To Build a Fire

This story was interesting and felt like an adventure the entire way through it.  I didnt get bored once.  Even though it was kind of a generic story, or at least that is how I felt at first because the man was facing a tough trouble, the story kept getting interesting and left the reader hanging at the end.  That is one thing I hate and tends to happen to me a lot.  If I remember correctly we have read of a few writers who have done the same.  I think I remember reading something by Thoreau and Emerson and probably a couple more authors in English, and all of them left the reader wondering in the end in the stories.  Both Emerson and Thoreau were transcendentalism writers and both loved to talk about nature which is what this story was all about.  The man fought a prolonged battle against mother nature which he ended up losing, or at least I think since Jack London kind of leaves us hanging at the end weather the man was going to make it out alive or not and if the dog was going to get help in time.  I cant remember off of the top of my head but in me and Kirsten's project we talked about naturalism and regionalism and its one of these two that is the perfect definition of this writing.  Im leaning towards the naturalism because regionalism is about society and economy and such in a certain region while naturalism is more about natural things and relating them to an overall theme or idea the author is trying to get across.  Actually, as I continue to define both of these more in this blog, I am pretty posative that naturalism is the word or style I am looking for and what I am meaning to say as the way the author is portraying the idea he wants to get across to the reader.


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.



Werlock, Abby H. P. "'To Build a Fire'." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. 15 March 2012