To Build a Fire By Jack London - Essay Example

"To Build a Fire" By Jack London The story "To Build a Fire" By Jack London is about a man who is confronted bydifferent types of conflicts as he journeys to meet his friends. Most of the conflict that occurs in the story is based on the different thoughts that plague the man’s mind, as well as the external conflicts, which are based on the man’s struggle with the forces of nature to remain alive. Jack London uses the different conflicts in the story to give the message that man’s fight against nature is futile, because one way or the other, nature always wins. It can also be said that the conflicts take place as a direct consequence of the decisions taken by the man to travel in cold conditions, despite the fact that he knows, and has been advised not to do so. It is the conflicts, and their possible interpretations, which the man faces throughout the story that we shall be discussing in this paper with emphasis on their significance. Moreover, as it has been stated, this story is about a man who struggles to overcome the problems which he faces when travelling by fighting against the various types of conflict that plague him (Baker 59). The man, who is also the main character of the story, has to face many internal conflicts during his journey. He does not know whether he made the right decision when he chose to travel alone in the cold. He wonders whether he should have listened to the advice given to him by an old timer. He was advised against travelling alone in weather that is colder than 75 degrees. He keeps thinking of the reasons why he chose to disregard such advice and this makes him become exceedingly mentally conflicted. It is, therefore, not surprising when the man ends up getting into trouble later in his journey. The various conflicts, which he experiences are born out of his solitude because the cold weather and the lack of anybody to talk to does not give the man ample opportunity to share his thoughts with someone else. Because of this, instead of his thoughts soothing him in his journey, they make him immensely confused about what action he should take to remedy the situation in which he has gotten himself. Moreover, his sole focus seems to be his looking forward to meeting with the boys, and this focus seems to interfere with the man’s judgment. Instead of looking for shelter within which he can stay warm from the cold, he chooses to carry on with his journey, utterly disregarding his own personal safety (Hillier 182). This turns out to be a grave error on his part because, in the end, he does not make it out alive. Furthermore, when the man attempts to set up a fire to warm himself, he only warms the upper part of his body, completely forgetting that the whole of his body needs warmth. It is only after a while that he remembers that his feet are freezing, making him go into a panic, for lack of knowing what to do. This internal conflict only ends when he chooses to fight against the panic and remain calm, which gives him time for further reflection (Simpson). This reflection leads to further mental conflict, especially where the man looks at the dog, which is accompanying him, and envy’s it because it is warm through its natural covering. This thought makes the man even more conscious of the fact that his body is freezing, despite the man trying to muster his mental strength to keep thoughts of freezing from his mind. In the end of it all, he is not able to bring himself to make the simplest physical movements because of the fact that his mental powers are no match for the environment in which he finds himself. When this realization dawns on the man, he finally gives up his mental struggle to survive the cold conditions, letting himself go to sleep so that it can all end. The man, throughout the story, struggles with thoughts concerning his foolishness in taking the risk to travel in extreme cold despite being advised, not to by people who had more experience than he did. The conflict further arises due to his extreme self-confidence, and this only leads him into more trouble, which he could easily have avoided. He ends up being mentally incapable of thinking rationally and all his actions after he realizes that he is freezing are irrational. The conflicted way in which he acts does not help him in any way, and instead, it makes the situation even worse than it already is. It is the mental conflicts, which are about by his decision to travel that, make him give up on his life, allowing the brutal cold to kill him. A conflict, which is brought about by the mental or internal struggles of the man, is that of his fight against nature to survive (Pizer 218). When the man realizes that there is a high possibility of his dying from the cold, he does everything in his power to ensure that he survives. As the man comes to find out in the end, nature cannot be defeated, and that to challenge it is futile. When the man builds his first fire, with the expectation that it will keep him warm, nature steps in, and extinguishes it when snow is dumped on it. When he attempts to build another fire, the man finds that his fingers have become too numb, and he can barely do anything with them. In the process, he loses all the matches he could have used to get the fire started and this result in his loss of faith about his survival. His attempts to keep himself warm by running prove to be futile, because he does not possess the stamina necessary for him to exert himself for a long time. The man’s struggle against nature ends up with the latter being the victor in the conflict. In conclusion, it can be said that London uses conflict in this story as a lesson to those who would disregard the advice of others. It is a display of the foolishness of over confidence because one never knows what is going to happen to them. In addition, it gives a lesson of the weakness of man; if man were to fight with nature, then his fight would be futile, because nature always has the upper hand in such conflicts. In this story, we learn that it was both the internal and external conflicts, which led to the demise of the man. Works Cited Baker, Ahmad M. S. Abu. "The Question of Identity in Abdulrahman Munifs when we Left the Bridge"." Studies in Literature and Language 1.6 (2010): 52-61.  Hillier, Russell M. "Crystal Beards and Dantean Influence in Jack Londons "to Build a Fire (II)"." ANQ 23.3 (2010): 172-8. Pizer, Donald. "Jack Londons "to Build a Fire": How Not to Read Naturalist Fiction." Philosophy and Literature 34.1 (2010): 218-27.  Simpson, Sherry. "Hungry for Heat? Set Your Munchies on Fire." Anchorage Daily News: 0. Jul 19 1998. Western Newsstand. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. Read More