to build a fire Essay -- essays research papers

     Interpretation To pass on a Fire     In the story "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, a universe is travelling through the klondike in Alaska to find his friends, "the boys". Because the man is only quick and alert to the things of liveness and non the significance, he finds himself in some very rotten circumstances. The man experiences several instances of bad luck such as getting wet up to his knees, the nippy tree dumping snow on his fire, and matches falling through his numb fingers and going out in the snow. I think that the central idea of "To Build a Fire" is to listen to your instincts and the significances of life, because they will help you when you find yourself in troublesome circumstances. The man in this story is so focussed on compass "the boys" that he overlooks numerous consequences because he is focussed on the individual actions. The man did not respect mother natures supply, in his arrogance he didnt listen to the "significances of life" nor his instincts so he ended up paying for it with his life.     The man "was without imagination" and only understood the facts. He was a newcomer without much experience and judgement that he could conquer mother nature. In fact, he thought that any real man could overcome the odds. To him everything was mediocre facts. For example, the temperature was seventy five below zero, which didnt imagine anything to him except a number. He did not think of his "frailty as a creature of temperature." He laughed at the "old-timer at Sulphur brook" when he warned him not to travel alone when it was so cold. The old man was experienced in life he was very wise, but the newcomer just called him "womanish". Even at the end of the story when the man knew he was going to die, he still was thinking that "freezing was not so bad as people thought" and "when he got ba ck to the states he could tell folks what real cold was." This shows that the man wasnt taking his situation very seriously. He wanted to die with dignity instead of thinking of family or people who cared about him, he foolishly thought about how stupid he looked " lead like a chicken with its head off." He was stupid and responsible for his own death because he did not l... ...an the man in many ways. When the man wants to kill him and bury his hands in his carcass to warm them the dog knows. Without thinking, the dog knows the cold is dangerous and that the spring is risky. He also knows that "to permit the ice rink to remain would mean sore feet." The dog doesnt know why, but it just obeys "the mysterious prompting that arose from the deep crypts of its being." While the dog may not have the intellectual capacity to create fire or food for itself, it instinctively knows where to go to find "the other food providers and fire providers". The do g shows uttermost(a) loyalty to the man and only when he "caught the scent of death" did he leave the man.     Because the man does not pay attention to the "significances of life" and doesnt respect the power of the cold and mother nature he does not survive. The dog was able to survive because he listened and followed its instincts. Since the man didnt listen to the advice of experienced people, he was ignorant and never expected to be defeated by the cold. If the man had prepared himself for the worst, his death would not have been inevitable.