To Build A Fire

To Build A Fire
Jack London (1910)

The author:
Jack London was born in San Francisco . His early life was difficult . He is well known for his novels like The Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf, and White Fung. He wrote many stories about the theme survival. His story " To Build A Fire" is one of those stories which talk about survival. Actually, I can say that it is based on his own experience. London went to search for gold and passed on the same setting in a freezing area.

The Story :
1- The characters :
- The man (the main character): He is a developing character .At the beginning, he is self-confident and he refuses to listen to the old – timer who has an experience in traveling is such weather and place. Also, the protagonist has lack of imaging .During the story we can notice the change in his character. He blames him self not to listen to the old man and becomes less confident, weak, and regret .Also, we can notice the change in his imagination and his way of thinking at the end of the story, but unfortunately it was too late, for he was dying. Another pint is that London didn’t give us a name for the man, maybe to make it in general and give the position of that man in the story to anyone who had the same experience. Finally, this character fit with the setting and it was chosen perfectly by the author who made it rough and tough personality.
- The dog : It is an important character. Actually, it is the only one who survived and not died. It is amazed and can not understand the way that the traveler is acting like. The dog is acting and behaving according to his instinct and to his past experience because it is a native dog. It is contradicted with his owner, it obeys him in order to get food and keep it worm. The relation ship between them is not intimately.
- The Old-timer : He is a miner character who advised the main character not to travel a lone in such weather.




2- The narrator point of view :
- The narrator is a third person narrator.
- He dose not participate, but he is an omniscient ( he tells us what is going on in the mind of the main character and the thoughts of the dog )
- He shows no sympathy with the protagonist.
- The narrator is object (observer).
3- The Plot :
The story is about a man and his only companion his dog .They travel through the tundra of the Klondike region of what is now the Yukon Territory in Canada. The man was advised by the old-timer not to travel alone if the weather 50 degree below zero, but he doesn't listen to him and accept to challenge the unforgiving nature. He faces many difficulties because of freezing air. After many times of trying to build a fire, some of them were successful, he freezes to death and faces his destiny. At the last moments of his life, we can see how he is struggling and fighting not to die a lone in that area. However, it is not his lucky day and nature proves its power and teaches him a lesson, a lesson which came too late, so he could not get benefits of it .The man dose not pay attention or take care of the absence of the sun, the tremendous cold, and many other signals which would save him if he took them seriously.

4- The Setting :
As I mentioned above, the story takes place in one of the coldest places in the world. It takes place in Canada in Klondike near Alaska. The temperature is 50 degree below zero. The area is dangerous and rough. It is not advised to be a lone in such place because it too hard to stay alive and to survive a lone. Nature is a mysterious power which we can't challenge and freezing places is one of nature's weapons which tells us not to be stubborn and foolish. The setting fits with the story and with the personality of the character as I said before.

5- Themes :
The man’s behavior and his ultimate fate highlight the story’s themes of survival in the wilderness, the individual versus nature, and death. But I will focus on survival, London wrote another two stories for the same theme.




6- Conflicts :
There are two conflicts in the story.
- External : man vs. nature : in which the man struggles to survive against the deadly cold. It is the main conflict , and the man challenges the nature when he chose to travel alone .
- Internal : man vs. himself : in which the Newcomer is constantly fighting his own foolishness for taking so many risks in such extreme cold and not following the advice of people with more experience.

7- Conclusion:
To Build A Fire is a wonderful story which carries with its details and descriptions many lessons and themes. It is about surviving in a place where Death is waiting the moment of our weakness to attack us savagely. The man faces his destiny and the sequences of his own decision. He realizes the truth and blames himself not to listen for the advisor, but it was too late for that, he was dying.