As time goes on he reminisces of the time he left his father in the snow. As he sat there awaiting his fate, he is surround by a pack of wolves. At first he fights them off, then he just gives up. “All men must die… It was the way of life” (12), so he just sits there and accepts his fate. London uses the plot of the story, the character, and the setting as a great example of the naturalism worldview James Sire talks about in his book, The Universe Next Door.
He starts the fire underneath a spruce tree, which is covered with snow, and keeps pulling twigs from its lower branches to feed the flames. He gathers twigs and grasses, and then tries to light a match with his frozen, numbed fingers. He starts the fire, but accidentally pokes it apart while trying to remove a piece of green moss. The man decides to kill the dog and to put his hands inside its warm body to restore his circulation. But due to the extreme cold, he cannot kill the dog.
Thomas’ connection to who he is cut off when Blue Elk burns down his lodge, when Thomas rides broncos to death, and when Thomas tracks and plans on killing the grizzly bear. Peace and freedom only come to Tom when he has a spiritual experience which reveals truth to him.
“To Build a Fire” is a short story written by Jack London about a man who was traveling along the Yukon River on a penetratingly cold winter day to meet his friends at a distant camp. In this story “To Build a Fire”, Jack London effectively conveys the American younger generation’s attitude towards America’s older generation through the main character’s dismissal of the old timer’s advice and his eventual acceptance of the old timer’s wisdom. The man’s recalcitrance of the old timer’s advice showed the readers the disobedience of the younger generation towards the older generation through the main character’s difficulties and struggles while trying to reach his destination. The man’s decision to travel alone on the Klondike after fifty below and to undermine the old-timer’s advice clearly reflects the younger generation’s condescension towards the older generation. His thinking that the old timers were “Rather womanish” (London 615) and his smile suggest to the reader that the man thinks himself above the experience of the old timers and does not need their guidance.
The book recounts the nightmare that Joe Simpson and Simon Yates experienced when they climbed the not-yet-conquered West Face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. After reaching the summit on the 3rd day, Joe breaks his leg on a nasty fall as they start their descent down the mountain. For all sakes and purposes, a broken leg at 6,000 meters is a death sentence. In a forced fit of compassion, his climbing partner Simon decides to lower Joe down the vertical face of the mountain. During the vertical descent, due to extenuating circumstances (to put it lightly) Simon is forced to cut the rope holding Joe, letting him drop more than 100 feet into a white cloud of mist and snow.
When he is struck with dysentery, Elie begins to lose hope in life for his father. His father begins to go mad as the men in the bunks around him steal his food and beat him during the night. One night during orders Eliezer’s father begins to scream Elie’s name and beg for water until an SS officer kills him with a truncheon. He is carried away to the crematory before Elie wakes the next morning. Elie does not cry, because he is relieved by his father’s death.
Imelda Daniel Mooneyham/3 September 28, 2012 Character is usually reflected by the way one reacts or acts upon a certain situation. Pride and ignorance can affect ones fate and get them into sticky situations, where instinct may become the best choice. With no imagination and miles of snow, one can lose patience and end up giving in just as the man did in “To build a fire” by Jack London. The man was so sure he could survive the extraordinary temperatures of Alaska, but ends up dead at the story’s end. The man was also warned at the beginning of the story, that when it gets too cold, one must be accompanied with a partner.
Like the wolf, “the fire has died” and likewise, his futile attempts “to coax it back and feed [it]”, in essence – save the wolf – fails. The main character is unable to accept the loss of the world and attempts to “hold what cannot be held”. Fire also possesses something that cannot be held or seen, heat.
Yet, in the New World the father and son have to search for new locations to sleep and hide in so they don’t get attacked. They find dark, cold, caves and have to make fires to stay warm. However, the father and son come across the father’s old house and he remembers, “On cold winter nights when the electricity was out in a storm we would sit at the fire here, me and my sisters, doing our homework.” (McCarthy 26) In the Old World he wasn’t worrying about electricity if it went out, they would just light a fire. However, in the New World they have to camp in the mountain passes or caves and they have to be very careful where they sleep, because, they do not want to draw attention to them. Drawing attention to them could get them killed, farmed, and most likely eaten.
This year, I’ll do it, you think, I’ll get that slimy old vermin. Last year, you had tried to keep the fireplace on all night to roast Santa, but it was easily circumvented by pouring water down the chimney. Before that was an intricate series of traps on your roof which were easily flown over. before that it was just you, standing alone with a garden hoe, but you fell asleep halfway through waiting. Unlike everyone in this disturbingly jolly world, you completely despised Santa.