Skip to main content

What mood is created by the description of the setting in "To Build a Fire"?

In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire,” important elements of setting include the location, time of day, weather, and the environment itself, which all combine to create an increasingly cold and hopeless mood. By the second paragraph we learn that the main character is a lone, inexperienced traveler in the Yukon in Alaska during the winter. Such a location gives readers an instant sense of remote loneliness, isolation even. Specifically, the man has...

In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire,” important elements of setting include the location, time of day, weather, and the environment itself, which all combine to create an increasingly cold and hopeless mood. By the second paragraph we learn that the main character is a lone, inexperienced traveler in the Yukon in Alaska during the winter. Such a location gives readers an instant sense of remote loneliness, isolation even. Specifically, the man has already left the main trail and veered onto “a little-traveled trail [that] led east through the pine forest.” So although he is even more isolated, the sun is before him, since it is 9:00 a.m. This fact does give a sense of hopefulness. After all, he has all day to get to his destination: a camp on Henderson Creek where “the boys were already.”


Yet the weather is foreboding from the start. The first sentence tells us “Day had dawned cold and gray,” and we soon learn that it is 75 degrees below zero. It is so cold that the man’s lips freeze together (aided by his tobacco drool), making it difficult for him to eat his lunch. He gradually becomes so numb that he can’t even feel himself running. The weather itself actually remains constant throughout, but it creates a building sense of panic in readers as we watch this foolish man slowly freeze to death.


Tied to the weather, the environment is his antagonist all the way. The tricky ice that his wolf-dog falls through weakens them both, as the man has to remove his mittens to help it get ice out of its toes. The first fire gives us some sense of relief and hope, but when his second fire is put out by snow falling from a tree, the mood darkens to one of hopelessness.


By the end when the man sits in the snow to fall asleep into death, “The brief day ended in a long evening.” The dog, part of the natural environment, curls its tail around its feet and passively watches the man, waiting. On smelling death, it lifts its head in a long, lonely howl, then trots off toward the camp at Henderson Creek as the stars “leaped and danced and shone brightly in the cold sky.” Nature is impervious to man’s struggles, leaving us with a hopeless mood, feeling cold and insignificant.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the meaning of "juggling fiends" in Macbeth?

Macbeth is beginning to realize that the three witches have been deceiving him since he first encountered them. Like jugglers, they have kept changing their forecasts in order create confusion. This is particularly apparent when the Second Apparition they raise in Act IV,   Scene 1 tells him that no man of woman born can overcome him in hand-to-hand battle--and then Macbeth finds himself confronted by the one man he has been avoiding out of a... Macbeth is beginning to realize that the three witches have been deceiving him since he first encountered them. Like jugglers, they have kept changing their forecasts in order create confusion. This is particularly apparent when the Second Apparition they raise in Act IV,   Scene 1 tells him that no man of woman born can overcome him in hand-to-hand battle--and then Macbeth finds himself confronted by the one man he has been avoiding out of a sense of guilt, and that man tells him: Despair thy charm. And let the angel whom thou still hast serve...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are some external and internal conflicts that Montag has in Fahrenheit 451?

 Montag, the protagonist of Fahrenheit 451, faces both external and internal conflicts throughout the novel. Some examples of these conflicts are: External Conflicts: Conflict with the society: Montag lives in a society that prohibits books and critical thinking. He faces opposition from the government and the people who enforce this law. Montag struggles to come to terms with the fact that his society is based on censorship and control. Conflict with his wife: Montag's wife, Mildred, is completely absorbed in the shallow and meaningless entertainment provided by the government. Montag's growing dissatisfaction with his marriage adds to his external conflict. Conflict with the fire captain: Montag's superior, Captain Beatty, is the personification of the oppressive regime that Montag is fighting against. Montag's struggle against Beatty represents his external conflict with the government. Internal Conflicts: Conflict with his own beliefs: Montag, at the beginning of th...
Post a Comment
Read more

In A People's History of the United States, why does Howard Zinn feel that Wilson made a flimsy argument for entering World War I?

"War is the health of the state," the radical writer Randolph Bourne said, in the midst of the First World War. Indeed, as the nations of Europe went to war in 1914, the governments flourished, patriotism bloomed, class struggle was stilled, and young men died in frightful numbers on the battlefields-often for a hundred yards of land, a line of trenches. -- Chapter 14, Page 350, A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn outlines his arguments for why World War I was fought in the opening paragraph of Chapter 14 (referenced above). The nationalism that was created by the Great War benefited the elite political and financial leadership of the various countries involved. Socialism, which was gaining momentum in Europe, as was class struggle, took a backseat to mobilizing for war. Zinn believes that World War I was fought for the gain of the industrial capitalists of Europe in a competition for capital and resources. He states that humanity itself was punished by t...
Post a Comment
Read more