“To Build a Fire” (1908)
Jack London
Jack London (1876-1916)
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Prolific writer of The Call of the Wild (1903), The
Sea-Wolf (1904), and 18 other novels, 200 stories,
over 400 nonfiction works
First American writer to become millionaire from
being an author
Born San Francisco, father abandoned family
Supported himself working from age 13, walked
across U.S. as labor protestor
1893 experience at sea led to his first publication,
“Story of a Typhoon off the Coast of Japan”
Jack London (1876-1916)
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Attended UC-Berkeley for one semester in 1896
Traveled in Yukon in winter 1897
Involved in socialist movement as a lecturer and
politician: ran twice for mayor of Oakland as socialist
Embraced both the socialism of Karl Marx and the
“superman” ideal of Nietzsche—ideas expressed in
his autobiographical novel Martin Eden (1909)
Jack London (1876-1916)
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Crossed the Pacific in small boat (1907-09);
helped popularize Hawaii as tourist
destination
Married twice; his second wife Charmian was
a “New Woman” who accompanied him in his
travels, inspired some female characters
Ranch at Glen Ellen, California
Nature vs. Civilization
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“To Build a Fire” is a classic study of this
theme, through the contrast it sets up
between man and dog in a fierce
environment
First published as a boy’s story (2,700 words)
in The Youth’s Companion, 1902; the
expanded version (7,235 words) appeared in
The Century Magazine in 1908
Alaska and Yukon Territory
The Man
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Opening paragraphs (1-4): what the man
notices:
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His Watch (control of time): lunch at 12:30 p.m.,
arrival to “boys” at Henderson Creek forks camp
at 6 p.m.
No sun: “intangible pall over the face of things”
“dark hair-line” trail
cold
Man vs. Narrator (1)
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“The trouble with him was that he was without
imagination. He was quick and alert in the
things of life, but only in the things, and not in
the significances” (¶3)
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“keenly observant” (¶11)
No impression: “mysterious trail,” sun, cold:
no sense of “mystery,” “strangeness and
weirdness”
A “newcomer in the land”: first winter
Man vs. Narrator (2)
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Man’s perception of cold
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“Fifty degrees below zero was to him just
precisely fifty degrees below zero” (¶3)
“the temperature did not matter” (¶4)
Ice from chewing tobacco: “he did not mind the
appendage” (¶7)
“What were frosted cheeks? A bit painful, that was
all” (¶10)
“It certainly was cold”; “It was cold” (¶14)
Man vs. Narrator (3)
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Narrator’s perception of cold
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“man's frailty in general, able only to live within
certain narrow limits of heat and cold” (¶3)
“The cold of space smote the unprotected tip of
the planet, and he, being on that unprotected tip,
received the full force of the blow” (¶19)
Man vs. Dog (1)
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Not introduced until ¶6. Why?
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Wolf dog
“Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the
man by the man’s judgment” (¶6)
Instinct points to reality: “In reality, it was not
merely colder than fifty below zero; it was colder
than sixty below, than seventy below. It was
seventy-five below zero” (107 degrees below
freezing)
Its ancestry knew cold, man’s didn’t (¶15)
The “old-timer on Sulphur Creek”
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Represents experience
Also, the ability of humans to pass on
experience
Problem: man’s lack of imagination means
that old timer’s advice makes no impression
on him (see ¶20)
Man vs. Dog (2)
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Wants man to build fire (¶6)
Dog is man’s “toil-slave” (¶15)
“no keen intimacy between the dog and the
man”
“So the dog made no effort to communicate
its apprehension to the man. It was not
concerned in the welfare of the man”
Man vs. Dog (3)
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Paragraph 12: a study of man-dog
relationship
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Man uses dog to test ice; dog gets wet
Dog obeys “mysterious prompting that arose from
the deep crypts of its being” and bites off ice
Man, using judgment, assists the dog
Series of Accidents
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Breaks through ice (¶17)
Builds fire under spruce tree
Avalanche of snow snuffs out fire
Tries to rebuild fire. Lights all the matches,
burns flesh, lights bark
Unsteady hands disrupt fire
“The fire provider had failed” (¶29)
Detachment from Body
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“The man looked down at his hands in order to
locate them, and found them hanging on the ends of
his arms. It struck him as curious that one should
have to use his eyes in order to find out where his
hands were” (¶32)
“It struck him as curious that he could run at all on
feet so frozen that he could not feel them when they
struck the earth and took the weight of his body. He
seemed to himself to skim along above the surface,
and to have no connection with the earth” (¶34)
Rise of Imagination
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“wild idea” (from tale about man killing steer); “He
would kill the dog and bury his hands in the warm
body” (¶30): steal the dog’s natural advantage. His
envy of dog (¶25)
“Somewhere he had once seen a winged Mercury,
and he wondered if Mercury felt as he felt when
skimming over the earth” (¶34)
“He pictured the boys finding his body next day.
Suddenly he found himself with them, coming along
the trail and looking for himself” (¶37)
Acceptance of Death
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Fear and panic (¶33)
“take it decently” (¶36)
Admission of mistake to old-timer of “Sulphur
Creek”: “You were right, old hoss” (¶38)
“the most comfortable and satisfying sleep he
had ever known” (¶39)
Conclusion (¶39)
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Dog moves on:
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“eager yearning for fire mastered it”
Senses death: master has failed
Delays
Goes to “to other food providers and fireproviders”
Nature (and imagination?) triumph:
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“the stars that leaped and danced and shone
brightly in the cold sky”