"To Build a Fire," by Jack London is about a man who is seeking to find his friends in the Yukon Territory in Alaska. The man, who has never experienced this degree of cold weather, does not take a wiser man's advice and ventures into the Yukon only with a dog. The man is foolish and does not think that the cold will get to him, but it slowly eats away at him beginning with his fingers and slowly makes its way through the whole body and finally reaches the brain. The man experiences several instances of bad "luck" such as getting wet up to his knees, the spruce tree dumping snow on his fire, and the matches falling through his numb fingers and into the snow. The man's demise is marked by his hubris and the unfortunate circumstances he encounters in the unforgiving Yukon Territory. The central idea of "To Build a Fire" is to think before you act and not to make impulse decisions. .
The man in the story is an individual who thinks only of the actions that he wants to perform and not the consequences. His goal at the beginning of the story is to meet "the boys" by six o"clock so that they can presumably look for gold. His actions throughout the story reduce his chances of meeting "the boys" by six; but more importantly, not meeting them at all. The man's greatest hindrance is his inability to use instinct. His companion for the trip is a dog, who uses instinct, not the temperature as a.
rule of thumb. The dog is able to survive due to his instinct of biting the ice that formed in between his toes and other various intuitions, while the man builds a fire under a .
spruce tree whose branches are filled with snow. The use of instinct by the dog is the main reason why the dog is alive, while the man, who lacked experience and instinct in this climate, ends up dying. The point of view in Jack London's, "To Build a Fire," is told by a narrator who shares the ideas and thoughts of the man who is making is way through the Yukon Territory in search of his friends.
