To Build a Fire

A detailed Summary of To Build a Fire


In Jack London's, "To Build a Fire", it is obvious to see that as the story progresses, the man becomes more bestial. However at the same time the dog seems to gain the human quality of good sense. This quality of good sense, which the dog acquires, allows it to away from the same fate of the man. There are many examples of how this is portrayed as the story makes headway.

The first example of how the man becomes more bestial occurs after his first fire fails. After his fire fails, his hands are too cold to allow him to pick up matches. He was trying everything in order to warm up his hands, but nothing was working. Then he came up with a crazy and savage idea to warm them up. The story reads, "He would kill the dog, and bury his hands in the warm body until the numbness went out of them. Then he could build another fire..." That idea is a perfect example of his tu


Another example of the dog's turn to human characteristics comes when the man has the crazy idea of killing the dog in order to keep his hands warm. When the man called the dog, it knew something was wrong. The story read, "Something was the matter, and its suspicious nature sensed danger. It knew not what danger, but some where, somehow, in its brain arose an apprehension of the man..." This is another example in which the dog uses its uncanny senses to avoid the fate of the man. It seems as if the dog now has more human characteristics then the man had.

As the story, proceeds it is also obvious that the dog is picking up more characteristics that are human. These characteristics such as sense allow the dog to steer clear of the man's fate. "But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge. And it knew that it was not good to walk abroad in such fearful c

Some common words found in the essay are:
Build Fire, human characteristics, build fire, Jack London's, human characteristics sense, brutal cold, dog's human characteristics, jack london's, fire fails, fate dog, hands cold, dog's human, hands warm, quality sense,

Approximate Word count = 605
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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