To Build a Fire

I have once again read the Before You read again. I read about Jack London and what he did and wrote about. Jack London before he became famous and was a child, he lived a very tough life. Here is a quote to help out what I just said, "Born in 1876 in San Francisco to an unstable mother an a father who refused to claim him, London was raised mainly by a family friend and a stepsister. From the age of eleven, he worked to earn money to help put food on his family's table" (London 601). When I read this I was astonished to see that an eleven year old boy had to help put food on the table for his family. When he was born his parents did not even want him which I could not imagine that happening. Even though he had to support for his family basically his whole life from the age of eleven, he was "the country's first millionaire author" (London 601). This is a big accomplishment for London because coming from a family that really had nothing, he became famous and made a lot of money for him and his family.

When I read "To Build a Fire" I felt this sadness that came within me. The story is about a man who is stuck out in a blizzard and it trying to make a fire, but sadly is not working out for him. He tries to go against this blizzard which is nature and as you know nature always wins. He ends up dying and losing the battle between him and nature (London 614). He has a companion throughout the story and it is a dog. The dog is okay with the fact of the blizzard and the man does not like the fact that the dog is not fazed. Thoreau and Emerson envied nature and loved living out in the wilderness while London just hated nature and wanted nothing to do with it. There is one part of this story that I would like to point out and it is actually highlighted in the story, "There was the fire, snapping and crackling and promising life with every dancing flame" (London 610). This quote was big to me because the man kept fighting against nature to stay alive and this quote shows that by the fire going in and out. Like London said "promising life" (London 610) and this man is just hoping to stay alive during this blizzard. Thoreau and Emerson loved nature but they new the boundaries of nature and new the limits they would go with nature.

Bibliography

London, Jack."To Build a Fire." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.601-614. Print.