beginning to burn with strength” (London). This vivid use of the author’s imagery captures the reader’s attention and provides the fire with a growing ability to be stronger and better than before. The main character, who remains nameless, goes on this exhilarating adventure only to arrive to the “camp” at which he will see “the boys.” It is eminent that the man only lives for the next moment, and remains unappreciative to the present moment given. He focuses all of his energy on avoiding death only to realize that death is inescapable. Only right before fatality approaches, the man supplies himself with the knowledge of the fire, and for his last instance he lives for uttermost fulfillment. The story reads,”‘You were right, old hoss; you were right,’ the man mumbled to the old-timer of Sulphur Creek” (London). Before the death of him, the man lives in the happiness only he could create, even if it could last only for a moment.
In Jack London’s short story, “To Build a Fire,” the protagonist’s ever-unreliable flame symbolizes man’s place in the universe. The nameless male is a representation of the insignificance of man as he trudges through the endless snow of eternity. Nothing is clear in the Arctic degrees except for the light of the fire, much like the state of enlightenment reached when man realizes their place in the universe is clear. Through the duration of the tale, the flame flickers and dissipates much like certainty of one’s simultaneously vast and little knowledge of existence in the universe. The extinguished flame mirrors the times during which man is unclear of their existence and their meaning. The man’s perpetual struggle to create the flame parallels the effort man exerts in order to understand his place in the immensity of the universe.
In the short story “To Build a Fire” Jack London uses the symbol of fire to represent man’s feebleminded belief that humans are significant as a species when compared to the infinite universe. In the story the man is stranded in the vast, white and freezing Yukon Territory and depends on the fire for his survival. The symbol of the fire is relevant to the symbol of the white frozen landscape. London describes it as “all pure white…north and south as far as the eye could see” (London). The whiteness itself symbolizes the infinity of universe. In the story, the foolish man, symbol for mankind, ventures out alone into the vast uninhabitable wasteland. When he learns of his mortality in the situation, he attempts to build a fire to save his life, which ultimately fails and he dies. At the start of the ordeal, the man believes “Any man who is a man can travel alone” (London). Humanity shares a similar view on the idea of its place in the universe. People believe that their one simple existence has any comparison to eternity. Specifically the fire is a symbol for ignorance. Up until the point when his fire goes out, the man believes the situation is a mere inconvenience and not a life or death struggle. Without the fire the man realizes the true danger and eventually gives up. It is ignorance that gives humanity the illusion of supremacy that it holds, and it is when ignorance is removed that people are enlightened to the reality of things, eventually leading to acceptance. This point is proved in the story, for it is not until the man accepts the truth that he dies.
The symbol of the fire in Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire” closely reflects the main characters ego. Alone on the desolate plains of the Yukon, stripped of all forms of life save for his dog, the man adamantly focuses on reaching his camp and friends, to distract him from the frigid temperatures. This intent focus on the future is one of the many illusions that the man’s ego creates in its attempt to blind him with false pretenses. The man continually believes concrete thoughts such as, “he would be in camp by six o’clock”, when in reality the future is unpredictable. Because he is only thinking about the warmth and friends he will find at his camp, the man fails to see the small pool of water that collected under the snow and gets his legs wet. Panic stricken by this prodigious misfortune, the man immediately lets his ego get the best of him; “he was angry and cursed his luck aloud”. The man is so enwrapped in his ego that he cannot build the crucial fire that is needed to keep him from freezing to death. His ego is clearly reflected by the fire when on both attempts, he is unsuccessful in building a fire due to his anxiety and impatience. By taking relaxing and taking deep breaths, the man could have made an attempt to diminish the feeling of demand for fire that his ego told him was necessary. As a result, the man would have had a much higher chance of success and may very well have survived this catastrophe.
In Jack London’s story, “To Build a Fire”, London uses symbolism to express the different ideas of life. The egotistic character of the story, also representing mankind, experiences the bitter cold environment of nature, but realizes that his name is of little significance to the chilling arctic condition. He must fight for his survival, as he attempts to build a fire to prevent frostbite. The fire itself resembles the feeling of control over his life. He accepts that the wise old man was correct about the dangerous conditions; however, he still has the hope of controlling his fate, and not falling to death due to the conditions surrounding him. “Any man who was a man could travel alone.” (pg. 488) This mindset caused for a desire for him to prove that he was capable of traveling alone. The fire gave him that assurance and filled that desire to be self-sufficient. However, his frozen hands kept him in a state of panic, as he was unable to make the second fire. When he was finally capable of making a fire to warm himself up, he places his hands in the fire, with hope that nature had not permanently frozen his fingers. He felt no sensation, except in the deep layers of his skin, and eventually dropping the fire, he lost hope for sence of control of the frostbite spreading throughout his body. Not having that sense of control or hope any longer, the man strived to find an alternate way to further prove that he could indeed travel alone, and keeping that feeling of self-sufficiency, as well as dominance over nature.
In the Greek legends Prometheus was a man who understood the importance of fire and thought to share it with humans even though Zeus refused to allow humans to obtain such a privilege. Although Prometheus was punished for his actions, fire allowed the humans to survive under many difficult circumstances such as cold and provided for them cooked food and light. Jack London in his short story, “To Build a Fire”, exemplifies through the symbol of fire its importance to man’s survival. When the man’s hands become so numb and his face so frozen that it is impossible for him to eat a biscuit he turns to his matches with which he builds his first fire. This fire saves him from frostbite and the death he could encounter under such bitter cold weather. “For the moment the cold of space was outwitted” (London 487). The moment of warmth exemplifies the potential of further survival. After the man falls in freezing water from unstable ice, he relies once again on the warmth of fire to save his legs. “…this would delay him an hour, for he would have to build a fire and dry out his foot gear…this was imperative at that low a temperature” (London 487). Only fire could save his life now. When the man embraces the fire he builds for survival, the narrator states, “There was the fire…promising life with every dancing flame.” (London 488). Life can not be continued without the promise of fire. But when this promise is broken by the interruption of nature’s snow and wind, making man unable to acquire such flames, man dies.
Jack London's “To Build a Fire,” elucidates many naturalistic views through the symbolism of the fire. The fire can represent either side of the struggle of man versus nature. The man's dependence on the fire symbolizes all of nature. Likewise, the man is at the mercy of the storm and the nature around him. Both the fire and nature are determining whether the man will live or die. If the fire goes out, the man freezes to death from the storm. On the other hand, the fire can also represent the man himself. In a way, the fire is acting against the storm (hot versus cold). If the man were not there to tend to the fire, the winds from the storm would quickly blow it out. The man is trying to beat (or dominate) nature which is completely out of his control. In some instances even, nature can dominate itself. Just as man eventually comes to be dependent on his surroundings, at some points in time, nature is dependent on other forces of nature as well. For instance, the fire was burning underneath the tree that was supplying its firewood. Without enough branches left to support it, the snow on the tree fell and quickly doused the fire. London wrote, “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. . . and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out!” Moreover, the dog (another representation of the wilderness) is depending solely on the fire for its survival. Without it, the dog would easily perish. Ironically, the dog is not trying to dominate the cold and the storm whatsoever because its instincts tell him to obey this mysterious agitation. Due to this the dog lives and the man dies thus proving that the realm that humans take for granted will always remain the most paramount force on earth. Ultimately, the man's need “to build a fire” comes to symbolize the naturalistic perspectives of that era.
In Jack London's short story, “To Build A Fire”, the main character’s dependance on science, rather than his natural animalistic instincts, is shown through his failure at building a fire. Also he constantly blames his surroundings for his lack of ingenuity thus vilifying nature. The fire is a constant reminder of mankind’s failures during the time period, where most of society believed in scientific theories to explain every aspect of life. Including analyzing themselves through the scientific genius of Charles Darwin and including humans in the same natural selection process as the better equipped animal counterparts. This is hugely false, because by using science to claim that humans rely on their instincts; therefore only the most fit survive, is a hypocritical theory. This is proven more than once by London’s character’s inability to revert back and survive off the land. His failed attempts at creating warmth and thus ceasing surviving are proof that by Darwin’s standards he is in fact unfit, just as all humans are, by the theory of natural selection because they overwhelmingly rely on science to aid them in everyday life.
In his short story, "To Build a Fire," Jack London uses the main symbol, a fire, to demonstrate how much man relies on hope to conquer the fearful reality of death. The main character tries numerous times to build a successful fire, however, each time he fails. In general, fire is used as a survival technique, either to sustain cooked nourishment or to keep warm. To the main character in the story, the fire gives him a chance to leave this endeavor alive, instead of painfully freezing to his death. The fact that, regardless of his hopeless circumstances, the man continues to put his last efforts into building a fire further proves the point that one will do anything possible to ignore and deny the inevitability of death.
In “To Build a Fire,” by Jack London, the unnamed man's ultimate failure in his struggle to build a fire is symbolic of humankind's inability to escape their fate set forth by nature. The simple fact is that in 75 degrees below zero, people cannot survive. Evolution had decided this long before the man travelled through the Yukon, armed only with his shallow knowledge of facts and systematic processes, and thoroughly “without imagination.” Although he thinks it is 50 below zero, there are “3 feet of ice,” the Yukon is “a mile wide,” and he should reach the camp at “six o'clock,” knowing these numbers and measurements does not, as he assumes, give him any sort of understanding or control. Numbers and statistics give only a vague, arbitrary measurement of what should probably happen, but from a determinist perspective, “should,” and “probably” don't exist: something either happens or it doesn't. The same idea applies during his deadly misfortune: though he knows how springs usually appear under the ice, he falls through “at a place where there were no signs.” As the man attempts to build a fire under the spruce tree, he does it in exactly the right way, yet small disturbances culminate to dump snow on his fire, a testament to his inability to escape the physical laws of cause and effect. Then, he tries again and again to overcome the inevitable, as his body slowly freezes. He goes through every conceivable process that should build a fire... but it doesn't. It is very unsettling: everything the man considers to be certain, everything he convinces himself is certain, is in fact useless and insignificant compared to the higher certainty of nature's fate.
In the short story To Build a Fire by Jack London, the lack of fire is a symbol that man is insignificant on this vast earth. The fire is the only way the nameless man will survive and without it he is forced to face the harsh reality that death is inevitable and realize that one man cannot accomplish great tasks alone. Throughout the story the man believes he is in control and can sustain himself in a land that is “all pure white…north and south as far as the eye could see” (London). The man is removed from all contact with other humans but his large ego leads him to believe he can sustain himself in negative 70 degree conditions. When he cannot keep the fire going he panics because he knows he will have to face the inevitable. The panic is also man knowing he will just be dead and will not accomplish his unstated goal. Some may argue that the lack of fire represents the moment he knows he will die but it can also be a moment of enlightenment. He transcends his ego when he says, “you were right old hoss; you were right” (London), referring to the man who told him he would not make it alone. London proves that death can be a transcendental experience.
Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire,” contains an abundance of symbolism, most prevalently that of the fire. The man finds himself trudging through a vast infinite sea of snow, with which he relies on fire to shortly postpone his mind from the, “seventy-five below zero,” frigid temperatures. The fire formed a sense of fraudulent hope in the man’s mind, which ultimately led him to his death. He attempted to build a fire to rid his feet from frostbite after falling into the frigid water. After establishing the fire, he recollected the Old Man at Sulphur Creek’s advice about not traveling alone. With a falsely hope ridden mindset, he stated that, “Those old-timers were rather womanish…[and that] any man who was a man could travel alone.” Shortly after, his fire perished in the snow that had fallen from the spruce tree above. Thinking it was merely a flaw in his decision to build under the shelter of trees, he moved on in search of another destination to build a fire. The false sense of hope that was embedded within the man soon deteriorated as he trekked on, and it made him realize the inevitability of death. He began to fear that he would soon perish in the endless sea of snow. He stated that, “This fear quickly became poignant…realiz[ing] that it was no longer a mere matter of freezing… fingers and toes, or of losing… hands and feet, but that it was a matter of life and death.” This false sense of hope allowed him to push himself to fight the elements in order to reach “the boys” and share his adventure; ultimately this hope proved inferior to nature and the ruthless terrain.
In Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire", the fire created by the main character helps symbolize the idea of man's never-ending struggle to conquer nature. The man in the story works tirelessly to make a fire to warm himself and his dog, because the weather was unbearably cold. The man was very much under the impression that he could beat nature, and weather, by building a fire and surviving with its warmth. He had a naive state of mind that allowed him to believe that by developing a plan and working hard, he could overcome the obstacles in life; or in this case, the frigid winter weather. The man succeeds in making a fire, symbolizing mankind's menial achievements in battling higher forces like nature. Since weather is the higher force in this scenario, the fire could be compared to an umbrella in that each comforts and protects humans from unpleasant weather. However, the man's fire is ruined because snow fell atop the flames, showing readers that nature always "wins", or overcomes. No matter how hard a human may try to spite nature, nothing can permanently conquer it because it is so powerful. This man, so obviously unenlightened, believes his "power" is comparable if not surpassing that of nature's, and the fire symbolizes that belief. The fire was ruined, as an umbrella or any other invention to prevent nature or bad weather from existing can be easily ruined; this symbolism instills in readers the fact that no man can stump weather or nature, and certainly never succeed in conquering it.
In “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, the man’s failed attempts at starting a fire represent one’s incapability of escaping death. In temperatures of -75°, man is physically unable to survive. While mental strength can take one so far, a man’s fate decided by nature ultimately takes over. In this case, the unnamed man was traveling through the Yukon in conditions where all the man could see was “pure white.” As the man progressed through his journey, he began to lose control of his body and was unable to perform even the simplest tasks, such as lighting a match. The cold eventually became too unbearable for the man, and he paused his voyage to build a fire. He lit a match after many failed attempts, and the fire provided him with hope. However, hope can only take one so far, and fate struck when snow fell off of a tree and extinguished the fire. This resulted in a panic; the man realized that survival was impossible and that his death was inevitable. It is known that before one dies, he reaches enlightenment and realizes the true essences of life. For the man, this moment came when he stated, “You were right, old hoss; you were right." This line was directed towards the old-timer on Sulphur Creek, who told the man that he was incapable of surviving on his own. Hope and determination took the man far on his travels through the Yukon, but his fate set forth by nature proved his incapability of escaping death.
In the short story “To Build a Fire” Jack London describes a man’s arduous winter journey through the vast Yukon Territory. The man wanders the Yukon with only his dog at his side to battle the ruthless winter storms that nature challenges him with. Throughout the journey the trail was filled with obstacles and adversities which the man viewed as the cruel work of Mother Nature. While trekking across the immense Yukon, the man begins to imagine what a warm fire would provide for him. London writes, “he would be forced to stop and build a fire, and under its protection to bare his feet while he dried his socks and moccasins” ( London). As the temperature continues to decrease, the thoughts of security from nature’s ruthlessness under the safety of the fire motivate him to carry on his journey. London uses the fire to symbolize protection and safety from nature. By creating a fire with his own hands, the man believes he himself is providing safety for himself from nature’s cruelty. London says, “The fire was a success. He was safe….. Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself.” (London). However, nature deceives him yet again when the fire and comfort the man provides for himself is quickly distinguished. Jack London utilizes the idealized fire the man creates to symbolize man wanting to protect and shield himself from nature instead of learningto harmonizing with nature.
Since the earliest history of mankind, fire has been the source of man’s survival. In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire,” London uses fire to symbolize the main character’s final hope for survival. The man’s first priority is to build a fire so he will be able to stay warm long enough to reach camp. The reader assumes that the man's fate will be better when he gets to the camp, where his comrades are waiting for him. Therefore, the assumption is made that once the fire is built, he will live long enough to actually get to the camp, hope being restored in his heart. When the fire is finally built and burning with more and more strength, the reader feels the man’s relief when London says, “the fire was a success. He was safe” (488). However, moments after the birth of the flame, its life is shattered when the tree above it sheds its heavy snow. The man is shocked, and mortality finally dawns on him. When the malevolent snow extinguishes the fire, the man’s final hope dies along with it.
P.S. i sat criss-cross-applesauce the entire time while i wrote that and i just tried to get up and walk and i fell on the ground. FML
The element of fire in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London portrays man’s dependency on science and the inevitability of it becoming man’s downfall. The human race seems to reside in disillusionment acting as though they are mentally and physical better than all other creatures on Earth. While mentally humans are very powerful, physically human beings are definitely not on the top of the totem pole. In this short story the main character becomes stripped of many of his worldly luxuries (mental power) leaving him solely with a match (science) to build a fire. The fire grows to become his only life-source, becoming the only thing that keeps the man from a certain death. Just like armor protects people from combat, the fire protects the man from the severe cold; both of these things, however, only enforce the belief that man himself is powerful when in actuality it is the objects. Throughout the story the fire flickers, dancing around leaving uncertainty as to whether it will go out or not. “There was the fire…promising life with every dancing flame (London 488).” This aspect of the fire shows how science is so erratic that it is not a dependable source for humans to rely on. Eventually, the fire completely goes out leaving the man with not heat and no chance of survival. In the end the element of fire in “To Build a Fire” shows man’s dependency on science.
In Jack London’s "To Build a Fire," the author continuously expresses the main character's fading warmth as he travels along the Yukon trail to meet "the boys." The concept of the fire is used as a symbol in this story in many ways. There is a physical action needed to build the fire itself, this challenges the man physically with what little he has testing him in every which way possible. However, London also uses the concept of fire to symbolize hope. The man’s fire continuously is put out throughout the story, and every time he gets it started again, it gives not only the man the sign of hope, but also the reader. The man’s fire is put out once from snow falling off of a tree onto it putting it right out leaving some ash in the snow. Not long after, the man, frustrated quickly acts and tries to start a new fire holding onto his last string of hope. Once the man gets his fire re-lit, the reader begins to think he will have a chance in survival as the fire has been symbolizing his life as well. While the fire is lit, it is the only thing keeping the man and his dog warm and is the only chance of survival he is given. At this point, the man turns to the fire and it’s way of survival to save him and does not pay any attention to his dog. Little does the man know, the dog’s instincts could have also saved his life. The dogs instincts also told him “to hide away and cover itself up from the fearful cold,” (London 488) because no man nor animal should be out in 70 degrees below zero weather. When the fire goes out, the seconds tic away as the time of his death just comes nearer and nearer. In the end, the fire gave the man hope for his life, but all the fire really was doing was taunting him and giving him hope that would not be fulfilled.
In Jack London’s short story, “To Build a Fire”, he uses the symbol of fire to enhance the naturalistic theme of determinism. The fire symbolizes mankind’s mapped out fate. Deterministic philosophy was a component of Social Darwinism, a notion developed during the Naturalistic Movement. Charles Darwin’s theory on evolution led to the concept of determinism which states that organisms do not have free will. Their fate is shaped by biology and the environment. In the story, the man does not survive because of these factors. Determinism is related to a series of links that ultimately lead to a fate (basically the domino effect). An important part of the deterministic philosophy is lack of responsibility attached to one’s actions. The man ignores any help that he is offered, as he thinks himself superior. He ignores his own instincts as well as nature’s (represented by the dog) attempts to aid him. London writes about the dog, “The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was no time for traveling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment.” (London 2) Man ignores this warning, as mankind ignores nature’s warnings. The man builds a fire under a tree dense with weeks of snow fall, hours after he should have built it. After the snow kills his fire, it is clear that the fire was man’s last chance of survival, and he blew it once again due to absent-mindedness. As the fire is distinguished, it symbolizes mankind’s sealed fate.
Many people believe that life is planned out; everything happens for a reason. Each person has a set destiny and although a person may try to interfere with destiny, in the end, destiny will always win. In the short story, To Build a Fire, by Jack London, the fire represents a struggle with destiny. The protagonist is a naive man who over estimates his own strength. Before the man leaves for his journey through the Yukon, an old man tells him it is especially dangerous to be out in the open alone when the temperature is 50 below. Instead of following the old man’s advice, he decides to prove the man wrong and thinks to himself, “those old-timers are rather womanish.” When the temperature does reach below 50, the man decides to build a fire. It is here that he runs into trouble. Although he is able to start the fire, he is unable to keep it going. Destiny made the man travel alone and now the one thing that would keep him alive was never meant to be made in the first place. By building the fire over and over, he is only interfering with destiny; prolonging his death. At the end of the story, he realizes this and allows destiny to take over. He lies down and exclaims, “You were right, old hoss; you were right.”
In his short story “To Build a Fire” Jack London uses the symbolism behind the fire to portray man’s dependence on everyday things that people take for granted all the time. The man in the story is stuck out in the wilderness in temperatures well below zero with no one else accompanying him in his journey except for a dog. His life depends on him staying warm and to do this he periodically builds fires to do so. This man’s life depends on the existence of this fire that he expects to work without question. The man’s dependence on the fire could be compared to people today depending so greatly on working electricity and plumbing. If these things did not exist, people would be lost. The fire in Jack London’s story symbolizes people’s unwavering dependence on things that they expect to work all the time. When the man in the story is not able to recreate the fire, he is lost and eventually dies. Who knows what people today would do if they did not have electricity and other things they take for granted.
“To Build A Fire” by Jack London is a short story filled symbolism. The fire depicted in the story acts as a symbol for human life and mortality. A fire will burn and grow until a force extinguishes it just as life progresses until by the act of a force it too is extinguished. Along with the fire as a symbol for life in the story, the snow symbolizes Nature. “It [the snow] grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out!” as described without warning the fire is smothered by the snow and is put out, likewise life is taken unexpectedly, without warning smothered and extinguished as intended by Nature. “Where it [the fire] had burned was a mantle of fresh and disordered snow” similarly a human body within which life once existed is turned into soil and calories for worm, or Nature.
In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire”, the fire symbolizes the innovation of people, and their hopes and abilities to solve problems with the materials around them. An important element in London’s story is that “nature in its harshest form, [is] the enemy of human survival.” The main character, the man, tries to build a fire for protection from the freezing cold. As he builds his fire he gathers dry grass and twigs, along with other things in the flotsam which he considers “undesirable”. To him these “undesirable” plants are in the way of being one step closer to survival. They will not help in the process of making the fire for warmth. After the man assembles the twigs and grass he must try to light them. Time after time, however, the matches fail to stay lit. Since the matches are a product of innovative scientific development it is hard for the man to believe that they have failed him. Most people end up relying on science so much that if and when it fails they are unable to comprehend why. Although the man puts all his energy into trying to keep a fire lit, he depends too much on science to get him through his problems. Near the end of the story the man begins “threshing his arms back and forth, beating the mittened hands against his sides.” After proceeding like this for some time the man’s shivering stops and he begins to feel a little warmer. The man recognizes that even though he encountered many challenges during the process of building the fire, nature and the materials around him were the only things that could save him. In the end, the fire as a symbol of innovation, his hopes, and ability to stay warm with readily available materials fail him.
In “To Build a Fire,” Jack London provides various objects with symbolic meanings, such as the fire which illustrates the human concept of hope. In the beginning of the tale, the man was very comfortable in the wilderness with his scientific analysis of nature—“Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero” (London 1). However, when he begins to recognize his vulnerability to the cold, the only thing he can rely on is hope which he finds in the fire that he persistently tries to produce but to no avail. Realizing that he will not be able to create a fire, “he … [threshes] his arms back and forth, beating the mittened hands against his sides” (London 10). This demonstrates mankind’s necessity for hope and the insanity that will occur with the absence of it. After failing to produce fire, the man—having lost his aspiration for better future conditions—concludes that he will perish like a respectable individual; he does so while dozing off into the most comfortable sleep one could imagine.
The short story by Jack London, “To Build A Fire”, is a prominent piece of literature used in spreading the ideas of naturalism and realism. The story compares the dynamic between Nature and Man, Nature being the enemy to Man’s survival despite the fact that Man sees himself as more powerful. While struggling to survive through an isolated, natural death trap, this man focuses intently on building a fire to pull him through. The phrase “to build a fire”, in some form, is used extremely repetitively; its importance is shown in its presence in the title. This idea that the man continually repeats symbolizes Man’s distraction and denial of predetermined danger. As he was trying to build a fire for the second time, London writes, “And all the time, in his consciousness, was the knowledge that each instant his feet were freezing.” The man would not accept and acknowledge that each instant he was approaching and becoming closer to his inescapable death. Rather, he focused on building a fire, constantly absorbed in accomplishing this task, believing that the fire was “promising life with every dancing flame”. This man being constantly immersed in building a fire presents itself as the stage before panic in the process of realization of inevitable danger. Just as London relates this story to the human society feeling superior to nature, he implies the fire as a diversion and rejection to the inevitable problems of the world.
In Jack London’s subtle yet insightful short story, To Build a Fire, a man struggles to find his way through the infinite land and snow of the Yukon trail. While enduring below freezing temperatures on his journey, the man is highly dependent upon the element of fire. In the harsh weather, all the ignorant man had to keep him alive and warm were the long matches that would start a fire. If the man’s dependency failed, he would no longer be able to survive. After a pile of snow falls onto the fire the man worked hard to ignite after several trials, “the man was shocked. It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death. For a moment he sat and stared at the spot where the fire had been,” (London). At this moment, the nameless man becomes enlightened of his mortality. As his dependency upon science has failed him, he is forced to accept the fact of his approaching death, and surrender to what is. The man has relied on this element of fire so willingly, that when it expires, he must wane along with it.
In the short story “To Build a Fire” written by Jack London fire demonstrates just one of the plethora of symbols used to represent one’s ego in life. The man in the story finds himself caught in freezing temperatures with nothing but his dog to accompany him and his own will to live. Fire clearly displays a relation to the man’s ego throughout his journey. When he first sets out, the man is overly confident in all of his actions and proves to fight the unpredictable and dangerous conditions of nature. His first attempt to create a fire is successful and he is able to save himself for the time being, and further motivate his ego to continue on. He even tries to get around the obstacles that nature has given him, such as when he makes his dog test the ground before he moves forward. While this is undoubtedly a smart tactic, nature will prevail. The very determination and drive of his ego that pushes him through some of his hardships is what eventually leads the man to his ultimate demise. After getting wet the man barely is able to start a fire suffering severely from frostbite, but does slightly keeping his ego and himself alive. Due to his inability to judge his placement he makes the fire under a tree that drops snow onto it ceasing the existence of the fire as well his life and ego.
In the short story ”To Build a Fire”, Jack London utilizes fire as a symbol to express how man relies on hope to get past the inevitability of death. The unnamed man consistently tries to use fire to help himself live; however, he fails each time. This main tries numerous times to get matches to light, which might save his life. Each time he tries, however, the matches fail to light. Trying to spare his life once more, the man consistently attempts to create a fire that ends up being unsuccessful. Although the man was condemned from the start, he tries to mask the idea of death with fire and avoid it completely. To avoid his predetermined fate, he turned to fire. Fire was his sense of the false hope of survival. The man’s final endeavor was to get a fire started, which shows how fire can give a man hope to avoid the inevitability of death. The fire never ended up lighting,; therefore, fire symbolized the idea of false hope to get past the inevitability of death.
In “To Build A Fire”, Jack London uses the symbol of fire to accentuate man’s inability to recognize the significance of nature in his own survival. Fire represents the sustenance of life in the vast and seemingly unconquerable Yukon wilderness. Jack London’s unnamed main character reflects the enlightenment ideals that science resolves all problems, ultimately leading to his dismissal of natural instinct. His brain operates entirely on a scientific level, merely viewing the temperature as, “Fifty degrees below zero was… just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head.” Despite the character’s scientific mindset, he fails to recognize the necessity of fire in his fragile situation. His canine companion, however, relies solely on instinct, feeling the ostensible need for a fire to be made at once in order to survive. The instincts felt by the dog manifest the underlying truth in this story; without instinct, man stands no chance in his clash against nature. As opposed to the man’s scientific reasoning, the dog’s instinct, “…told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man’s judgment. In reality… it was colder than sixty below, than seventy below.” In itself, this exemplifies the triumph in such situations of instinct over scientific thinking. Nature is illustrated by instinct in this story, as instinct flows naturally, connecting these two as one in the universe. Jack London brilliantly uses fire as a representative of man’s inadequacy of mind to come to the realization that instinct and nature often hold prevalence over scientific thought.
In "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, the fire which the man is so dependent on symbolizes science which helps demonstrate the theme that science is failing, leaving the man, who symbolizes humanity, handicapped and unable to survive in nature. Early on in the story, London describes a scene that shows man and nature, symbolized by the dog, traveling side by side. The man does not respect the dog, but instead manipulates him to ensure his own survival. By doing this, the man effectively cuts off any ties with nature and instead relies only on science to keep him alive. However, being so apart from nature allows for the man to act off of what he believes to be intelligent decisions, rather than instinct. In the end, this becomes a fatal error. As the man is disregarding nature by tearing branches from a tree to build a fire for himself, he becomes the reason for why it is put out shortly after. Because his ego kept him from paying attention to nature, the man is left with no other means or knowledge of how to survive without a fire. The story concludes with the man dying, because without science (the fire) he was unable to keep himself alive in nature.
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