An Analysis of Jack Londons To Build a Fire :: London To Build a Fire Essays

An Analysis of Jack Londons To Build a Fire In her cultural reproof of Jack Londons To Build a Fire, Jill Widdicombe explores the question of whether the storys protagonist might have perished from the extreme cold of the Klondike winter even if with a traveling companion. She describes the barbarity of the winter stick out and, alluding to the mans confidence in his ability to survive the weather, describes it as behavior most of us can understand - especially if we are given up to warmer surroundings. She states the extreme cold of frosty landscapes--or The White Silence, as London describes it--is so quiet and abstract that it does not immediately appear to be lethal.As the plot unfolds, I feel the storys protagonist falls victim to several factors brought into play at once his inexperience with the severity of the Klondike winters, his inability to envision the possible consequences of his decision to travel alone in such weather, a series of unfortunate events during his tr ip, and the mis imagination exercised in his attempts to survive those incidents. Though quick and alert, the mans deficiency of imagination renders him unable to visualize what might happen to a man traveling without a companion should adverse circumstances arise in such severe weather in an uninhabited landscape. When he indeed finds himself in dire straits as a result of getting wet in the brutal freezing weather, he once again fails to imagine how quickly the cold will threaten his life and consequently misjudges the severity of his situation. His poor judgment causes him to make one mistake after another until he finds himself incapable of extricating himself from his situation. It seems obvious that had he made himself more familiar with the culture of the land and paying(a) attention to the warnings of the old-timer on Sulpher Creek, he might have chosen to delay his trip and live to travel another day. Had he understood the richness of fostering a relationship with the do g, a native Husky with inbred instincts checking the native climate, the dog would have interacted differently with him, maybe warning him of the danger of the weather through its actions or perhaps providing help, either by sharing its body heat or by going for help. However, instead he held little regard for the dog and the dog reciprocated there was no keen intimacy between the dog and the man.