Jack London is a realistic American writer whose story To Build a Fire was written in 1908. Despite the theme of the confrontation between man and nature, naturalism is not an end in itself for the writer. The realism of the description is a feature of Jack London’s style, with the help of which the author draws the reader’s attention to certain things. Moreover, the writer focuses more on the hero’s psychology, thinking, and cause-and-effect relationships. To Build a Fire reveals the theme of survival in the harsh North and the confrontation between man and nature. Consequently, the protagonist’s attitude changed, transforming the character from a self-confident professional with a goal to a person ready to give everything for survival.
To Build a Fire tells of a young man who decides to travel through the Yukon, the harsh northern territory beyond the Arctic Circle. Line 2 states, that the traveler is walking along the bed of the Yukon River, in addition, one can determine from some details that it is the end of winter (London, n. d.) The hero was going to go around the distance that his friends made through the pass and meet them at the appointed place. Moreover, the man had a goal, namely to check the possibility of rafting the forest along the riverbed in the spring. The main danger for the hero was the springs in the river, which made the ice thinner in some places. At first, the traveler coped with traps on the ice and with frost, but at one point, the hero plunged into knee-deep water. It was a decisive moment, as due to panic and cold, the young man began to make mistakes and soon died.
Throughout the story, one can notice how the hero’s attitude to the surrounding objects and life changes. At first, the young man pays attention to the scale of the territory and does not realize the danger of the situation. On the line 33, the author focuses on the concepts of reason and instinct when Jack London notices that a dog’s instinct suggests more than a person’s mind (London, n. d.) Moreover, in the beginning, the reader can notice how the author is trying to highlight a change in a person’s attitude. At first, the traveler has neither fear nor apprehension, however, soon, according to the line 6, the young man “had shied in such panic” when one stepped on thin ice (London, n. d.). Unfortunately, self-confidence prevents drawing the correct conclusions, and after a while, the hero sinks knee-deep into ice-cold water.
The inexperience of the hero led to the next decisive moment, namely, when, after setting up the fire with incredible efforts under the spruce, it was extinguished by fallen snow. Line 13 states, that this event also influenced the hero’s transformation: “The man was shocked. It was like hearing his own judgment of death” (London, n. d.) The author skillfully draws the viewer’s attention to the change in the character’s attitude through the style of description. Thus, at the beginning of the text, one can trace the description of large-scale things, such as a landscape, then the author even describes every blade of grass at the end. It is similar to a person’s thinking when, in the absence of danger, one worries about global problems, and when a threat arises, one thinks only about how to survive, that is, more detailed things.
Talking about the lessons that the man learned at the end of the story, one may notice a change in his attitude towards the words of the old man Sulphur Creek. “You were right, old fellow. You were right,” the hero thought in his mind as imagining a conversation with an old man (London, n.d.). It shows how a man realized the severity of the north and learned that one was mistaken when one treated the threat lightly.
To conclude, one can notice how the hero’s transformation took place in terms of feelings of self-confidence and fear. However, the character does not change in the context of moral principles, which is evident from the relationship with the dog. An animal is only a tool for the hero, one was ready to kill the dog to keep warm without hesitation. Ultimately, near death made the hero panic and build strange cause-and-effect relationships.
Reference
London, J. (n.d). To Build a Fire. Web.