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To Build A Fire Analysis

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The Best Story So Far:”To Build A Fire” The best short story that I’ve read so far in class is “To Build A Fire” by Jack London. The story is about an unnamed man during during a really cold day in Alaska.The man sets off with his dog and a lunch and heads for the cabin on Henderson Creek to meet up with the boys. Well, along the way the man doesn't recognize the significance of some of his observations like the cold and falls into a creek which delays him on his trip. He tries to build a fire to dry himself off but the fire is quickly put out by falling snow. The situation gets worse and the man eventually dies. Despite the depressing ending, this is one of the best stories that I’ve read because the development of the main character, the suspense and the ending. The first reason as to why this story is amazing is the way the main character is developed. When I first read it in 7th grade, I thought the man was just pure stupid and that was all to it. When I read it years later, I found gems like “the trouble with him was that he was without a lack of imagination”(115) that changed my thoughts on the character. It showed that the fault to the man was that he didn’t think about what he observed. Jill Widdicombe said “Rational or not, the …show more content…

The suspense helped drive it along. Karen Rhodes said “The suspense as gripping; Will he get the fire built in time? Will he live?” The suspense never dies down at all, it keeps building up. However, it’s not noticeable to the point of cheesy horror film. The most suspenseful it gets is when the dog refuses to get close to him and the story says “He was losing in his battle with the frost.” The sentences afterwards lose the suspense since there is nothing the man can do to survive and the story soons end. The suspense is used effectively to drive the story along, yet is not saturated with it and this helps add to the greatness of the

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