Confidence In Jack London's To Build A Fire

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Confidence has been said to be one of man’s strengths, however confidence can easily be mistaken for ignorance. In “To Build a Fire”, Jack London tells of a man’s tragic adventure to meet fellow miners at their camp through the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush. London’s influence for the story came from his own experience in the Yukon when he, like many others, explored the territory in search of fortune. The main character, the man, confidently makes his way through the territory with his dog unaware of his near fate. The man’s determination to survive alone was not enough as it was overshadowed by his lack of instinct and ignorance as he eventually met his demise.
As the story commences, the man is mainly motivated by his goal to reach the other camp, but soon is found to be determined to make it out of the tundra alive. By ignoring his body’s responses to the cold, he shows how he is willing to put himself at risk to complete his journey and meet the others, such as when the author writes, “What were frosted cheeks? A bit painful, but that was all; they were never serious” (London 1050). Deeper into …show more content…
When the author writes “It [the dog] knew that it was no time for travelling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man’s judgment,” the reader is made aware that the man is making his decisions solely on his judgment rather than the instinct necessary to lead a successful journey (London 1049). Not only do the man and the dog differ in instinctual character, a lack of amity is revealed as their relationship is described as “one [the dog] was the toil-slave of the other [the man]” (London 1052). Seeing as how the dog made up for what the man lacked, a lack of intimacy with this companion represents just one of many ways of how the man was deprived of the knowledge necessary to achieve his endeavor to
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