Naturalism In Jack London's To Build A Fire

What is naturalism? Naturalism is generally a philosophical conclusion to which every object arises from nature. There are many different ways to identify naturalism. In this story “To Build a Fire,” the mans view of death is identified as a part of nature. This story is a great example of naturalism. In this story London expresses how weak man can be in the face of nature. Nature seems to always push a man to his limits and beyond. In this short story the man tried to push his way threw the severity of the weather. In the story, it embodies the idea of naturalism and shows how if man is not careful then nature will gain the upper hand and man shall perish. The main character of this story “the man” was faced against weather that was 75 degrees below zero, but the man did not let that stop him. Jack London wrote “----the mysterious, far-reaching hairline trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all----made no impression on the man. It was not because he was long used to it. He was a newcomer in the land, a chechaquo, and this was his first winter.” (p. 107). Upon beginning his journey, the man was warned by the old-timer on Sulpher Creek not to travel alone in the freezing cold but the man never listened and continued his journey. When he ignores the warnings …show more content…
“The dog had learned fire, and wanted it….” (p. 108). The man forgot to build a fire, which is one key to surviving in extremely cold weather. He would build a fire to thaw out his hands and the ice from around his beard. He built the fire and gets warm and the dog became happy. The fire seems to represent life. “It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death” (p. 113). When I first read the title of this short story I thought of the word fire likely to be light and warmth. Fire can also be very destructive. One should not ever fail in building a