Naturalism is among several artistic movements in the early 20th century that influenced numerous pieces of literature, art, and poetry. The literary works and art pieces were characterized by depictions of nature, natural forces, and the human being’s deterministic nature in the natural environment. Jack London’s To Build a Fire is among the classic pieces of literature influenced by the naturalism movement. Throughout the story, the author demonstrates how the forces of nature are uncontrollable and cannot be tamed by a man leaving human beings powerless. Thus, humans cannot confront nature but adapt or avoid being caught up in harsh environmental conditions since nature shows no mercy. The author focuses heavily on the elements of the natural environment and various literary approaches to convey nature’s unrelenting and unforgiving aspect despite man’s determination to outdo natural occurrences. This essay explores how London embodies naturalism in the short story by using harsh weather conditions and man’s deterministic and animalistic nature
London portrays naturalism by vividly describing the region the story is based upon. The story is set in Yukon, a town in Northern Canada that experiences harsh weather conditions during winter, where temperatures drop significantly below the minimum levels. At the story’s beginning, the author describes Yukon as a desolate, gloomy, and barren land with layers of snow covering the whole area (London, 2020). The sun had not risen for days without signs of warmth that could encourage life and movement from one place to another. The author constantly reminds the audience of the low temperatures when he describes how the man’s spittle freezes in the air instead of landing on the ground to be frozen by snow. The man is shocked the first time he spits and repeats the action to confirm his doubts regarding the reality of the coldness. If the temperature were below fifty degrees freezing, the spittle would have crackled in the snow. Nonetheless, it froze and crackled in the air, demonstrating the harshness of nature regardless of human intelligence and perseverance.
London embodies naturalism when describing the man’s efforts to stay warm despite the snow-covered landscape and cold temperatures. The man’s speed exhausted his nervous system making blood drain from his skin and causing a lower heart rate. Naturally, the body responds to stimuli, and the cold freezes his blood to lifelessness (Kim, 2022). He had overworked his heart by walking four miles per hour in the harsh weather, and it was retaliating by making his body numb. Despite the man’s efforts to build a fire and warm his bones to continue the journey, nature does not allow his efforts to bear fruit. The fire is blown out by snow since the man has started a flame below a spruce tree, melting the snow above that fell in big chunks on the flames. Building a fire and ice fall are natural occurrences that follow a specific order (Mitchell, 2020). The man gathered twigs from the spruce tree to start a fire that melted the snow on the top branches, fell into the flames, and blew it out. Although it is the man’s fault to build a fire under a tree, nature had no mercy for his efforts blowing out the source of comfort for the man and the dog. Thus, man cannot win against nature despite possessing creativity and intelligence.
London demonstrates naturalism through man’s innate nature of determination. The author demonstrates how the man becomes a victim of circumstances caused by his determination and harshness, leading to his demise. The traveler begins his journey knowing the risks of traveling during harsh weather conditions depicted by snow and gloominess. He believes in his strength, speed, and intellectual ability to maneuver through snow and extremely low temperatures (Mitchell, 2020). When he starts the journey, he observes that the sun has not appeared for a long time, and the land is covered in snow without any evidence of life, such as animal movement, human beings, and plants. However, “the strangeness and weirdness of it all made no impression on the man” (London, 2020). Thus, he starts his journey based on his natural instinct to outdo nature using speed and knowledge of the landscape.
During the journey, the traveler encounters a coldness he has never witnessed before. Due to his determination and human intelligence, the man assumes it is fifty degrees below the freezing point, which is standard during cold seasons. However, the author states that “in reality, it was not merely colder than fifty below; it was colder than sixty below than seventy below. However. It was seventy-five below zero” (London, 2020). London’s description gives a vivid imagination of how cold the region was that any sensible person would not deign to travel in such circumstances. Nonetheless, the man continues his journey disregarding the older man’s advice to have a companion and believing his dog can help him. Thus, he sets out with his dog companion on a journey through unbidden natural surroundings that challenge his determination and will to live.
The deterministic nature of the traveler makes him egoistic in his pursuit of going home, forgetting that nature cannot be tamed or controlled by human needs and demands. According to Kim (2022), human beings are naturally egoistic, and the man was following the natural order of humankind to disregard warnings until it leads to their downfall. The man experiences several obstacles in his journey caused by the relentless and unmerciful natural world. The weather numbs his body and facial features making him unable to perform certain activities effectively. He is unable to light a fire due to numb fingers and ends up burning his hands in an attempt to outrun nature.
Although his hands get burned as he perseveres to light a flame, the twigs are scattered by the wind after they catch fire. The numbness returns and consumes his whole body making the man regret his decision to travel alone. He had attempted to make fire twice, failing due to nature’s course in both attempts (Kim, 2022). He remembers the older man’s words and wishes he had a companion to help each other build a fire and stay warm. Likewise, he could have stayed indoors and heeded the warnings of nature’s unbridled and merciless natural occurrences.
Finally, London embodies naturalism in man’s animalistic instinct to survive during dangerous situations. When the man’s attempts to create a fire fail, he considers killing his dog and delving into its warm fur (London, 2020). The dog had been the man’s companion from the beginning of the journey, which may have created a bond as the dog’s owner. Regardless, the man does not hesitate to sacrifice the dog for his comfort. Following Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest, the man grabs the dog intending to kill it to obtain its fur. However, the man cannot harm the dog due to the unmerciful weather conditions, which causes numbness in his fingers and hands, making them unable to hold a weapon.
The man holds onto the dog despite its ferocity and struggles to escape. Despite being companions, the dog sensed danger due to its animal instincts, making it struggle free from the man. Trying to kill the dog shows man’s innate nature as an animal with survival instincts. At the same time, it demonstrates how nature can predetermine an individual decision during harsh times (Mitchell, 2020). The man was following his natural instinct to harm the dog because nature had forced him to seek warmth and comfort, creating a natural order of events. Therefore, man cannot defy or control nature leading to naturalism.
The short story To Build a Fire is an excellent embodiment of naturalism. The main character struggles against nature throughout the tale, which remains unmerciful and relentless. The authors demonstrate the harshness of the weather by describing its cold intensity below the freezing point by over seventy-five degrees. The climate has made the land gloomy and uninhabitable for living things since the snow has covered the whole region. Despite the severity of the weather, the man resolves to travel through the harsh weather to reach his destination by traversing the barren land. He encounters challenges caused by natural occurrences, which leads to making critical decisions and evokes his animalistic nature. The author keeps the audience hooked on the event of man versus nature, which ends with the man’s regretful death. As the story concludes, the author demonstrates that despite man’s knowledge and determination, one cannot defy nature as it is uncontrolled by humans, making it harsh and unmerciful.
References
Kim, Y. (2022). Human hubris against Nature in Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.” Modern Studies in English Language & Literature, 66(1), 219–233. Web.
London, J. (2020). To build a fire. E-Content Generic Vendor.
Mitchell, L. C. (2020). Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” How not to read naturalist fiction. In D. Pizer (Ed.), American Literary Naturalism: Late Essays (pp. 57–65). Chapter, Anthem Press.