“To Build a Fire” by Jack London – Jordin De La Rosa

In the story, “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, you are here worrying about a man who is currently in the middle of a crisis with the cold temperature and at first, you’re stuck wondering if there aren’t any options around him that will make him feel as if he could survive this day but instead you’re treated with a man who infuriates you with the thought process that goes through his brain. He goes to this place that he knows is below freezing temperature and instead, he insists on making this journey with a poor dog. A man that doesn’t think twice about his actions. He was told by an older individual that the journey to travel will not be a safe one due to the cold temperatures but proceeds to go. I was felt with bitter emotion reading the agonizing pain that he and the dog was feeling. However, reading this made me enjoy the way John London was able to describe these moments. Reading this made me realize a time I was freezing cold and how horrible that feeling can be. From the lips that felt as if they were to shatter if you were to fall, the numbness of your hands that you can see but not feel as if they weren’t there. As well as describing the environment he was in. I can imagine the narrator trudging through this area with his dog struggling to make this journey possible. It didn’t seem doable and comprehensible. John London did a phenomenal job at conveying the feeling of being in a harsh environment. He also depicted the constant failing of trying to create a fire and how it would constantly go out because he wasn’t thinking ahead. You start to feel bad for the main character because everything isn’t going his way but he’s the one that got himself into that event and he must bury the consequences, which was his death…