Just Think About It!

In Jack London's “To Build a Fire” the man never assumes the worst and because of this, he is not prepared for the worst when it comes. When nature first challenges him and he falls through the ice he immediately begins to build a fire, but his first thought was that this accident was going to put him stall his journey for an hour or so. He never thinks of the fact that this minor slip up could end with his death until it is too late and he is already too frozen to save himself. He also had previous advise from an old timer, but he decided to ignore this advice which may have saved his life. This again shows that the man did not use his head to think ahead in the situations, or as London put it “But all this...the tremendous cold,and the strangeness and weirdness of it all – made no impression on the man”(1395). This story was depressing to read because the whole time I wanted to go into the story and tell him to watch out and think about all possibilities, but I had to continue to read and watch him fall because of his own ignorance.