SOURCE: “Imposing (on) Events in London's ‘To Build a Fire,’” in Determined Fictions: American Literary Naturalism, Columbia University Press, 1989, pp. 34–54.

In the following essay, Mitchell explores London's narrative techniques in “To Build a Fire,” particularly the use of repetitive language and images.

More than other naturalist authors, Jack London has been considered an embarrassment, a writer whose prodigious output simply confirms his lack of craft. His flat prose seems to offer an immediate, easy target of criticism, and our skepticism only grows with knowledge of his slipshod methods of composition. Given the speed with which he tossed off stories that appear suspiciously childish, most readers have simply agreed to ignore the technical aspects of his fiction. Even admirers balk at treating so inconsistent a self-proclaimed theorist as if he were nonetheless on the whole a self-consistent artist. Publicly committed to a super-race and yet to an utterly classless...