Literary Analysis: To Build a Fire by Jack London
The events that a human being experiences during his lifetime will transform him and shape the way he will act and think. Nature has a tremendous impact on a human’s life. Some fortunate incidents will create a better person, and on the opposite side, some traumatic episodes can lead a human to completely change his behavior and become, for example, more aggressive or closed to himself. In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” the Fight of human against the brutality and inclemency of nature is illustrated by symbolism, naturalism and lack of instinct respectively shortsightedness. The story relates an unnamed man, who is hiking the Yukon and its barbarous temperatures, accompanied only by a dog.
Jack London uses and unnamed man in the story. This creates an atmosphere in which the reader is more integrated, due to the fact that an unnamed person could be anybody. The unnamed man symbolizes us; he stands for the human race. In the beginning the man seeks for instant fortune, and it becomes a fight against the barbarous temperatures, which are highly in the negatives. It is soon to be clear that the man’s main purpose is not finding gold, and therefore instant fortune …show more content…
Not only that the protagonist freezes to death in the ice-cold temperatures of the Yukon, but especially the manner in which the author portrays the incidents, contributes to the strong impression of the story. He exposes the failure through symbols, naturalistic incidents and the lack of instinct and shortsightedness of human beings. This is primarily achieved due to the fundamental symbols of the fire and the extreme cold. The sharp contrast of these two symbols is representative for the insuperable contrast between nature and civilization. The human was formed so heavily by the civilization that he’s not able to survive in the wilderness
The events that a human being experiences during his lifetime will transform him and shape the way he will act and think. Nature has a tremendous impact on a human’s life. Some fortunate incidents will create a better person, and on the opposite side, some traumatic episodes can lead a human to completely change his behavior and become, for example, more aggressive or closed to himself. In Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” the Fight of human against the brutality and inclemency of nature is illustrated by symbolism, naturalism and lack of instinct respectively shortsightedness. The story relates an unnamed man, who is hiking the Yukon and its barbarous temperatures, accompanied only by a dog.
Jack London uses and unnamed man in the story. This creates an atmosphere in which the reader is more integrated, due to the fact that an unnamed person could be anybody. The unnamed man symbolizes us; he stands for the human race. In the beginning the man seeks for instant fortune, and it becomes a fight against the barbarous temperatures, which are highly in the negatives. It is soon to be clear that the man’s main purpose is not finding gold, and therefore instant fortune …show more content…
Not only that the protagonist freezes to death in the ice-cold temperatures of the Yukon, but especially the manner in which the author portrays the incidents, contributes to the strong impression of the story. He exposes the failure through symbols, naturalistic incidents and the lack of instinct and shortsightedness of human beings. This is primarily achieved due to the fundamental symbols of the fire and the extreme cold. The sharp contrast of these two symbols is representative for the insuperable contrast between nature and civilization. The human was formed so heavily by the civilization that he’s not able to survive in the wilderness