Temperatures In Jack London's To Build A Fire

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It is not easy to survive out in freezing temperatures, especially when those temperatures are 75 below zero. That is what the man is learning in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire”. The man has a hard time trekking through snow in below zero temperatures. He struggles to survive alone out in the Yukon’s harsh climate. He makes three fatal mistakes that determine his fate: he traveled alone, he built his fire under a tree, and he was arrogant enough to ignore the old timer’s advice. If he hadn’t made these three mistakes the whole story could’ve ended differently. The man’s first mistake was traveling alone in extremely harsh and cold temperatures. In the story, it is mentioned several times that it was very cold. After a couple mentions of the cold, the man realizes that not only is it 50 below zero, it is actually 75 below zero. These temperatures should not be traveled in at all, especially not alone. Even the dog that travels with the man instinctively knows that it is far too cold to be travelling. The freezing temperatures are made even worse when the man falls through an icetrap, wetting his feet and causing them to freeze much quicker. This leads to the man’s next fatal mistake; building his fire under a spruce tree. …show more content…
This caused him to not think and build his fire under a large, snow-covered spruce tree. The warmth of the fire caused the snow to melt and fall on top of the fire, snuffing it out. It was then the man’s choice to attempt to build another fire. Even if he had succeeded he would still lose toes. However, the man couldn’t build another fire. His hands and body were too numb from the cold to feel what he was doing. It is stated in the story that the man realizes he may have not had this problem if he had a trail mate, “The trail mate could have built the fire.”(London 85). The man slowly realized his last and most fatal mistake; he shouldn’t have ignored the old timer’s
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