In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire,” the main character struggles through repeating events in the arctic wilderness that gradually build to achieve his ultimate destruction. Although the story is built on the understanding that the man is heading to his camp, the way that the events continue to repeat themselves suggests that the man is really going nowhere because he cannot understand the importance of the natural world. “But all this – the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line 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” (London, 1908).
He is given plenty of warnings regarding the dangerous nature of the cold – his spit freezes before it hits the ground, his fingers go numb too fast, the long-time prospector tells him to take shelter, and the dog doesn’t want to go further. “The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances” (London, 1908). This is a common attitude today among all peoples, and the story can be read as a warning to all humankind regarding our need to listen to and respect Mother Nature if we hope to survive on this planet.
Works Cited
London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” (1908). eFictions. Joseph Trimmer, Wade Jennings & Annette Patterson. New York: Wadsworth Publishing.