Foolish Pride

Before Jack London wrote, “To Build a Fire”, he went on an expedition for gold in the Yukon Territory (Wissdorf). However, after spending a winter in a cabin located in the Klondike (and finding no gold), he struggled to survive, suffered from scurvy, and gained a wealth of material for his future writings (Wissdorf). During London’s education, he became disheartened with the academics; he felt that both the students and professors were missing genuineness (Wissdorf). These events helped influenced London’s writing. The unidentified man in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” has an unremitting risk of freezing in the harsh cold of the Yukon Territory. Before long, sheer attempts for survival overshadow his obsession with finding gold. The hostile surroundings will not provide any assistance; equally, his dog is not concerned about what happens to him, but only about his own survival. As he attempts to shield himself from nature, his concentration for survival intensifies and the battle between instinct and intellect begins.

From the beginning, the man is uneducated to the consequences of the harsh conditions of the Yukon. His aloof attitude will trigger regrettable consequences. He considered that, “The tremendous cold, and the strangeness of if all – made no impression on the man….Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all” (London 149). He disregarded the old-timers warning at Sulphur Creek regarding the merciless conditions, believing “Any man who was a man could travel alone” (London 154). He failed to see the implication when there had not been any travelers in a month along the trail. In addition, he disregarded his own frostbitten cheeks stating, “What were frosted cheeks? A bit painful, that was all; they were never serious” (London 151). This man was indeed deficient when it came to the instinctive insight of what the countless facts implied.

Throughout the story, the man demonstrates his intellect as he uses matches to build a fire, recognizes how cold it is through temperature readings, and pinpoints where he is located through use of a map. Yet the dogs’ instinctive nature knows the threats the cold presents and to remain warm by burrowing into the snow. Though the dog may not know its location on a map, it is able to track down through scents from a camp not far away. The dog was anxious about the cold, “The dog had learned fire, and it wanted fire, or else to borrow under the snow and cuddle its warmth away from the air… and expected the man to go into camp or seek shelter somewhere to build a fire” (London 150). When the man stops for lunch and gets up from the fire, “The dog was disappointed and yearned back toward the fire. This man did not know cold” (London 152). Through innate insight the dog knows the cold is treacherous, knows the spring is dicey, knows to gnaw at the ice that develops between its’ toes, and knows to stay far enough away from the fire to escape being singed. Contrary to this, the man’s intellect disappoints him.

The consequence of the tremendous cold causes the man’s fingers to go numb were he is unable to function with the matches accurately. He now cannot operate the matches nor his knife which make both tools ineffective and his intellect futile. He should have predicted that building a fire under a spruce tree would bring substantial consequences. The dog even senses when the man is deceitful and trying to kill it. Fittingly, only the dog survives and intuitively knows to go “in the direction of the camp it knew, where were the other food providers and fire providers” (London 158). We all should take accountability for our actions if we can predict probable conclusions.

Sipiora, Phillip. “To Build a Fire.” Reading and Writing about Literature. Pearson Education, Inc, 2002. 149-158.

Wissdorf, Reinhard. Jack London International. Weblication. 1999. 17 February 2007
http://jack-london.org/main_e.htm>