The struggle of man versus nature long has dwelt on the consciousness of humanity. Is man an equal to his environment? Can the elements be conquered, or only endured? We constantly find ourselves facing these questions along with a myriad of others that cause us to think, where do we fit? These questions, crying for a response, are debated, studied, and portrayed in both Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. The settings in these stories, the Yukon in “To Build a Fire” and an island in the south Atlantic in “The Most Dangerous Game”, take a toll on the main characters in a very different fashion. Both of these short stories provide excellent demonstrations of this topic but the most obvious are the environment The Man is in, the, application of nature in Rainsford’s survival, Connells animal-like description of Rainsford, and the symbol of fire. We see in “To Build a Fire” that The Man is constantly plagued by the icy tundra he finds himself in. Unfortunately for him, at the beginning of his journey, the cold did not bother The Man. He states, “it was cold and uncomfortable, and that was all…it did not lead him to consider his weaknesses as a creature affected by temperature” (London 2). The man knew it was extremely cold, but failed to recognize the intense gravity of his situation: he did not process it as a viable threat. Eventually, this lack of fear caused his unfortunate demise. As the story goes on, his environment begins to
Is nature here to help or harm humans? The short stories “To Build a Fire” and “The Outcast of Poker Flat”, written by Jack London and Bret Harte respectively, explore this idea. Both authors portray nature as apathetic and indifferent towards human beings and use literary devices such as imagery to accomplish this goal. In the short story “To Build a Fire,” Jack London shows the reader how cold and unforgiving nature can be to humans.
The Most Dangerous Game, by Richard Connell is an exciting thriller that follows the misfortunes of an American hunter that is faced with fear for his life. The hunter Mr. Sanger Rainsford is on his way to Rio De Janeiro with his good friend for a hunting trip; they pass a mysterious island and Rainsford falls from the ship and is forced to swim ashore, Rainsford meets a man named General Zaroff who has a passion for hunting, humans; he offers Rainsford a chance to survive three days as his prey, in the end, Rainsford survives long enough to confront Zaroff and kill him. In “The Most Dangers Game”, Richard Connell uses the literary terms foreshadowing, suspense, conflict, and imagery to show the reader what a human is capable of when it is faced with fear. Foreshadowing is used to advance the plot of a story by keeping a hold of the reader’s attention, but not giving everything away. Richard Connell does this in the beginning of the story when Whitney and Rainsford are on the ship talking about hunting in Rio.
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be on the hunt out in the wild for three days with little supplies and little to no prior knowledge of your surroundings? Well, that’s exactly what happens in Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” In this short story, Sanger Rainsford, the protagonist, arrives at an island appropriately named “Ship-Trap Island” with his companion, Whitney, on a yacht. Rainsford unwittingly falls off the yacht into the ocean after leaning on the guard rails and is left with no other choice but to swim towards Ship-Trap Island. He encounters a castle-like structure and eventually meets General Zaroff.
The snow tumbled down, putting out his fire (London 85). The main character, again, was not circumspect of his surroundings. Lastly, the main character was thrown into panic, creating him to make wrong decisions. He planned to run to camp. This plan had one flaw; he lacked endurance (London 90).
Richard Louv, a novelist, in Last Child in the Woods (2008) illustrates the separation between humans and nature. His purpose to the general audience involves exposing how the separation of man from nature is consequential. Louv adopts a sentimental tone throughout the rhetorical piece to elaborate on the growing separation in modern times. Louv utilizes pathos, ethos and logos to argue that the separation between man and nature is detrimental.
The author shows this a lot throughout the story, specifically when Jack London explains that the man, “...had a good growth of hair on his face, but that did not protect his nose or upper part of his face from the frosty air.” Since the man's face was not covered it shows how unprepared the man is and that he didn't even wear appropriate clothes for the weather he is traveling in. The man expected to be at camp before dark, but didn't prepare for if he got delayed or if the weather got colder. If the man would have prepared better he wouldn't have had to spend so much time on making fires every once in a while. The weather in the story is described as “75 below” and that the “freezing point is 32 above zero.”
Life is like a sports game. Some games you win, some you lose. In life, some days are full of conflict, and some are not. Rainsford faces man versus man, man versus nature, and man versus self conflicts in the short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell. The first conflict is man versus nature.
In Jack London's short story, “To Build a Fire,” it gives a great example on Naturalism and how It hints at real life. To Build a Fire is the devastating story of a man who chooses to journey alone through the dangerous terrain of the Yukon in below-freezing temperatures and perishes at the hands of nature's ruthless and unforgiving power. Naturalism is characterized by being viewed as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings, Focusing on the futile attempts of human beings to exercise free will, and External pressures that threaten to release “the brute within”. The first characteristic of Naturalism London incorporates into “To Build a Fire ” is nature viewed as an indifferent force acting on the lives of human beings.
Being able to overcome an obstacle in life is a challenge. The challenge is not always simple, but it is possible. If a positive attitude is kept, anything can be conquered. In Richard Connell's short story "The Most Dangerous Game," big game hunter Sanger Rainsford is tested in the following ways: strong versus the weak, the value of life, and becoming what he fears. Rainsford had to learn to overcome his weaknesses.
Successful people are driven to be where they stand today. Without the focus of always striving for what one believes, individuals would not be as victorious. In Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer in a Day,” the past seven years have been rainy; therefore, the students read about the sun to find out the peculiar mishappenings. Similarly, in the story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, Rainsford pushes himself to solve the mystery of the unknown rainforest. Both authors create the tone and mood of the story to represent how one should always strive for what they believe.
The author, Jack London, really emphasizes how cold it really is many times throughout the story and it is sometimes followed by how the man was not worried about the cold. The whole story is very grim and dark, just like the setting. There hasn’t been sun for a long time now and the temperature is always dropping. The dog is the one who can sense that the environment around him is not safe, but the man and dog do not have a good bond to be able to communicate. In some tales, the force of nature wants respect and reeks havoc on people that think they are better.
The story I picked is 'To Build a Fire' by Jack London, that talking about a man traveling in cold temperatures and freezing cold to join his friends. The man accompanied a big native dog that was a wolf-dog. It realized the real danger and knew more than his owner that this was no time for traveling. At the end of the story the man dies in the cold after several failed attempts by the man, who tried to warm himself and survive in this harsh atmosphere to achieve his goals by building a fire and his dog returns to camp.
The Most Dangerous Essay “The Most Dangerous Game” is a short story written by Richard Connell. The main character Rainsford is sailing on a yacht past an island called “Ship-Trap Island”. Rainsford wakes up from three gunshots coming from the island. When he goes to investigate he falls into the sea.
Among the authors of the Realistic Period in literature, one of them had a unique style that was more vivid than the rest. As the definition of vivid goes, his stories evoke clear images of the scenarios and can create powerful feelings of the situations his characters face. This author is none other than Jack London, whose stories often focus on the Gold Rush which occurred in the Yukon of the late 1800’s. His stories hold themes quite similar to other authors of this age, yet he manages to bring them about more strikingly. London’s vivid style is present in his use of concrete imagery, symbolism, long descriptions, and specific measurements, which come together to form his naturalistic themes about life in the Yukon.
Jack London portrays the character as very arrogant, because he believes he is more intelligent than anyone else in the story. Even though the man is new to the Yukon, and is aware of the dangers it can present, but he just thinks he can out smart nature by being simply prepared for it. This brings us to the main conflict, and that is the man versus his environment. The whole story he is just getting battered by the cold, and he just keep trying to push his way through it. Eventually, the cold does begin to take its toll on the man, and he starts to make mistakes.