Friday, May 1, 2015

In Jack London's "To Build a Fire," is the protagonist considered a code hero?

Definitely not. The way in which the protagonist remains
nameless throughout the entire short story is our first indication that he is not a
hero. Secondly consider the way in which the man is shown again and again to be
incredibly arrogant about his mastery and dominance over nature, and refuses to
acknowledge the terrible danger of nature and its power over man. The man in juxtaposed
to the dog, who is aware and respectful of nature, throughout this tale to reinforce
this. Note how the man's feelings of nature are described towards the
beginning:


readability="12">

Fifty degrees below zero meant eight-odd degrees
of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It
did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon
man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and
cold, and from there on it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and
man's plce in the
universe.



This quote clearly
indicates the lack of respect that the protagonist has for nature at large, and hints at
his arrogance which will actually result in the protagonist's death. There is no way,
therefore, in which this protagonist can be considered a hero. He ignores the advice of
those more experienced than him and is blind to the signs of nature, happily plunging
into a very extreme situation resulting in his own death.

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