Category: Coffeehouse #1 (Page 1 of 2)

“How to build a bonfire” by Eddy P.

After reading “how to build a bonfire” I feel a little judgemental and quite shock because throughout the story the man survives many days without the sun traveling just to get back to his boys. In the story he meets an old man and that old man has given the man advice in the past. The old man said “No matter how fast he runs, the wet feet will freeze even harder”.  And the man then accepts the advice and later one was grateful for the advice given. And even though the old man from sulphur creek told him “no man should travel alone” the man responded with “ Those old men were rather womanish, he thought. All a man must do was to keep his head, and he was all right. Any man who was a man could travel alone” which shows a disagreement between the man and the old man on sulphur creek. Then man throughout the story suffers with frostbites because of the temperature. He then meets a wolf dog who was smart enough to have known the man can provide fire, follows the man until the man dies in the end of the story and before he dies, he man thinks back and agrees with the old man on sulphur creek. The wolf after the death of the man continues the mans quest to get back to his boys and makes it there.

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…

In “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, there is a variety of things that makes me feel pity and at the same time anger towards the man, due to the outcome of his pride and ignorance. When reading the short story, in the beginning, it is shown to us, the readers, the current situation that the man is in, and it leaves me wondering, why in the cold in the first place? Later on, it’s explained why he is there but as the reader, I still wonder why during this harsh weather and temperature does the man decide to travel? The effects that this story demonstrates to us of the danger of this extreme cold in the wild is by using the third-person narration. The third-person narration shows the dangers that will lie ahead of the man and the detailed description of the weather and the man’s conflicts. Some of these descriptions that are used by the narration are examples of figurative language. According to the short story, it states, “Working carefully from a small beginning, he soon had a roaring fire.” This quote shows the use of personification for the fire as something “living” because of the strength it has in the extreme weather and how the man depends on it for survival as if he had other people helping him. Another figurative language is the use of repetition. According to the short story, we see “It certainly was cold” at least four different times, throughout the story. This quote shows how the narrator gives us a reminder and a deeper feeling of the pain the man is going through, and how it gets worst with his desperation for survival.

In conclusion, these effects that brought my attention were personification and repetition by the third-person narration. This helps me, as the reader, feel what the man in the short story is feeling during the freezing temperatures. However, the man’s ignorance and pride lead him to his downfall for not listening to the old man’s advice, which makes me feel anger but pity for him for struggling during those hard freezing temperatures.

The story To Build a Fire by Jack London made me feel upset that the man didn’t think things through before making the trip. If he had the advice from the old man, he should have taken it and not traveled by himself and in that weather. The way the author used imagery in the story it made me feel like I was there with the guy feeling the cold weather and going through with him in the struggle of walking in the freezing cold. The story also made me feel suspense when he couldn’t get the fire started. I also knew it was too good to be true that he had gotten the fire going in the first try, I was waiting for something bad to happen especially since he had already started losing feeling in his hands once the snow fell and the fire went out, I knew he wasn’t going to make it by himself. I was hoping that by the end of the story someone would have saved him or found him after the dog howled. But I guess not stories have a happy ending, at least the dog lived even though the guy was being selfish and tried to kill it to save himself.

In “To Build a Fire” the man doesn’t listen to what the old man tells him about not traveling when it’s too cold. The man continues traveling despite knowing he should wait till it gets a bit warmer. One of the feelings I got was that the man got what he deserved. He knew it was too cold to continue and yet he still went. London creates this feeling by constantly saying the old man said not to travel below a certain degree throughout the entire story, basically emphasizing to the readers that the man knew not to travel and still did it anyway. The story also made me feel bad for the dog. The dog knew the entire time it wasn’t a smart idea to travel in such weather. London mentions every time the dog was hesitant to continue on the journey. This is to show how the dog was using its animal instincts to know when to proceed. I also enjoyed how London didn’t really create a relationship between the dog and the man. The dog was just trying to stay safe and knew in order to survive he would have to rely on the man who knew how to create fire. This emphasize shows the survival aspect of the story.

Throughout my entire reading of “To Build A Fire” by Jack London, I had the feeling of cold and somberness. I have felt incredibly cold before such as when my apartment lost it’s heat and we were in sub -10 degree weather but reading this I felt a cold that had never befallen on me, a cold that made me think of nothing else but the cold. I felt this as many stories simply tell you what the main character was feeling once or just stating that it’s cold or the temperature but never go into detail about how the character is feeling. In “To Build A Fire” there are constant details such as the man’s blood shivering from the cold and the cold actively taking away the man’s life energy shows just how cold he is. Another detail that gave me the feeling of cold is the comparison between what cold the man has gone through and the cold that the dog has felt throughout their lives. When a dog who has lived in the cold their entire life is feeling cold then  the severity of the cold is much more understandable. Lastly is the desperation that the man was going through to feel warm which to proves worthless as he eventually died from the cold.

The story of “To Build a Fire” by Jack London deals with a man who is traveling a dangerous trail called the Yukon trail. I looked up the trail’s name as the story gives it a snowy and steep mountain description, and the place is in British Columbia near Alaska. I could imagine the freezing temperatures there but as I read along the words began to construct images in my head of the mountain. The story made me feel nervous and scared for the man who was in this trail walking at 50 degrees below zero. The story continues creating livid images as there was a lot of figurative language. There were tons of it like “The result was a long piece of yellow ice hanging from his lips. If he fell down it would break, like glass.” The author compares the ice forming on his lip to actual glass making you picture how cold it must have been to form ice on your lips. Each paragraph just got more nerve-wracking since the man was still stuck in the freezing temperature trying to survive. As he builds the fire, I feel his relief but then the snow just falls on it and kills it making me hate the snow as if it was a character. However, towards the end of the story I felt sorry for the man since he died in the snow as he was not able to build the fire or make it back to his camp. Overall, the author uses a great ton of figurative language to make the story interesting and engaging to the reader.

Having finished reading “To Build A Fire” by Jack London, I’ve had the most supernatural calm run over me. This effect is not a surprise. I am sitting in my insulated warm bedroom with a hot cup of coffee in my hand, while being immensely aware that just behind these thick concrete walls is a gruesome cold slap of reality. The type that makes one not wanna come out of their blanket covers. Such a juxtaposition makes me feel incredibly calm, relaxed, and happy.  Couple that with the reading about this very snowy and extreme environment, and the effect more than multiplies.

While the environment is a strong reason for me feeling the way I do, I also cannot help, but be captivated by the companionship between the man and the dog, or lack thereof. Dogs are some of my favorite animals, and I was drawn to the way the story was portrayed about this dog,  its relationship to the man, and how it all relates to the environment. Everything was oozing symbolism. Some subtle connections and concepts are being introduced that can only be deciphered if one sees past the face value of the story. For example, fire represents life and comfort, and the absence of fire represents death and despair. The dog represented as something half wolf could be a hint of being in the smack middle between primal instincts and domesticated dog.

In terms of the writing style, everything is portrayed in a very logical way, A to B to C. Paragraphs are all similar in size. And vocabulary usage is low. All that makes it a very easy read to follow. On top of that, its incredibly detail rich. The author wanted no detail to be left to the imagination. I could visualize and really put myself in this bizarre hostile world and experience the things that were being experienced. Good read. This imagery is really what produces the moods and effects that it does.

After reading the story “To Build a Fire” i feel really bad for the young man who put his life in danger by not relaxing it can cause his death. He seems selfish and overconfident  to walk in a trial of yukon in that cold weather without having all the equipment , no sensible person can walk alone in that cold weather .It seems like on a cold gray morning everything was covered in snow . That gray and white color seems to be a sign of danger. Even though he didn’t care about his dog who was his only companion in that trial, he wanted to kill him to get some heat.he also put his dog life when he told him to walk on the path and check if the ice breaks or not and poor dog fell in ice water. He put his dog’s life in danger .

The wind sound and snowfall sound make that senene more scary and terrifying .There was no sign of creature near him all lands were covered with snow and when he started feeling that he is not able feel his body that time he realized that was not good decision walking alone without any companion but it was too late.