To Build a Fire

A detailed Summary of To Build a Fire


Naturalist writers base their stories on the fact that free will amounts to nothing, human beings are no more important than animals, and nature can be hostile and indifferent. Jack London's story, "To Build a Fire" focused specifically on nature as a hostile force. Though the man in the story made some unintelligent choices, nature did not help him during his travel. The man soon found out that nature was not his friend.

"To Build a Fire" is a tale about a man who went hiking to meet his boys at a camp. The weather was treacherous, at fifty degrees below zero, three feet of ice, and snow on top of the ice. Furthermore, the sun never fully rose, and there were springs of water hidden under the blanket of snow. During his hike, he came across a dog that served as his companion for the trip. The dog stayed by his side through everything; however, the dog did not have a special relationship to the man. He just wanted to stay warm and the man filled the dog's need of warmth through building fires. Though the man did everything he could to try to survive, his efforts were not good enough. Eventually, nature took the man's life.


The extreme conditions of the environment did not help the man succeed in his adventure. It seemed that everything the man did right; nature had a way of getting back at him. For example, the man was always careful about walking over frozen springs. He tried to always make the dog go first to see if it would break through on him. But, he still had an accident that wet him halfway to the knees. After the incident, the man carefully built a fire. He finally succeeded in getting the fire started, but he was not out of danger yet. Then, suddenly one of the boughs on the spruce tree capsized, dumping all of the snow on what was once the man's successful fire. "It was his own fault or rather his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open" (823). After his failure, "it was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death" (823). He kept trying to rebuild the fire, but nature would not give in and let him succeed. After a long and drawn out effort for survival, the man finally gave up and went to sleep while sitting up in the snow. Never again would he wake from his s

Some common words found in the essay are:
Sulphur Creek, Build Fire, , Jack London's, nature hostile, build fire, built fire, spruce tree,

Approximate Word count = 770
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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