Critical Analysis: To Build a Fire by Jack London
London’s book on To Build a Fire is a direct contradiction on how Romantics and Transcendentalists view nature as it interprets reality using scientific determinism. In the narration, the author places the protagonist in a challenging environment where nature is considered the enemy and tests the protagonist’s ability to survive in harsh conditions. The way the author presents the story make it appear cold and harsh with bleak tones. Nature is presented as an entity that has a complete power to reduce a person to a state of nothingness. In this case, the protagonist is presented as a macho man with the capacity to beat nature and survive the wilderness. However, as the story progresses, it becomes apparent that the protagonist is not aware of the level of the trauma he is about to face. It appears that the protagonist is led by his ideologies often held in high regard by romantics that nature is beautiful and friendly. However, the author takes a high road to show that nature has its skeletons in the closet. Ultimately, the complacency by the protagonist leads to his untimely death. Therefore, To Build a Fire challenges the ideologies of the Romantics and Transcendentalists and helps people question their place in the universe.
The author makes the reader aware of the risks that come with persistent self-reliance, improvisation, insociability and hatred for another creation known to humanity. In the story, for example, the hero is ridiculed when he despises the idea that the older man from Sulfur Creek explained to him why it is urgent to go with an accomplice (London 6). Furthermore, the protagonist’s personal importance and vanity appear in the way he treats his dog. The hero is not exclusively equipped to be friendly to different people, but he also treats the dog with contempt and in an antagonistic environment. For him, working around different animals does not matter to him, apart from the joys that derive from the elements with which he connects them (Hillier 173).
When it comes to the structure of the story, the author utilizes a reiterative quality to help depict a story that shows the ability of the protagonist to ignore red flags that lead to his demise. This mode of narration involves the readers on the mistakes that the protagonist makes (Mitchell 78). In this case, the author uses different terminologies such as frozen or froze, to build nature’s profile as a dreaded entity for the protagonist (Mitchell 80). This strategy is used by the author to develop an entropic effect that creates a bleak environment. This directly contrasts the representation of nature by romanticists where nature reduces man to his physical matter, depriving him of his will to live and finally his life. Furthermore, the author employs the use of repetition to emphasize the bleak tones. Words such as “cold” have been used throughout the story creating a bleak environment that is morbid and steadily leads a reader to the slow death of the protagonist as he tries to fight with nature.
The author intentionally portrayed human imperfections in To Build a Fire. In a cold and determined approach, London presents the subtleties that take into account the strength and power of nature and its capacity to turn an individual to a relatively small state. The absence of the creative hero and his deafness from a supernatural point of view testifies to the rise of London in the place of the man who knows him.
Works Cited
Hillier, Russell M. “Crystal Beards and Dantean Influence in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire (II)”. A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, 23.3 (2010): 172–178.
London, Jack. To build a fire. Charles River Editors via PublishDrive, 2018.
Mitchell, Lee Clark. “‘Keeping His Head’: Repetition and Responsibility in London’s ‘To Build a Fire.” Journal of Modern Literature 13.1 (1986): 76-96.