In Jack London's "To Build A Fire," the different characteristics and natures of man and dog are evident. During the story the man's arrogance impairs his survival. His lack of awareness of the drastically cold conditions and their potential danger is also apparent. The dog, on the other hand, isn't able to read a thermometer but he knows the danger the severe cold imposes. These two drastically different natures separate the two fates of the man and the dog and foreshadow their destiny. Natural protective coverings and the heightened instincts of the dog compared to the arrogance and inexperience of the man, determines their fate. .
At the start of the story, the man is lacking imagination and significance of the events around him, dull in his senses. He continues to calculate the degrees below zero, figuring it was about fifty below which didn't seem to faze him in any way and "that there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head." The man is aware of the uncomfortable cold and the severity of the cold impressed him but that was all, he is unable to anticipate what is to come. The man's arrogance impairs him from rationalizing that his creature is very frail against severe weather conditions and "able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold," but these thoughts never bother his mind or put him in distress. The man seems to not be able to realize the harshness of the cold even when his un-gloved hand quickly turns numb, which astonishes him. This man was foolish and did not know cold, which "possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold." However, the "dog did know cold, and his ancestors knew cold and it had inherited the knowledge and it knew that it was not good to walk abroad in such fearful cold." .
The inexperience of the man versus the inherited knowledge of the dog is the continuing struggle between the two throughout the story.
