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To Build A Fire By Jack London Analysis

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Kayla Cornileus Professor Christian Faught Literature 221 28 January 2018 A Critical Analysis of “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. The story of “To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a short story about survival that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Jack London is a California man who was born and raised in there. “At twenty-one, he followed the Klondike Gold Rush to seek his fortune in the Yukon, where he worked harder than ever” (Champlin 1). It was published in 1908 in California. The main idea of this short story is how someone can allow their stubbornness and idea of naturalism get in the way of surviving. Instead of taking advice as the help that it is, the stubbornness in people take it as a challenge to outsmart life and to be better than the last person. In “To Build a Fire,” an unnamed man is a hiker that heads into the Yukon Trail with his dog as his companion. He is warned by a man at Sulphur Creek that no one should go into the extreme temperatures alone, but he feels as if he is alright to go alone with his dog. But after the elements start to affect him, he “realizes now that the situation has become one of life or death” (Champlin 3). The setting of this story is in the Yukon Trail of Canada during the extreme cold of winter. The unnamed main character seems to have many issues with his stubbornness, …show more content…

That is exactly what the hiker in “To Build a Fire” did to himself. He refused to listen to the old man who probably experienced the harsh temperatures for himself or has seen other hikers end up the same way, and he ended up dying because of his stubbornness and his obsession with proving his manliness. This is a story that everyone, especially young people, should read and learn from. They should realize that it isn’t always better to experience something yourself, and that it is smart to listen to the advice of your

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