The setting of the story

 

The setting is one of the key factors that help us understand this story.  “To Build a Fire” is set in the Klondike in the Yukon Territory of Canada, the site of a gold rush in the late nineteenth century. The terrain is rugged, and the weather is harsh. Winter lasts seven months, most of them sunless. After gold was discovered there, the region was overrun with thousands of people in search of instant fortune. This fact makes us guess that the character of the story was one of them.

The weather conditions are really severe. It is more than 50 degrees below zero -  “the tremendous cold”. The readers can imagine the sensations one experiences in such conditions due to London’s detailed description of the cold wind and the ice crusting over the man's face: "The man's red beard and moustache were likewise frosted, but more solidly, the deposit taking the form of ice and increasing with every warm, moist breath he exhaled. Also, the man was chewing tobacco, and the muzzle of ice held his lips so rigidly that he was unable to clear his chin when he expelled the juice".  Throughout the story the descriptions like this make you feel the chill of the air, and make you bend your fingers to check whether they are not numb and frozen and you can still use them.

Moreover, the surrounding is not only dangerous but really treacherous. There are traps in form of hidden spring pools, snow can at any moment fall from branches of spruces and blot your fire out. London places his character  in a harsh natural setting that tests his ability to survive in the wilderness. Thus, the story has a philosophical aspect.  It should make us "meditate upon [our] frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain limits of heat and cold" and eventually take us into "the conjectural field of immortality and man's place in the universe".

 At the end of the story the man realizes how stupid of him was to ignore the old-timer’s advice “that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below”. Once again we understand that very often people cannot survive on their own. We can’t always rely only on ourselves. People need to stick together.

Jack London's "To Build A Fire" film

A film based on the Jack London’s story was released in 1969. Despite it is quite old, this film is thrilling, realistic and leaves a lasting impression. You can watch it here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RBB06RLmCcU

The author of the story

Jack London (born John Griffith Chaney) was a 19th century American novelist and short-story writer, journalist and social activist.

Throughout his life, London published prolifically: stories, essays, news articles and novels. He remained devoted to the idea of socialism, and twice ran for Mayor on a socialist platform.

Jack London wrote in a style known as "naturalism". This literary movement used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. The novels of Jack London are typically somewhat autobiographical. He is best known for books that center around a character in a struggle against nature, but there are also a great many buried themes and messages within his books.

Though he wrote passionately about the great questions of life and death and the struggle to survive with dignity and integrity, he also sought peace and quiet inspiration. His stories of high adventure were based on his own experiences at sea, in the Yukon Territory, and in the fields and factories of California.  His writings appealed to millions worldwide.

Full of laughter, restless and courageous, always eager for adventure, Jack London was one of the most romantic figures of this time.  He ascribed his worldwide literary success largely to hard work - to 'dig', as he put it.

Several of the books and many of the short stories are classics and still popular; some have been translated into as many as 70 languages. His novels, including The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Martin Eden, placed London among the most popular American authors of his time.

My impressions after reading the story

Well, I am happy to admit that my expectations about the plot of the story were mostly correct. A thrilling story with a gripping plot - that's what I like! The ending, however, hadn't been predictable. And that's one more reason for me to enjoy a literary work. While reading the story I kept on hoping that the character would survive, despite he is described as a person, who is not so worth sympathizing.
Though the central theme of the short story is the conflict of man vs. nature, another issue seemed to me to be of no less importance. It is a man's desperate need of companions in a difficult situation. To my mind, the story's message is that no matter how self-confident and independent people are, they do need somebody to support them.