9/20-"To Build A Fire"

The short story, "To Build a Fire" by Jack London, written in 1910, is about a man and his dog who are on a day long journey in freezing cold weather, attempting to reach the camp where his friends were waiting for him. This man carries a lot of courage and pride because he seems to travel with no regard towards these conditions. He begins his journey at nine in the morning, on a freezing Alaskan winter day where the sun was no where to be seen and with out a cloud in the sky. "Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head.(107)" This man did not seem to acknowledge the lack of temperature, as if he did not mind the chances of freezing to death. His dog on the other hand is more apprehensive towards these conditions. During their journey they did face a few obstacles, the dog was testing out the frozen ice when it broke and he fell in, he was able to survive. The man also experienced a fall into freezing water and relied on the fire to keep him and his limbs alive. "A certain fear of death, dull and oppressive, came to him. This fear quickly became poignant as he realized that it was no longer a mere matter of  freezing his fingers and toes, or of losing his hands and feet, but that it was a matter of life and death with the chances against him.(117)" The temperatures eventually got so freezing that he could no longer maneuver his hands to light another fire. This eventually resulted in his demise because he was so arrogant and prideful he refused to take any advice to always have a partner during conditions such as these.

This looks to me like a frozen river or waterfall but it reminds me of the story because these are the types of obstacles the man and his dog had to overcome.

I chose this picture because this man's face reminded me of the way the character's face was described. Although this man does not have much facial hair, his cheek bones and nose are severely red and numb from the cold.

The is a how I pictured the dog in the story. A wolf looking snow dog with lots of thick fur.

This is a picture of a person with severe frost bite on his fingers. It reminds me of the ending of the story when the man is no longer able to use his hands to build a fire because they have frozen.

This picture reminds me of the story because it depicts the time frame, since the story takes place in 1910.