To Build a Fire by Jack London
Theme Essay
In the story To Build a Fire by Jack London, the author tells a story about a man who goes on an adventure to meet some friends at Henderson Creek. The story puts the main character in a harsh environment, which is in the arctic cold, and has to find a way to make it to his destination. Traveling alongside the man is a native husky, which is closer to a wolf than your average dog. The husky isn't all that happy about traveling in such chilly weather, but it stays on the man's heels, hoping that the man will soon stop to make a nice cozy fire. Throughout the story the author shows how ignorance can cause an untimely death by not being aware, not being precautious, and most importantly not listening.
The man was not aware of his surroundings because one mistake he made has just going. Even though it was his first winter and the temperature would get well below negative fifty degrees. The men still wanted go and had to survive the harsh environment of the cold artic. Another major mistake he make was when he was trying to light his third fire. He lit it under a tree and when he got a twig to put in the fire all the snow came down. Instead of being aware of his surroundings and just taking his time to light the fire in the right place, he extinguished his last fire.
He also should have been more precautious with the fact the he was going into terrain he had never experience. He was a chechaquo or "newcomer" to the Yukon, and also his first winter there. He didn’t have any other experience in the artic harsh environment. Instead of taking some time to get properly ready for negative fifty degree temperature and the harsh environment, he just got what he thought he needed and started his adventure. Another precaution the man should have taken was to have a backup plan unless something goes wrong. Since he didn’t have one and everything that could go wrong did go wrong had to give up and let nature win.
The last and most impotent factor that he did not do was listening. Thought the story the he refers to other older man, who gave him advice for his journey. He considered the older man to be to womanish and wanted to de thing his way and didn’t