Jack London's To Build A Fire

Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” is a very descriptive story about a nameless name and his travels through the Yukon. The setting is a very important key element to the story. The setting and description of the cold took on a role of its own. This is a story about man verses nature. The setting plays as an antagonist to the nameless man as he fights to survive this tremendous cold. The story begins with a description, a view of the northern landscapes in the winter. It is very cold and assumed to be minus seventy-five degrees below zero. There is no sun, and no hint of sun to come. It was so cold the nameless man would hear cracks in the air as he spit. Frost formed on his amber beard and turned to ice as he spit out his tobacco because of the warm moist breath mixing with the icy cold air. The nameless man was unfamiliar with this kind of cold. He assumed it to be a …show more content…
As readers the setting was able to show us the man’s arrogance as already explained. The setting also revealed his inadequacy and carelessness. When the man found himself in the springs, he knew the importance to quickly build a fire. But his carelessness showed when he did not build the fire in the proper place in the open. Because of his inadequacy he instead builds this fire under a spruce tree; and as he pulls twigs to grow the fire he disrupts the layers of snow on the tree. The snow then falls putting out his fire, and again exposing the man to these tremendously harsh elements. The man then shows us his determination to live and fear of death. As he tries to build a fire in an open space, he ironically lights all of his matches on fire because he is unable to properly use his limbs due to the negligence, he then burns his hands (but yet still unable to build a new fire.) The nameless man starts to fear for his life and begins to run around trying to get blood to flow to his limbs “like a chicken with his head cut