"To Build a Fire"

Trekking through the snow covered Alaskan wilderness, at seventy-five below zero, nothing more than a few matches, an insufficient amount of food, a dog, and thirty-two miles of frozen wilderness between you and safety. No room for error or foolishness; any slip up could mean your life, as the man in “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, would soon find out.

As many may think, the harsh cold was the solo reason for the man’s passing, but it’s not; he had performed many foolish mistakes along the way, as they slowly mounted on his shoulders, till his body could no longer handle it. The first, and possibly most crucial, mistake the man could have made was walking outside in close to seventy-five degrees below zero. To most Wisconsinites, including myself, four or five degrees is considered to be, very cold; avoiding the outdoors is inarguable. Yet, this man is trekking through the snow, in the unbearable clinch of seventy five degrees below zero. We cannot forget the break in the ice, the waste of the fire and loss of responsive hands and feet. I think it’s safe to say this man had frozen himself to death.

Yet, the ironic part of all this chaos is the dog, who, remember, never wanted to go out in the cold, is doing just fine and dandy simply sitting there as the man is slowly killing himself. As you may have noticed from this scenario the dog, unlike the man, is smart, and has much better judgment skills. There is more than just judgment skills in the dogs favor though, “This was a matter of instinct” as the text recognized, and the text is correct. The dog knew the danger of the cold because of its natural instincts. In fact the man’s dog is so well built for the cold that even when forced into the dangerous cold, it is still safe, "warm and secure in its natural covering." These traits the dog possesses saved its life, allowing it to reach the man’s destination alive.

The man may have also reached his destination alongside his dog, if he had made some brighter decision. The consequence of death is always a horrid penalty, but the man could have easily avoided it without his foolishness; his story goes to show that being careful can pay off, and being clumsy can have major consequences.