To Build a Fire

Author's Note: Once again we read another story about defense mechanisms. This one was called To Build a Fire.

Intelligence: Are we truly gaining it?
The common man’s intelligence about basic survival in the wilderness is dwindling rapidly. When we were in our primitive form as cavemen, humans gained enormous amounts of experience on how to live on nothing but the natural resources around us; but, as time kept moving forward, that inner instinct vanished into thin air. Whether it is a small skill such as building a fire out of wood or hunting downs animals for food, the natural instinct has left us, and now we just google it on our smart phones. Through the short story, “To Build a Fire,” the author, Jack London, proves that we may be gaining knowledge; but those key aspects in life that leads us down the yellow brick road vanish through ignorance, and could lead humans to certain death.
Using diction and repetition, Jack London illustrates a man who notices death was lurking until moments away from his deathbed. The man for the past few hours has been trying to find a group of people with his “loyal” dog. In order to survive he builds a fire; however, suddenly he realizes that fact that the journey will be impossible for him. The author narrates, “A certain fear of death, dull and oppressive, came to him. This fear quickly became poignant as he realized that it was no longer a mere matter of freezing his fingers and toes, or of losing his hands and feet, but that it was a matter of life and death with the chances against him”The author repeats the concept of death with powerful diction to key to the readers: An ignorant person is not a knowledgeable person. Even if the man makes it to this camp where all the other man are, how does he know his hands will ever function again. Ignorance. It’s as simple as that. The man’s ignorance the whole trip is at point where any step could be his last. If a sensible man was in the same situation he wouldn’t ignore the fact that the trip will be near to impossible to make on one trip and that he should shelter for the night and continue on the next day. Not this man, his overly confident ego mixed with his ignorance leads him to certain death. If just once, he thought about the consequences, the chance of his survival would just sky rocket. In the end, the key aspects in life that leads everyone down their own yellow brick roads, was ignored by the man in the short story “To Build a Fire” by Jack London; therefore, a happy ending would be like someone trying to count the stars … impossible.