The Importance Of Setting In Jack London's To Build A Fire
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In “To Build a Fire” by Jack London is about a man who is making his way through the powdery snow in Alaska. The temperature is in the negatives and it is extremely cold out. He wasn’t really too worried about the cold or how dark it was outside because he is new to the place. Alaska considers him as a new comer. He spit in the air and saw that his spit was frozen before it hit the ground. He made the assumption that it must be at least negative fifty degrees. He is making his way to a place called Henderson Creek, which is a mining camp out in the boonies. That is where he and his buddies will have a nice party. The man has a native husky which is closer to a wolf than an actual dog. It is very cold for them to travel so they try to make…show more content… The setting in “To Build a Fire” is in Alaska all throughout winter time. It took night and day for this man to travel along the Yukon. The man looked back at the way he had come from and saw his tracks.(157) This is what Jack London said as the man was making his long walk to Henderson Creek.“At twelve o’clock the day was at its brightest”(161). He was trying to make it to Henderson Creek. “He was bound for the old claim on the left fork of Henderson Creek, where the boys were already”(159) as Jack London said. It is very cold there and as he said it was about fifty degrees below zero. It wouldn’t be so bad if he was in California where it’s warm. In Alaska, it is cold out and takes a toll on your body, especially your joints and ligaments. When the man breaks through the ice as he was walking through the Yukon. It was his fault as he ignored the man that told him not to go through here. After he got out of the water, he made a fire. He needed to dry out his boots to keep walking. As he made his fire he also put it in the wrong spot. He built his fire rate under a spruce tree and as he pulled on the branches and twigs, the snow poured off and covered his fire. The setting here is very cold and not pleasant. it makes him harder to get to Henderson Creek and nature is starting to get to…show more content… The author paints a good picture in the readers head. When the reader reads through this book they should have that Arctic, snowy, and cold thought in their minds. They should have a picture of a man desperately trying to get warmth in the middle of know where and it happens to be below fifty. “The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice”(157). There is snow much snow where he is that the trail is burried of snow. The reader should also get that blizzardy feel inside their head. “It was all pure white, rolling in gentle undulations where the ice-jams of the freeze-up had formed”(157). The main trail had a slight darker color than all the other snow(157). The author’s main picture that he wants to get across is that the man is stranded out in the middle of a blizzardy snow covered