Argumentative Essay: 'To Build A Fire'

Argumentative Essay In “To Build a Fire,” the story of an unnamed man traveling along the Yukon Trail with a dog is told. Throughout the story, the man’s death is foreshadowed. The husky that he is traveling with has a natural instinct and understands, seemingly more than the man, that traveling the Yukon Trail in the freezing cold temperatures is extremely dangerous. The man soon learns how cold it is when he spits. His saliva turns into ice before hitting the ground, and he knows this means that it is more than fifty degrees below freezing. Despite the obvious danger and forewarning from an older man, the man and dog continue along the trail. The temperature is the main factor resulting in his death. The human body has limits,

Because he is not prepared, McCandless dies in a bus he finds. Chris had every intention of coming back to civilization, but sadly eats something poisonous and is unable to get it out of his system. Prior to eating the poisonous food, Chris tries to cross the river that he had easily traveled through in the spring. Since it is now winter, he is unable to do so and is forced to retreat back to the bus. Though the book focuses on McCandless, it tells brief stories of other men who have gone into nature and passed away as well. Similarly to McCandless, a man named Gene Rosellini went out into the Alaskan wilderness in order to find out whether or not humans could defeat nature. Although he survived for ten years, he ultimately concludes that man cannot live off the land. Later on he decides to travel around the world, but kills himself. Another man who died because of his failure to prepare himself was named Carl McCunn. He had arranged to fly out near the Coleen River, but forgot to arrange a flight back. McCunn did not have a sufficient amount of food, and did not make an effort to save himself. Regrettably, he ended his life. In these two instances, humans are not defeated by nature entirely— more so by themselves. However, their fear of nature is what kills them