To Build a Fire

To Build a Fire is a short story written by Jack London. This book was first published in Century Magazine in 1908. This anthologized masterpiece of London illustrates in graphic terms the futility of human efforts to conquer nature. The story is set in the Klondike in winter and it concerns a man who ignores warnings and attempts to travel a great distance in the extreme cold. Interestingly, even as his dog senses the folly of the journey, the man stubbornly continues to believe in his own infallibility. After getting his feet wet, he is unable to build the crucial fire that might save his life. A certain fear of death, dull and oppressive, came to him. This fear quickly became poignant as he realized that it was no longer a mere matter of freezing his fingers and toes, or of losing his hands and feet, but that it was a matter of life and death with the chances against him. This means the man’s doom is sealed. For Jack London, his prose becomes a powerful vehicle for disseminating grim message.

John Griffith Chaney, better known as Jack London (12 January 1876-22 November 1916), was an American author who pioneered the art of commercial fiction, which made him a prominent figure of the international literary arena. As a part of the radical literary group, 'The Crowd,' London projected his socialist ideas through his works. Known as a rebel in his teens, London also spent 30 days in jail for vagrancy. The experience of imprisonment motivated him to attend college to become a writer.