"To Build a Fire"

Jack London wrote two versions of "To Build a Fire" in a time span of six years. He wrote the original for Boy Scouts as a lesson enforcing the buddy system and to warn against "traveling alone in the North" (Bloom). He elaborated on the second version to tell the story of the man and his demise (Bloom). After reading the story of a man, a newcomer or "chechaquo", and his dog traveling to meet with the man's friends at Henderson Creek, I have learned to not travel alone and to strategically pick a location to light a fire (London 604). Henry David Thoreau and Jack London both wrote about nature and the repercussions that occur if Nature is not obeyed and appreciated. Thoreau lived at Walden Pond for two years, two months, and two days, to better understand and become one with nature (Harding). He found inspiration for much of his writing through his experience. Jack London went to the Yukon and Klondike in Alaska searching for gold, but instead found inspiration through his experience with the Northern wild (London 601). Both authors wrote about what they know, in this case nature and told stories through the experiences they lived. In "To Build a Fire", the unnamed man makes mistake after mistake that could have been prevented through having someone else there and through experience. An experienced Yukon hiker, gold searcher, or native would have waited someplace warm instead of hiking across the frozen tundra in -75 degree weather (London 604). The unnamed man decided that there was no reason to not travel as that meant that the temperature was only "eighty degrees of frost" (London 604). The man did not respect Nature, and that resulted in his demise. He was foiled three different times when trying to build a fire (London 610). If he would have respected nature and waited to travel when the weather was more forgiving, he would not have died, frozen in the snow.





Bloom, Harold, ed. "'To Build a Fire'." Jack London, Bloom's Major Short Story Writers. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2001. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

Harding, Walter. A Thoreau Handbook by Walter Harding: pp. 131-173 (New York University Press, 1959). © 1959 by New York University Press. Quoted as "Thoreau's Ideas" in Harold Bloom, ed. Henry David Thoreau, Bloom's BioCritiques. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 2003. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 601-614. Print.