Determinism In 'To Build A Fire'

To Build A Fire is the story of man venturing out into the cold unknown Yukon territory. While separated from his group of friends the character deals with a slew of problems created by personal choice and the effects of nature itself. The character struggles with battling the elements, choices are made and consequences follow soon after.
The George Becker definition of naturalism for this study / analysis of To Build a fire will be used. This definition states naturalism overturns the american myth that you can will your way out of every situation. Will meaning that one can persevere and work hard to push them self out of the situation. That if you put in the work into whatever situation you are currently in you will make it out of this …show more content…
In the first version of To Build A Fire readers see the choices the man makes and have an accurate detail of the wrongs in which he makes and views the ultimate outcome which is his death. This relays with the idea of determinism because of the eventual sleep , death , brought about by his choice to pursue money , his choice to not pack accordingly , his choice to scoff at the power of mother nature , and his choice to venture into the wilderness alone and inexperienced. If he choose to follow his friends rather than go in pursuit of money he would not be in the wilderness alone. Readers correlate the pursuit of materialism as the leading cause to the death of the man , aside from ignorance to protective gear and the environment. How this contrasts to the second version of the story we see that there are slim to no consequences to Tom’s actions that there are only brief moments of death but that his will power takes him out of these situations. An example of this disregard for determinism is in the following excerpt “But the love of life was strong in him, and he sprang to his feet...”(London 2) This shows contradiction to determinism by devaluing the lesson of the great almighty American spirit not being enough.The individual takes the series of choices given to them and exists in an outcome based on the choices made. Readers see the same mistakes made in the two stories Yet in …show more content…
While version A & B were created for different audiences. These differences appear in the ways in which the character reacts and acts. Audience’s see how the character reacts to the choices made through the use of and ignorance of determinism. Furthermore there leads to the effects of the environment upon the character and his difference of accepting and feeling these effects , or ignoring the environment in which he stands through will power. The text similarities show through the use of materialistic desire driving the character into the domain of nature. Finally version A adheres to and follows the guidelines of naturalism to the core and has proven so. Version B disregards the need for the character to remain subpar to the plot of the story. Version B does not allow for the character to feel the effects of the environment nor see out the consequences of his deterministic choices from his materialistic pursuit. Rather, since his will is given to him and he wills himself out of the claims of the cold Yukon. London created a story that does not in meet the criteria in order to be placed in a naturalist genre. London created a story of hope and inspiration in version B that takes away from the criteria needed for a naturalist story. While inspiring and meets the needs of his intended audience version B does not qualify to be a naturalist