To Build A Fire

Jack London was one of the highest regarded naturalist writers in American history. Several of his works take place in cities and in bleak environments that highlight the terrible lives that the lower social classes who resided in the slums had to endure. One of his most popular pieces of work was his short story " To Build a Fire" which is the story of a man and his dogs in their attempts to survive in the bitter cold and attempt to escape, but as in most naturalist stories in which nature is portrayed against man nature came out on top and showed the all powerful nature of things not of human nature and why humans should not trifle with nor attempt to better nature, as in the end they have no hope of beating nature.

As defined by Quinn, Naturalism is "According to Zola, the artist must bring the scientist's objectivity to the depiction of his subjects. The motives and behavior of characters are determined by heredity and environment. The artists' task is to reveal the role of these factors in the lives of the characters." As evidenced in London's story the conflict between man and anture is evident in the man's attempted survival against the weather. The story documents a man and his faithful pet dog as they attempt to survive nature's harsh conditions in negative temperature conditions. They survive for a time before finally succumbing to the cold and perishing alone, ableit with each other. London is able to paint a convincing portrait of the cold in his descriptions of the weather, and the portrait of the despair and misogyny the man is experiencing as he travels through the snowstorm. As evidenced by his use of language in lines like, "There was nobody to talk to; and, had there been, speech would have been impossible because of the ice muzzle on his mouth. So he continued monotonously to chew tobacco and to increase the length of his amber beard." With his convincing use of the man's despair and continuing loneliness is shows the decreasing mental state of the man as his journey continues. Revealing the mentality of the character as well as demonstrating nature as a force not to be trifled with and to be left to it's own devices the work falls into the naturalist category.

Unlike most naturalist works the story is not set in the city and does not reveal the evils of the slums and the lower rungs of society, but instead goes for another popular viewpoint in which nature is the enemy of man, ut was not out to get man in the first place, it was only existing on it's own and once man attempted to take on nature he perished due to it's unconquerable nature and the ability it has to destroy unmercifully and force it encounters. These common characteristics of naturalism the story is grouped into the naturalism branch of literature and London cements himself as a literary force.



Quinn, Edward. "naturalism." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= Gfflithem0538&SingleRecord=True (accessed February 17, 2011).


London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. pg. 603-614.