Man vs Nature

           The short story "To Build a Fire" is written by the American author Jack London. It tells a story about an unnamed man who ventures out into the Yukon Territory's subzero boreal forest and his dog walks behind him. It is a big gray animal, half dog and half wolf. Despite warnings from an older man from Sulphur Creek about the risks of travelling alone in the freezing weather, the man underestimates the tough conditions and falls victim to the cold. According to the relation between the man and the environment, ecocriticism serves as a great lens to assist understanding the short story. 

            The man is so weak facing the nature as it tortures him physically. At first, his fingers gets frozen. Then, while he is walking, his feet sink into the water. It is not deep, but his legs get wet to the knees. After that, his wet feet get frozen. He cqn not feel his fingers and his nose is frozen. The skin all over his body feels cold. “This man did not know cold.” (London, 487) and “He was loosing in his battle with the frost.” (London, 493). At the end of the story, the man dies and his dog survives. 

           The environment affects who we are because it demonstrates that man is not strong enough to live up to his surroundings. Allowing the environment to kill the man implies that he is weak, whereas the dog, by surviving the same tough environment, shows that he is stronger. Nature's apathy in response to human misery is demonstrated by the man's attempts to survive in the extreme cold and his dog's easy abandonment of him. 

           Finally, London aims to show a conflict between a man and nature where the man tries to survive until the last moment; however, the nature is the winner; this a representation of the power of nature, comparing it to the older man whom the protagonist ignores, emphasising the fact that showing arrogance towards nature is a losing game, depicting it as superior over human beings.

 works cited: 

 “To Build a Fire.” Enotes.com, Enotes.com, https://www.enotes.com/topics/build-fire/themes# https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:To_Build_a_Fire. “Talk:to Build a Fire.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Oct. 2021, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:To_Build_a_Fire.