Castrejon Samuel Period 0 2/25/12 Syllabus Week #21 Jack London's To Build a Fire tells the story of one man's determination for survival against the merciless power that is nature in the region of Yukon. Jack London was one of the great voices of naturalism for he captivated every great aspect of naturalism in his writing and brought it into popular culture. London often times had a bleak point of view, but his characters always demonstrated the vitality of the human spirit in the face of hardships, the main character of To Build a Fire emphasizes this. In London's short story, many themes arise that highlight the key ideas of naturalism. Themes such as man's determination in the face of hardship, nature's strength over human's free will, and instinct over intellectualism. These themes ultimately reflect the key ideas of naturalism and naturalist ideas which allows To Build a Fire to show the strength of nature against human will. One of the greatest aspects of naturalism is that individuals do not have free will, but the environment around them shapes their behavior. In the eyes of naturalist, human behavior is determined by environmental and biological factors. When the man fell into snow that covered his feet and shins "He was angry, and curses his luck aloud" (698). The use of the word luck implies that the situation and action are out of the control of the man which is why he curses at it because it was out of his control that it occurred. Also the man described it as "he had had the accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself"(699). Describing the situation as an accident suggests that it was out of his
control in the first place, so one can conclude that nature is the driving force behind all of the actions that occurred to the man on the trail. Nature alone created all his problems and by creating all his problems he shaped his behavior of anger and frustration due to the fact that he now has to delay his trip to warm his clothing and body. Now the man's goal is not only to make it to the other men, to but survive. This theme highlights one of the key ideas of naturalism; characters with high level of vitality are always in a losing battle against the universe and nature no matter how hard they try to succeed. The theme of instinct over intellect also highlights the key idea of naturalism. When the dog is introduced into the story it is said "The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was no time for traveling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment" (696). The man is superior to the dog in terms of intellect but the dog's instincts are superior to the man. The superior instincts are the result of the universe and nature, which is why the dog's behavior is to be around the fire while the man's low instincts tell him to continue walking in the extreme cold. The dog "was not concerned in the welfare of the man; it was for its own sake that it yearned back toward the fire" (698). Again the idea of the universe being in control of behavior is shown, the man is presented with bad instincts while the dog is presented with heightened instincts which allows him to survive the cold by staying near the heat. The man's determination also presents a key idea of naturalism. The man no matter how cold it was "Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all"(698) continued on no matter what. The author also presented author facts such as "So long as he walked for miles an hour, he pumped that blood, willy-nilly, to the surface" (699). The character's
determination to survive brings up many facts by the author. Naturalist authors believed that the world could be understood through knowledge and by presenting facts London highlights one of the key aspects of naturalism. The man knew how far and how impossible his journey was but continued on anyways. Ultimately, the themes in the short story exemplify the key characteristics of naturalism and its ideas.