Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”
12/17/2018
To Build a Fire
Then the dog trotted back to the camp, where it knew the fire-givers were”
-Jack London, “To build a Fire”
We have all imagined something at once, whether it be a fantasy in a moment of boredom, or a fictional world whilst writing a piece, whatever it is, everyone has imagined something. However some folk in the world imagine less than others, and a fictional man walking through the Yukon Territory in 1902 was one of these people. This becomes blatantly obvious, in fact, Jack London practically throws it at the reader on the first page of To Build a Fire: “ The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. ” This truly does return later in the story to bite the man in the back. Making sure that the reader realizes the importance of imagination. Since protagonist of the story, while trekking through the Yukon Territory alone in the middle of the winter, while it is dark. This was obviously a bad idea, but it gets even worse when the reader finds out that he could have gone with “the boys” (who are his buddies that are never named) instead. He only did this because he wanted to check the area for possible kindling in the spring. So he goes the long way, alone, with only his dog. He soon realizes that it’s cold, but it’s too late then, he already went the long way, and the temperature is 107 below freezing. After traveling for several hours, eating lunch, and then resuming his journey, the man falls through ice and gets soaked up to his knees in fridgid water, and realizes he needs to make a fire, attempt after attempt fails,“It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out!”until he stumbles for a few hundred feet, before dropping down dead, the story ends with the dog moving along down the trail towards the camp where “the boys” are.
“Then the man drowsed off into what seemed to him the most comfortable and satisfying sleep he had ever known. The dog sat facing him and waiting.”
In the end, if the man had been able to vividly imagine his death before he had made the decision do go without “the boys”, then he probably wouldn’t have gone in the first place, saving his life. So, if someone has a good imagination, and thinks before they act, then they can survive decisions like this. Jack London showed us perfectly in To Build a Fire, the sheer importance of a good imagination.