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Spencer Cross

Brody 4

Building a Fire Too Large

Have you ever tried so hard at something that you ended up failing?

If so you faced the same problem the character from To Build A Fire, by Jack London,

faced. This unnamed character pushed himself to limits he thought he could

withstand but ended up leading him to his fate. He made his first mistake when he

went out with thinking about the consequences he may face in this extreme cold.

His next mistake was assuming he would not run into any impassible hurdles.

Finally, he was too confident in his final decisions. The accumulation of these

confident miscalculations led him to his demise.

Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty odd degrees of frostIt did not lead

him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature and upon mans

frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold.

(p.1) He admits to being uncomfortable, but denies that fact that he wont be able to

survive in this extreme climate. All the generations of his ancestry had been

ignorant of cold, or real cold, of cold one hundred degrees below freezing-point.(p.5) His confidence in the fact that the temperature will not prevent him from

continuing his journey, built his confidence for his choices further on his journey. It

is natural for humans to be uncomfortable in extreme conditions, but his ignorance

to his bodies signals of pain, warning, and discomfort did not benefit him in any

way so, it is strange he kept following through with his original plan anyway. Even

his own dog knew this was an unsurpassable environment so even the dog was,

disappointed and yearned back toward the fire, when the old man tried to leave.

This relates again to the natural instincts of humans and life in general, life does not

do well in conditions it is not normally accustomed too. (p.2) At this point in the

story, nothing seemed to worry the man. (p.1)

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As he progressed steadily, or seemingly steadily, he was quick and alert to

the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances. (p.1) He was

not thinking ahead. Sure he saw immediately what was in front of him and knew

how to deal with it, but he did not think about large rivers he may cross, animals hemay encounter, or other challenging obstacles that could slow or stop his journey.

It seems as though he is a over confident person to begin with as he, laughed at

[the old man] when the old man tried to give Jack Londons character some advise

on making an efficient fire. So, clearly he is so confident that even when someone is

kind and tries to give him advise, he scoffs and does his own thing.

The obstacles he was ignorant to at the beginning, finally catch up with him.

Fate in this story is multiple things, the first of which is the stream he falls into.

Although he was careful when passing over the streams at the beginning of the

story, he makes the mistake of thinking he is in the clear and trudges along

unaware of the danger he is confronting. When he falls into the stream he is

astonished, yet he should be thankful it did not happen to him early on his trek.

Fate met him again when he did not take into account every aspect of danger when

building a fire under a tree. He says he was, keenly aware of his danger, (p.6) but

he is so keenly aware that he did not see the tree beneath he was camped. "It was

his own fault or, rather, his mistake. He should not have built his fire under the

spruce tree." (p.7) Once again he admits to making a crucial mistake leading him

closer to his fate. He finally faces his fate when he is not able to build the fire once

again. This is his final mistake and his ignorance to the fact he will not be able to

make it causes him to think he will survive and yet he will not. "It was as though he

had just heard his own sentence of death." (p.7) His confidence that he would

survive only led him further on the path to his death.

His confidence and ignorance to dangers convinced the man that he could

overcome difficulties that he could not actually overcome. He began by ignoring

basics signs of a fatal decision. Next he became so confident he pushed himself to

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limits he thought he wouldn't be affected by. Finally, he over thought plans that

eventually led him to his downfall. The moral of the story is to think through plans

before investing the time and effort into the task.