To Build A Fire And The Law Of Life Analysis

Writers often base their works on accounts of personal themes and experiences. Literary pieces can come to symbolize important aspects of a writer’s life. Authors Sui Sin Far, Jack London, and Joel Chandler Harris have greatly shown such biographical reflections in their written works. To an extent, their stories dwell deeper into the social issues that affected the environment around them. Mrs. Spring Fragrance by Sui Sin Far, To Build a Fire and the Law of Life by Jack London and The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story and How Mr. Rabbit Was Too Sharp for Mr. Fox by Joel Chandler Harris, all show how these stories are reminiscent of personal themes in life. Sui Sin Far, an England-born Chinese writer, mainly wrote about the life of Chinese immigrants …show more content…
Before being born, Jack London was abandoned by his father. This event is indirectly represented in the story of the Law of Life. The story focuses on Old Koshoosh, who is left alone to die by his tribe because he is old and blind and would only hinder the tribe’s ability to travel and search for food. It is customary to leave the old man behind to die as did Old Koshoosh with his own father. This part of the story is reminiscent of London’s abandonment by his father. Moreover, the Old Koshoosh comes to terms with the law of life which is “all men must die” (London 1044). It is the way nature works: we are born, we live, and we die. The Old Koshoosh sees his fate and accepts it. He knows he is going to die because that is the way nature works. This man vs. nature conflict is better synthesized at the end when a pack of wolfs encircle the old man. At that moment, the man refused to “cling to life” (London 1047), because that is “law was death” (London 1044). The Old Koshoosh solidarity is present as he reflects on the good and bad times of his tribe and his longing to be possibly taken with the tribe. In another man vs. nature scenario, London writes his Darwinist story, To Build a Fire. Notably, Jack London took elements of his experience of living in Alaska, and tells a story of a man fighting against the odds of the Alaskan weather. Indeed, the character feels more than capable of surviving a cold weather trip. The character ignores the old-timer’s advice “that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below (London 1053). The man calls the old-timer “womanish” (London 1053) and thinks to himself that “any man who is a man could travel alone” (London 1053). Eventually, the man’s over-confidence comes to a dead end. The man could not fight the nature of the Alaskan weather alone, even