Jack London-To Build A Fire

Jack London's story "To Build a Fire" was a story that has a lot do with nature. Nature plays a huge part because that is what the plot of the whole story is based around. The main character in the story goes out into nature when the weather is about negative 75 degrees at the time. In the end of the story the man dies in the cold after making a mistake because his feet get wet(London). This has a lot to do with nature because during this literary period a lot of people believed that nature controlled pretty much every aspect of life. If you treated nature right and respected it, then nature would treat you right and would respect you. This man does not treat nature right because it was definitely not smart to go out and interact with it when it is that cold. That is a time that nature would want to be left alone, but the main character does not respect the fact that he wants to be left alone and goes out in it. It has a lot to do with karma as well. If he would of respected nature then this would not have happened to him and he would have lived. This also has a lot do with survival of the fittest, which is a Darwin theory. Survival of the fittest is not only physically most fit, but also emotionally and intellectually most fit. This guy I do not think was very intellectual because he was not very smart to go out and do what he did. The realism period is co involved with naturalism. Naturalism has a lot do with nature(Diamond). Obviously this story is about nature. I wish the story would have ended better and he would of lived because even though he made poor choices, no person should have to die and freeze in the cold like that. The author, Jack London, actually wrote a second ending to the book where the character lived, but it never took off and went anywhere.

Diamond, Marie Josephine, ed. "naturalism." Encyclopedia of World Writers, 1800 to the Present. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2011. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= GEWW410&SingleRecord=True (accessed March 8, 2012).

London, Jack. "To Build a Fire, by Jack London." The World of Jack London 2012®. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. .