Trayce Gray (1072 words)

Trayce Gray
Donald P. Carey
English 1302
October 16th, 2017
Mankind’s Relentless Adversary
Many people argue that the single, strongest foe mankind faces today are each other. These innate desires to create war and expand our ambitions are deeply rooted in our being. The truth is that despite these destructive primal behaviors, we see a relentless and reoccurring force or “foe” that dwarfs even the most pernicious of issues we face today. These forces are known as “mother nature”. An excellent example that portrays the force of nature not only as a setting, but also as a menacing and unforgiving antagonist is Jack London’s short story “To Build A Fire”. London’s use of setting, point of view, and symbolism to support the theme of man’s struggle against nature is an immensely lopsided battle that leaves little margin for miscalculation.

To prove the given theme, London uses setting evocatively and beautifully to play a critical role. To start, London elaborately introduces the setting by showing the reader how in paragraph one “[Narrator] Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little-travelled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland” (London 124). The beginning of this story is important because it creates imagery to describe the dim and harsh conditions the man has found himself in. London uses “exceedingly” in the following quotation to put emphasis on the extremely cold condition. “Exceedingly” could also be interpreted as foreshadowing to the man’s tragic fate. A “little-travelled trail” portrays to the reader just how far out into the wild the man is venturing in the story. The descriptions that London uses gives the reader an in depth look of the treacherous nature that the man encounters. The idea of “man versus nature” can be easily interpreted through the illustrations he provides. Nature also continues to work against the man and the dog throughout their journey. As they are traveling, in paragraph 26 ” [Narrator] High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow. This fell on the boughs beneath, capsizing them. The process continued, spreading out and involving the whole tree. It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out!” (London 129-130). This scene is pivotal in london’s illustration of the unforgiving strength that nature holds. Here we see nature both literally and symbolically lower the man’s chance of survival. What’s interesting about london’s personification of nature as a unforgiving force is how unlike a traditional antagonist it has no target or motive. There is no reasoning with the destructive forces of nature. We see this theme frequently throughout london’s other works such as “White Fang” and “Call of The Wild”. The lack of compassion and direction of nature makes the battle of “man versus nature” ultimately futile.

The next element that London uses to prove just how vastly uneven our struggle against nature is and how it leaves little margin for miscalculation is point of view. This amazing short story is told in third person omniscient (all knowing). There are two important reasons for this: the narrator can not only tell us the thoughts of the man, but also the instinctive thoughts of the dog surviving with him. London uses this precisely to contrast intellectual thoughts of the man to the instinctive thoughts of the surviving dog. London does this to portray one of man’s many fatal flaws. Prideful arrogance and self removal from the rest of nature. Secondly, London uses this point of view to criticize the prideful man through the narrator. In paragraph three we see the narrator make comments on the man’s lack of attention to detail and respect of nature. The narrator said this in paragraph 3, “He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things,and not in the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man’s frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold;…” (Narrator, London 125). The narrator uses “frailty” in this quote to express how man is at the mercy of the forces of nature and just how miniscule we are compared to nature. This point of view also allows the reader to analyze both the man’s and dog’s reaction to life threatening conditions. Third person omniscient is important for “To Build A Fire” because it shows just how vastly unequal and futile man’s struggle against nature really is.
While setting and point of view play a significant role in proving the theme, London uses symbolism excellently to support the theme. The most important and obvious symbol within “To Build a Fire” is fire. When the man loses fire his chances of survival drop dramatically, but when the man has fire his future does not seem as dim. Fire could be interpreted by the reader as a symbol for life. This is shown clearly through the man’s thoughts when his fire is doused completely by snow in paragraph 27,” [Narrator]The man was shocked. It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death” (London 130). This quote further reinforces the importance of fire to the man’s survival. The symbolism of fire supports the theme fully by portraying an image of a prideful man whose life is quite literally at the mercy of nature. London uses this symbol to Completely capture the thought that perhaps mankind is not the center of this universe.

In the story of “To Build a Fire”, Jack London translucently illustrates that man’s struggle against nature is a vastly unequal one that leaves little to no margin for miscalculation. Jack London leaves the reader with one difficult question: Is nature at the mercy of man or is man at the mercy of nature? It is up to the reader to form an opinion.
Works Cited
London, Jack. “To Build a Fire”Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 8thed. San Francisco: Longman, 2005. 584-94.