“To Build a Fire” Mohamed Zokari

After I finished reading “To Build a Fire” I was quite shocked and disappointed to see the man’s fate and how the story ended. However, I did still enjoy the story, the plot, and the climax. I like how the story begins as this man making a journey alone in harsh weather conditions, but things take a turn for the worse. I felt like the man was too confident and cocky when he didn’t take the old man’s sincere advice in thinking he wasn’t going to run into trouble while traveling in freezing snowy weather. The man underestimated how bad the weather was which is astonishing to even think about because the weather is -50 degrees. Any person with the right mindset wouldn’t take that risky trip only if they had no other option. And on top of all that the only companion he has is his wolf, he doesn’t have another person to watch his back in case something bad happens which it does. But then again who in the right mind would agree to go on a dangerous trip like that. Moving on, as the story progresses, harsh reality comes to play for the man. The man is confident he’ll be okay and thinks it’s not that bad until he stumbles into freezing water while he has this fire pit, he struggles to stay warm as his feet and toes begin to feel numb. The man comes to the realization that if he doesn’t unumb his hands and get himself out of the freezing water he will freeze to death. However, as he is successfully doing so, a bulk of snow falls onto him, and he freezes to death. He tried to stay alive by killing the dog and putting his hands inside the dog to stay warm but failed. This story has kept me on the edge of my seat reading it as I hoped the man would end up surviving and learning a very valuable lesson to not underestimate or be overly confident when others’ are warning you.