Synopsis: A newcomer to the Yukon territory sets out on a short journey into dangerously frigid weather to meet his friends at a nearby settlement, despite warnings from an older, more seasoned man. The older man warns the newcomer about the temperatures and traveling alone, but his warnings go unheeded. The newcomer sets out with only his dog, a choice that proves foolishly fatal. He breaks through some ice and soaks his boots, necessitating a fire.
Talking Points: man vs. nature, the wisdom of experience, the dangers of excessive self-confidence.
Autobiography: London | Analysis, Themes, Summary | Close Reading Activity |
Lesson: Knowledge or Instinct? | Lesson, Summary & Analysis | Naturalism in Literature |
Jack London, like the unnamed man described in the story “To Build a Fire,” lived on the edge. Born in 1876, he died a short forty years later. As a young man, he was a full-fledged participant in the Yukon Gold Rush of 1897. Like many others at the time, London made the incredibly arduous journey by foot and handcrafted boat from Dyea in Alaska over Chilkoot Pass—a three-quarter-mile 45-degree-angled obstacle course—and eventually down the Yukon River into the Northwest Territories. The only gold he brought back, however, was an experience that he would mine for gems of literature for much of his writing life, as evidenced in his well known novels like "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang," as well as in “To Build a Fire” (1908), all of which draw on the places he saw and the people he met during those hope-filled and brutal times in the Northwestern Yukon territory.
WASLA Teacher Librarian of the Year- 2017: Jo-Anne Urquhart
- 2016: Lise Legg