Sunday, February 21, 2010
Dare Devil
“How to Build a Fire” was an interesting story about a newcomer who has to the Klondike in search of gold. He decides to travel alone with a dog to meet up with his companions in camp. He was warn not to travel alone in temperatures lower than 30 but he goes anyway and the temperature is below 70 therefore causing the battle of man vs. natural. This writing falls in the realism and naturalism category because the writing can actually be compared to a believable situation. The man is determine like a high percentage of people today who like to show people they can things that other people say should not be done for either logic or safety reasons that is why the world is full of daredevils and the advance of mankind continue to increase because people taking risk. Nothing positive happens for this man as he have to pay the consequences for his behavior. The story tells how even the dog realize they shouldn’t be travelling in this temperature but the man refuses to turn back and luck turns against him and he wet his feet, and is unable to unthaw them so the story ends in a realism way with the man dying and the dog finding another master.
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The ending is definitely a harsh realism point of view, most stories that I have read or heard usually end with the main character somehow getting saved from the immediate danger. Then after they have been saved they learn their lesson and decide to change their ways, this is the romantic view of most stories that I have read in my lifetime. But I guess this is what make London's “To Build a Fire” so popular, it is different and does not follow the usual set of rules that other writings follow. London decided to take a chance and change his ending to the uncommon, depressing ending that transformed his story into an American Classic.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the ending is harsh realism point, but as Haywood has said that the main was trying to prove everyone wrong. He was trying to prove that a man can go out by himself and defeat nature. That what he basically was trying to do; He was trying proving that old man wrong and the dog wrong.It just really sucks how the man fell into the spring and got his feet wet. If it wasnt for this happening I believe he would have made it. He would have gotten the chance to boast about his accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Mr. Haywood's views on Jack London's “To Build a Fire”. He uses the man vs. nature standpoint to show how listening to those around you can ultimately save your life. The man in this story clearly ignored the warnings and thus ended up dieing in the end. Mr. Haywood coins the main character in the story as a daredevil of some sort. This was intriguing for me in that the man took the journey and risks upon himself to attempt to make it into camp despite being told not to travel at all. He provides a wonderful and elaborate summary of the story and the impact this tale had on him personally.
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