Pedro Kuzma Mr.

Phillips English 9B 23 September 2013 Survival in Nature

Have you ever wondered how bad it is to be marooned in the woods, having constant troubles with yourself and with nature? That is what happens to the protagonist in "To Build a Fire", by Jack London. The protagonist goes to the Yukon, heading to Henderson Creek, where he is going to meet with the boys. In this story, naturalism is a very important part of the story, because nature is also the antagonist of the story in the aspects of: man vs. nature, instinct vs. knowledge and man vs. himself. The first aspect of naturalism in this story is Man vs. Nature. This aspect is present in the story in many parts, like when the man breaks through the ice and falls in the water, "And then it happened. At a place where there were no signs, the man broke through. It was not deep. He was wet to the knees before he got out of the water to the firm snow " (71). This quote really shows how nature acts as an antagonist in this story because it causes lots of trouble to the man. He is in a very cold place and fell in the water, he will not dry up quickly and his leg could even freeze. Another part that nature really interferes with the story is when snow falls from the branch and puts out his fire, "High up in the tree one branch dropped its load of snow. This fell on the branches beneath. This process continued, spreading through the whole tree. The snow fell without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was dead. Where it had burned was a pile of fresh snow" (73). This really made a difference in the story, the man really needed to warm himself up, he was trying to make a fire for a long time, and when he finally makes it, snow falls into it and puts it out, he was then left in the cold. Another aspect of Naturalism in this story is the contrast between Instinc and Knowlege, the man is using his knowledge to be able to survive, while the dog used his instinct for the same reason. Dealing with the cold weather, the dogs instinct led him to go any place where he had cover from the cold, "Like the dog, it wanted to hide and seek cover, away from the fearful cold"(72). While the man's knowledge had him make a fire, "When it is 75 below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire. This is especially true if his feet are wet " (71). The man had tried to build a fire, and had failed, he knew that when dealing with such cold temperatures, it would be very prejudicial to him the fact that he failed to make the fire. The third aspect of Naturalism that I will talk about is the Man vs. Himself. This element is very present in the story, one example of this in the story is when the man is having lots of difficulties in the Yukon, he remembers that he had not listened to the man of Sulphur Creek and had come to the Yukon. "That man from Sulphur Creek had spoken the truth when telling how cold it sometimes got in this country. And he had laughed at him at

the time "(70). He did not listen to the man's advice, had been stubborn and insisted in going there. Naturalism plays a very important role in this story and is fundamental for the development of this narrative. After seeing all theseelements of naturalism present in the story and their importance and role in the story, it can be concluded that naturalism is a crucial element for this story.