“To Build a Fire” by Jack London is a story of a man, an overly confident one at that, and the point, or at least one of the points, is that he thinks he is control when he is not. He is on a long trail, and, although he does not use all of it advantageously, he has information and is well aware of what to expect. Another man told him to bring a companion, he did not; his friend, Bud, wore nose straps, he did not. He does not respect other people enough to follow advice, he does not respect his only companion, the dog, enough to not attempt killing it, and he does not respect his environment so he dies. The man who was “quick and alert in the things in life, but only the things, and not in the significances” learned that there are forces outside of his control (London 604). He could have respected the omnipotent and omnipresent intensity of nature, but he suffered in the end.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works are somewhat contradictory in regard to this. He advocates respect toward nature to a great extent, but at the same time he focuses on self-reliance. Emerson beautifies nature all throughout “Nature” explaining that deifies people, that art comes from nature, and that it is not a substance but a phenomenon. In “Self-Reliance”, he says “A stranger will say with masterly good sense, precisely what we have thought and felt all the time.” The main character in “To Build a Fire” could have learned from what others say.
Thoreau follows the message from this story also. Specifically in “Walden”, he shows the importance of nature. He even explains that it can teach people by saying: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach…” The man in London’s story, once again, could have learned from this. Nature teaches messages, and, in this case, it was the difference between life and death.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Nature." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 06 Feb. 2012.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "Self-Reliance." Ralph Waldo Emerson Texts. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.
London, Jack. “To Build a Fire.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 603-614. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Thoreau's Walden - an Annotated Edition." The Thoreau Reader. Web. 21 Feb. 2012.
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