Jack London's To Build a Fire: Theme
The significance of the words "dying and death" in Jack London's 1910 novel,
"To Build a Fire" continuously expresses the man's dwindling warmth and bad luck
in his journey along the Yukon trail to meet "the boys" at camp. London
associates dying with the man's diminishing ability to stay warm in the frigid
Alaskan climate. The main characters predicament slowly worsens one level at a
time finally resulting in death. The narrator informs the reader that "the man"
lacks personal experience traveling in the Yukon terrain. The old-timer warned
the man about the harsh realities of the Klondike. The confident main character
thinks of the old-timer at Sulphur Creek as "womanish." Along the trail, "the
man" falls into a hidden spring and attempts to build a fire to dry his socks
and warm himself. With his wet feet quickly growing numb, he realizes he has
only one chance to successfully build a fire or face the harsh realities of the
Yukon......
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Approximate Word Count: 576
Approximate Pages: 3 (260 words per double-spaced page) |