"To Build a Fire"

Jack London presents his character as arrogant and stubborn. He was knew in this particular town and he had never experienced a winter like that. When I first read the title of the story, I definitely expected read about campers in the wilderness learning to build a fire or maybe even a story about a boy and his father teaching him to build a fire. Yet through out the story, London requires you to pull more from the title and actually ask yourself what does it really take to build a fire. Think intangible, instead of tangible. Not just figs and bark, but patience, skill, know how, and knowledge. London describes in the passage how and "old timer" told the man not to travel in the winter alone, it was too dangerous. It seems as though the man didn't even take this into consideration and the fact he was unfamiliar with this land. In many of the passages, London quotes the man as saying "But the temperature did not matter." He was determined to get to Henderson Creek. I have to ask myself, did he really think he could make it? Was he that determined, not to fail? Over and over again he kept telling himself not to make mistakes and "this time it has to be right." A safe assumption could also be that he felt death could not come to him, if he survived. In the passage, when the fire went out the second time, he felt his hands and feet numbing, yet he would not be discouraged and let himself stop. He even thought of sacrificing the dog in order to stay warm. But London caused the dog to come alive through his thoughts and actions when he stated, "It flattened its ears down at the sound of the man's voice, and it's restless." He too knew the weather was terrible and sensed danger.