Literature has been using the idea of a single man fighting against an hostile environment since Greek myths. Jack London’s novel “To Build a Fire”, a subgenre of narrative fiction, is unique because the author chooses to be scientifically observant rather than emotionally involved in the decisions made by the characters. London’s style is based around the Naturalistic approach to storytelling. In this, the writer has the task of identifying the cause-and-effect mechanisms at the heart of society. The story’s protagonist, a lonely man travelling through the tundra, is unable to see beyond the tangible, causing him to freeze in the Yukon Territory snow. The flaws of the protagonist are even more evident when compared to that of his wolfdog, which is able withstand inhospitable weather conditions due to its ancestral instincts. While the traveller’s flawed intuition is beyond his control, he does have to accept responsibility for failing in his duty to bring intellectuality along on his trip.
The author is showing the reader how the man has been unable to grasp the truth around him from the very start of the story. He says that even though the temperature dropped to fifty below zero, he “didn’t meditate on his vulnerability”. The author shows the reader that the man is unable to interpret the reality around him, as he did not meditate on his frailty when the temperature was fifty below zero. While the old man had warned him of the folly of travelling alone he still ignored his advice.
The author makes the man’s neglect even more apparent by using the figure of a dog, who has a much stronger connection to nature than the traveller. Animals are adapted for freezing temperatures and have trusting instincts. They don’t require a fire in order to keep warm and can anticipate dangers. Man, on the contrary, is more vulnerable. He does not have the same level of caution and is less apprehensive. Instead, he has an impudent and oblivious attitude. The dog’s sixth sense is able to understand “true stories” that he cannot. Ironically enough, the man is only able to show a primitive instinct in his attempts to kill a dog and warm himself by eating its carcass. The dog has an intuitive sense that prevents it from falling into this man’s trap.
Travellers’ thinking evolves when they reach the point where their senses are no longer working. In order to feel stimuli, the traveller is unable use his hands. He must instead rely on his “senses of sight and touch”. As he begins to move away from a corporeal viewpoint, he notices that “he could still run with his feet frozen so hard that he didn’t feel the impact of the ground when he stepped on them”. Travellers are able to transcend themselves from their weakening bodies by comparing them to Mercury’s orbit around the earth. The man finally reaches a point where he imagines himself among his friends, searching for his own corpse. This is when he acknowledges the fact that death will be near. The reader is still unable to view the man’s death as tragic, even after this metamorphosis. The narrator gives us several reasons to doubt whether the traveller’s moral progress has improved, even though he mentions his admission of some of his flaws. The narrator describes the man as having improvised a way to avoid “taking anesthetic”. This is due to his need to distract himself from the pain he was feeling. While he is sorry for not listening to the old timer, he does not fully hold himself accountable. “A great surge of jealousy” overtook him as a result of his neglect. Even the dignity of the traveller in his final moments is undermined by the description in the paragraph that he “runs around like chicken with its heads cut off”.
The character’s unsuitable behaviour plays a similar, if not even more important role in their fate. London does a great job of portraying Nature in a way that is superior to naive travellers. But this should encourage the traveller to develop his intellectual abilities, and not to play the victim.
