To Build a Fire

"To Build a Fire" by Jack London is a tale of survival of the fittest and is a realism piece that relates to the harsh environment and the line between life and death in the forest. The man is freezing to death and can not keep a fire going so he is stuck freezing and his feet are so cold that he can not walk to the safe house station were he can get warm and have food and shelter. This guy eventually freezes to death because the elements were to harsh and in a battle against nature, nature will always win. His company was a dog and he envied the dog because he was designed to stay warm in the element unlike the man and this upset him. Humans were not like people and they have no means to protect themselves from the elements of nature. He tempted fate going out against into the blizzard and he loses the fight and it happens that he loses. Emerson and Thoreau were big into nature but they did respect the boundary and knew the limits of themselves against nature. "And the man, as he beat and threshed with his arms and hands, felt a great surge of envy as he regarded the creature that was warm and secure in its natural covering"( London 610). Emerson and Thoreau enjoyed the nature and were fans of living in the wilderness and Jack London sees the wilderness as a harsh environment that is evil and kills whereas Emerson and Thoreau see the beauty in the wild. Jack London wrote about the naturalistic views of the realism period that present the dangers of going out in the wilderness during a natural disaster. "Then it turned and trotted up the trail in the direction of the camp it knew, where were the other food providers and fire providers" ( London 614). The man could not withstand the environment and the dog walks off to find food and shelter because that is what he needs to survive a lot less than the human. The dog is left to fend for himself in the wilderness all alone with no where to go.

London, Jack."To Build a Fire." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.603-614. Print.