Compare And Contrast Kolau The Leper And To Build A Fire

Essay 1 Jack London, an American novelist, journalist, and social activist, is the author of “Koolau the Leper” and “ To Build a Fire.” Originally, both of these stories were published years apart from one another. Despite being the distance in publication dates, we find that within these stories Jack has similar plots and characters. Both stories have individual characteristics that make them unique in their own ways, yet they share parallels as well. In this essay, I will compare and contrast the characters and plots of “Koolau the Leper” and “To Build a Fire.” I will also discuss how each character and plot effects the over all entirety of both stories. In “Koolau the Leper” and “To Build a Fire” both stories have main characters that are men. In “Koolau the Leper,” the main character is Koolau, the king of the lepers. In “To Build a Fire,” the main character is a man, but Jack never tells us his name. In “To Build a Fire,” the man is hiking the Yukon trail, and Jack writes about his triumphs and tribulations. Jack has …show more content…
In “To Build a Fire” we see the man making a great journey on the Yukon trail in freezing temperatures to visit his friends. Jack writes, “Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost” (London). In “Koolau the Leper” we see Koolau and his people defending their island against the foreigners who have taken over their land, in the hopes of maintaining their freedom. Jack writes, “To-day all the islands are theirs, all the land, all the cattle -- everything is theirs . . . We were born here. Here we have lived. And here shall we die” (London). Both characters go through unique experiences. These experiences are driven by a plot with the intentions to show just how far these characters are willing to go to get where they want to be in