Summary:
Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" presents the reader with a vivid depiction of man against nature. Throughout this short story, London examines the man's voyage, difficulties, and successes against nature, as well as nature's own unconscious successes against the man.
The famous Swiss author Max Frisch once wrote, "We live technologically, with man as the master of nature, man as the engineer, and let anyone who raises his voice against it stop using bridges not built by nature...back to the jungle." In Jack London's "To Build a Fire" the reader is presented with a vivid depiction of man against nature. Throughout this short story, Jack London examines the man's voyage, difficulties, and successes against nature. Also London analyzes the successes and failures of nature.
As a result of the man fighting nature, he is faced with battles and challenges against nature which causes successes and failures. For example one of the successful battles nature confronts the man with is the challenge of staying warm and keeping himself dry from the hidden springs. "He knew that the coldest snaps never froze these springs, and he knew likewise their dangers. They were traps. They hid pools of water under the snow that might be three inches deep, or three feet"(156). London describes the under-snow springs as traps, the type that creates mind games with the man. Yet nature is met head-on by the keenness and knowledge of the man. "Empty as the man's mind was of thoughts, he was keenly observant, and he noticed the changes in the creek, the curves, and bends and timber jams, and always he sharply noted where he placed his feet"(156). The man feels as if he is the conqueror, the master of the Yukon trail.
Nevertheless the man faces failures throughout his voyage of the Yukon. The man more than one time tried to warm himself around the fire; taking off his mittens "yet in the brief moment the numbness laid hold of the exposed fingers" not realizing that it would take longer for the fifty degree below weather would not be tamed. He also "tried to take a mouthful [of food] but the ice muzzle prevented"(157). But yet again the man tried to become the tamer of nature and "he chuckled at his foolishness, and as he chuckled he noted the numbness creeping into his exposed fingers" (157). The thought that enters his mind is the feeling that even though nature is fighting as hard as it can against him he can still conquer nature's challenge against him.
In addition to the different mind games nature plays on the man there a variety of different physical challenges. However, the man is still trying to surmount over the challenges that nature faces him with. "But all this- the mysterious, far-reaching hairline trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all- made no impression on the man"(153). The man does not want to face the fact that he can not overcome the battles between nature and himself. Again the man doesn't feel as if nature is putting up a fight against him, "Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of mittens, ear flaps, warm moccasins, and thick socks. Fifty degrees below zero was precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered into his head"(153-154). The man also has a conscious decision to fight and disregard nature. Nature itself does not have a conscious decision to fight the man.
As a result of nature's unconscious decision to fight the man, the man is making a conscious effort to make it, to reach the summit in time to eat with his friends. Nature is disregarding anything the man thinks and fights back with no other choice because it has none. Nature, in the role it plays, does not have a choice but to be fierce in trying to stop the man from reaching his goal, the "finish line." Consequently nature finally wins the battle. At the end of the story though the man still believes that his battle with nature is not over, that his death is just another battle that nature has won but nature has not won the war. However the sign of the man dying means that it is "back to the jungle."
In conclusion, the war between men against nature once is ruled by men. Then before the war is over, it is ruled by nature. It is a cyclical pattern that never ends. As the Swiss author Max Frisch once wrote, "We live technologically, with man as the master of nature, man as the engineer, and let anyone who raises his voice against it stop using bridges not built by nature....back to the jungle."
This is the complete article, containing 773 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
