The theme of Man vs. Nature is the central conflict of Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire," which focuses on an inexperienced traveler's struggle to survive the treacherous Yukon wilderness. In the short story, a newcomer attempts to journey through the forest alone with his dog to reach a camp by six o'clock. In order to arrive at his destination in time, the newcomer must carefully traverse the dangerous wilderness and endure the extremely cold temperatures, which drop to minus seventy-five degrees below zero. The newcomer is depicted as inexperienced, naive, and arrogant. London writes that the newcomer lacks imagination and is "not much of a thinker."
Despite being warned about the dangers of traveling alone in temperatures minus fifty degrees below zero, the traveler ignorantly dismisses the old man's advice and believes that he is too intelligent to make a serious mistake that will cost him his life. During the journey, the newcomer is surprised by the extreme temperatures, and his dog recognizes that they are in grave danger. After accidentally falling through the ice, the inexperienced traveler frantically attempts to build a fire underneath a tree, which is weighed down by snow. Unfortunately, the heavy snow breaks the branch and falls directly on the fire. The newcomer's appendages begin to freeze as he attempts to light matches and build another fire. He completely loses his fine motor skills, is unable to build another fire, and panics when he realizes that all hope is lost. Tragically, the newcomer succumbs to the treacherous environment and dies from hypothermia. Overall, the main theme of the story revolves around a Man vs. Nature conflict as the protagonist struggles to survive the harsh elements of the Yukon.
The conflict of Man vs. Nature is a main theme in "To Build a Fire." The protagonist, believing in his own abilities over the Yukon weather, sets out on a long walk without a human companion; his dog cannot help him when he gets cold. He is new to the area and does not fully appreciate just how cold it gets, and how much that is a danger to humans.
Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty odd degrees of frost. Such a fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to meditate... upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold...
(London, "To Build a Fire," eNotes eText)
Because of this failure to recognize the danger of the cold, the man falls prey first to his arrogance in treating Nature as something an individual can tame, and then to his lack of preparation. Without a companion to light the fire, and with only a small number of supplies that are quickly used up in his panic, the man is alone against the elements. He cannot fight nature, only hold it back with fire, and without fire, he is simply an animal unsuited to the harsh environment.
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What is the relationship between man and nature in "To Build a Fire"?
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is totally indifferent to man in Jack London's story "To Build a Fire." Nature is a simple fact. It doesn't care in the least whether the protagonist makes it to the camp or whether he manages to build a fire or whether he freezes to death. In stories like this in which the conflict is man versus nature, it may often seem as if the mountain, the storm, the flood, the ocean, or other natural element or phenomenon has a conscious motive, but this is never the case, whether man seems to be conquering nature or nature seems to be conquering man. Stephen Crane highlighted the total indifference of nature to human fate in some of his stories, notably in "The Open Boat." Ernest Hemingway was strongly impressed by Crane and must have also been influenced by Jack London. There is a strong suggestion of atheism in stories by men like these. An example of a Hemingway story highlighting the indifference of nature is "The Old Man and the Sea."
What is the relationship between man and nature in "To Build a Fire"?
The man in "To Build a Fire" is fighting an external conflict, nature. Even though the man is well aware of the laws of nature in the Yukon Territory, he defies those laws and begins a battle he cannot win. The odds are not in his favor and one by one they take each part of his body and then his life. It almost seems like nature takes the man's defiance and punishes him every step of the way. As the man's journey continues we can see the progression of nature's wrath: the cold, the numbness, the frostbite, falling in the water, unable to light a fire, unable to feel the outer extremeties of his body, and finally a deep sleep. One cannot beat Mother Nature and should always beware of her power.
What is the relationship between man and nature in "To Build a Fire"?
Man's relationship to nature is one of the primary themes of this story. Man is like a speck in the universe compared to the far-reaching power of nature, and for this guy to go traipsing across the Klondike, when he's been warned not to, shows that he doesn't respect the powers of the natural world.
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What is the relationship between Man and Nature in "To Build a Fire?"
The main theme in "To Build a Fire" is Man versus Nature, but in the sense of Literary Naturalism. The protagonist is not killed by nature, but simply is unequipped to survive in it; he does not take heed of warnings about the extreme cold and how quickly it kills, and so succumbs to it through his own failure. This shows the Naturalist and Realist tendencies of London's own writing; he viewed nature as a primal force, both unaware and uncaring about man's attempts to subvert or control it.
[The cold] did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold; and from there on it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and man's place in the universe.(London, "To Build a Fire," jacklondons.net)
The protagonist has no imagination, but he is not preyed-upon by nature; he simply does not respect its power, believing himself as a thinking animal to be superior to simple natural forces. Instead, he is destroyed by an entirely passive state of existence: it is cold in the Yukon, colder than any human should experience, and he does not prepare himself for the reality of that cold. The state of cold is what kills him, but it would exist and continue regardless of his actions. Had he survived, the cold would still continue; it is only because of his mistakes that he dies, not because the cold holds any animosity towards him. This could change the overall theme from "man versus nature" to "man surviving nature's reality."
What is the conflict between the man vs nature in "To Build a Fire"?
The basic conflict is suggested by the title of the story. The man simply wants to build a fire. This should be easy because he has plenty of matches and there are trees all around him. He might have a little trouble finding dry wood, but that is not part of the problem. He can break off dead lower branches and can also find plenty of dry pine needles. The problem is caused by the extreme cold, and it is also exacerbated by the fact that he is a chechaquo, "a newcomer in the land." His inexperience causes him to make a couple of fatal mistakes. He becomes soaked because he steps into a pool of water hidden by ice and snow, and then he builds his first fire under a tree that dumps snow on the struggling flames and puts them out. So the conflict is not with the vast Yukon. It is not a question of fighting nature to get from one place to another, but only a question of building a little bonfire to keep from freezing to death. He can't even do that.
What is the conflict between the man vs nature in "To Build a Fire"?
The conflict is that the man is traveling in well below zero temperatures, and he is all alone, except for his dog. The dog knows it is too cold to be out in this cold weather. The old timer at Sulpher Creek warned him not to travel alone.
Anytime your spittle crackles and freezes before it hits the ground, it is too cold to be out. Nonetheless, the man is trying to make it to camp where the boys are by six pm.
Possibly, the man might have made it if he had not stepped in water up to his knees. The ice looked solid but a flow of water bubbled just below the surface, and the man is now soaked up to the knees.
In one way, this is the deciding factor as to whether or not the man lives or dies. The man's fingers are frozen and he cannot get a match to light. There will be no fire. The man's inner conflict is fading. Nature is winning. When the man can fight no more, nature takes his life and the man dies.