To Build A Fire by Jack London

Today, I want to introduce one of the Jack London's story, To Build A Fire.  The story is about a man's attempt to survive in such a cold weather in Yukon with a dog and the conflict between man and nature.

The story based on naturalism. There is three important factor according to Naturalism; these three factors influence who we are. 

1)Nature
2)Heredity
3)Genetic makeup

And ''environment'' shapes us.
''Luck'' is also an important factor, it affects what will happen.

There is a lower-to-middle class man who is a lone hiker and a wolf-like dog with a gray coat. The man represents scientific knowledge while the dog represents instinctual knowledge. Their relationship is unemotional. The man is the source of food and protection to the dog, and the man doesn't consider the life of the dog, he focuses on his own survival. The man risks the dog's life and he tries to kill it to keep himself warm.

( Click the picture and watch the video about the story)

I want to talk about why the man die.
The greatest cause of the man's death is his despising to nature power. It is a hubris. Nature represents isolation, indifference, and physical threats. Nature doesn't care about the life struggles of people. It doesn't do anything to make their life struggles easier. Whether or not the man is in Yukon, the weather would be so cold again. Nature shapes people, people don't have free will in front of nature, every event causes the next. The sentence ''it happened'' is used in the story and this ''it'' means that human doesn't have a role in it, it is an evidence for nature power. For example, it was a bad luck that the man's falling through the snow because he could not predict it and it happened because of nature.
The second biggest failure is his lacking in imagination. Because of his limited imagination, he underestimates the power of nature. He moves without thinking about the disasters that will happen on such a cold day. In such a cold weather, without a partner, he started to travel alone, without obeying the advice of the old man. He ignores the humankind's frailty.
He has left his instinctual knowledge and has taken refuge in his scientific knowledge. The man began his journey with an ego that causes to his death. He was confident in his own abilities, his practicality and he ignores the indications that he should not go out on such a cold day (when he spit, his spit becomes ice.) and he began to calculate the distance of the camp and he started to plan his lunch.
He was confident of technological tools instead of his instinct; he has a knife, a map, and matches. This rational knowledge took him away from his instinct and convinced him that he could protect himself by burning a fire against nature. In extreme cold, his body first betrayed to him. He was not able to burn the fire, which could prevent him from dying.
The place where the fire tried to burn it for the second time was a snowy tree.
He lighted many matches at the same time.
Eventually, he lost his calmness and he started to run with a great panic.

Yes, from the very beginning of the journey he should not have started the journey, following the advice of the old man. Imagination could have saved his life. He should not have ignored the sign of possible bad events. He should not have left his instinct. He should have understood human's frailty. He should have respected the power of nature.
But there are many causal links in the story. Mental casual links are the only way to be responsible for one's own actions in naturalism. Because he doesn't do it, he cannot be held responsible for all the accidents. There is a reality like nature. The man was not able to predict the consequences of his actions. He hasn't had free will, something happened as outside of his control. I think his only fault was that he tried to burn the fire under a tree full of snow. Others are bad luck that is associated with lack of free will and he cannot predict these causal links.

I would recommend reading the story and if you like it I am waiting for your comments.