"To Build a Fire" Essay

Austin Kemp
Hour 4
Literature paper
To Build A Fire
Imagine yourself in world where it reaches 75 degrees below zero, and your matches light on fire and burn your hands, but you can’t feel it because your hands are frozen stiff. Then to keep on walking with your hands numb and bloody and not being able to feel your toes. That’s what the man in “To Build A Fire” had to deal with on a long trip to camp. The mode of “To Build A Fire” is definitely irony.
The reason that “To Build a Fire” is irony is because it starts chaos when the man starts of on his journey in -75 degree weather when the old timer told him to never travel alone after it gets -50 out. Then the conflict gets serious when the man is freezing and he doesn't seem to be getting warmer. He is freezing to death slowly. Also later in the story it ends in death because he freezes to death.
“To Build a Fire” has few symbols. Although there are not many, the main one was is the fire. The man gets the fire going early on in the story because he is not frozen that bad. The fire represents warmth . Later on in the story when he is freezing to death and he got the fire started but then it goes out quickly. This shows that the warmth is going away. Another symbol is when he is spitting and it is freezing to his beard. This shows that it is harmfully cold.
The theme of “To Build a Fire” is Man vs. Nature because the man was trying to fight his way through the freezing cold temperatures. Also because it was so cold the man couldn’t get a fire going at the end of the story and that was because of nature. Also when he fell through the ice that was because of nature because the ice wasn’t thick enough either because of a natural spring or because of a current.
The mode of “To Build a Fire” was definitely irony. Imagine yourself in a place where it is -75 degrees. Which is 107 degrees below the freezing point. Then to travel many miles with numb and bloody hands and frozen toes, just so you can get to camp. Never travel alone in -75 degree weather.