Jack London's To Build A Fire

The doors open and he is immediately hit with the noise, the music, the colors, the people. As he walks down the bright carpet his eyes fix on a blackjack table. He was no longer aware of the other people around him, only the hypnotic music that seemed to lead him to the blackjack table. He exchanges his money for plastic tokens. Two black, ten green, ten red. That five hundred dollars was all he had left and he was determined to triple that amount. Blackjack, he thinks, that’s the game he was looking for and the game his father taught him how to play all those years ago. It’s his first time going to Vegas, he was new, a fish, but he knows how to play. He knows all the tricks and strategies of counting cards and knowing when to hit and when to pass. In casinos, the odds are against you, but he could beat them. Suddenly, a man in an expensive suit and silver platter offered him a whiskey, the man feels important here. He likes it. He likes …show more content…
The temperature is far too low to survive in, it is his first time on the trail and he is alone with noone but a dog. However the man still believes that he can survive. The man faces challenges such as ice traps and ultimately, fire. I emulate this story by writing about a man who goes to a Vegas casino thinking that he will double his money, but ends up losing it all. In my emulation, I use the London’s symbol of calling the main character a chechaquo by calling my character a fish. In the first paragraph of To Build a Fire the narrator says, “He was a newcomer in the land, a chechaquo, and this was his first winter.” In my story I used this symbol by saying, “It’s his first time going to Vegas, he was new, a fish, but he knows how to play.” I call my character a fish because it is a way to describe someone who is new to the gambling world just as London’s character is new to the