To Build a Fire

The unnamed man, a chechaquo (newcomer to the Yukon),[2] sets out to hike through the forests bordering the Yukon River on a winter day where the temperature has fallen to −75 °F (−59 °C). Having ignored warnings against traveling alone in such conditions, he is accompanied only by a large husky dog. The animal's instincts warn it about the dangers of the extreme cold, but the dog reluctantly follows the man. As they follow the course of a frozen creek, the man is careful to avoid patches of thin ice hidden by the snow. His goal is to reach a group of prospectors (referred to as "the boys") at their camp by six o'clock that evening.

At half past noon, the man stops and builds a fire so he can warm up and eat his lunch. Shortly after resuming his hike, he accidentally breaks through the ice and soaks his feet and lower legs, forcing him to stop and build another fire so he can dry himself. Having chosen a spot under a tree for this fire, he pulls twigs from the brush pile around it to feed the flames; the vibrations of this action eventually cause a large amount of snow to tumble down from the branches overhead and extinguish the fire. The man quickly begins to lose sensation in his extremities and hurries to light another fire, now starting to understand the warnings about the life-threatening danger posed by the extreme cold. He lights the fire, igniting all of his matches and burning himself in the process due to the numbness in his hands. While trying to remove a piece of moss from the fire, he inadvertently pokes the burning twigs apart and extinguishes them.

With no way to start another fire, the man thinks of killing the dog and using its body heat to save himself, but his hands are so stiff that he can neither strangle the animal nor draw his knife to cut its throat. Finally, he tries to restore his circulation by running toward the camp, but stumbles and falls multiple times in the snow. The man feels the cold gradually freezing him to his core, and he ultimately falls asleep and dies of hypothermia. He imagines himself standing with "the boys" as they find his body. The dog leaves the body after dark to find food and shelter at the camp.

In the 1902 version of "To Build a Fire", the protagonist and the old man of Sulphur Creek are seen at the beginning of the story. The old man of Sulphur Creek warns the protagonist about the danger of traveling alone in such cold temperatures, but being ignorant, the protagonist scoffs at the advice of the old man. The protagonist is seen reflecting on his advice towards his demise and realizes that the old man of Sulphur Creek was right in his warning.[1]

The man and the dog's relationship is followed throughout the story. The man has strict control of the dog, as explicitly mentioned by London. The dog is almost like the man's slave.[3] The dog is shown cowering before the man and following orders. There is no physical intimacy or compassion between the two. The man does not pet the dog or treat it fondly; in fact, the man forces the dog to go ahead of him when he suspects the ice will break. This helps to build the idea that the man believes nature is intended to serve him.[4] The man's interactions in this relationship are how the reader discovers the man's personality and character. By including the dog, the author makes the man less likable. He acts cruelly towards the dog by having the dog walk in extreme temperatures, and in the end, he tries to kill the dog for his own benefit. London even describes the dog as his "toil-slave".[5]

While the man sees the dog only as his slave on the journey, the dog sees the man as a provider of his needs. Placing the dog in the story allowed London to show the wisdom of nature over the arrogance of the man, which eventually leads to his demise.[6] Doing so allowed London to show that animals survive through instinct. On the other hand, London shows that men who lack the same instincts, such as the man in the story, fail and do not survive.[7]

Man vs. Nature is a major theme in the story. The protagonist decides to face the brutally cold temperatures of the Yukon Territory despite being warned by an older man. The short story depicts the protagonist's battle of life and death while highlighting the importance of the fire.

One theme illustrated in the story is the man's sense of judgment contrasted with the dog's animal instincts. Throughout the story, London hints that the dog has more knowledge of survival than the man. The judgment-versus-instinct theme is evident when the man builds the first fire. While the dog wants to stay by the fire to keep warm, the man is determined to keep moving. As the dog reluctantly follows the man across a frozen river, the dog is more cautious than the man.

The protagonist's desperation is evident throughout the majority of the story. It is noticeable soon after the man falls into a frozen-over river. In order to save himself, he scrambles to build a fire but is too busy worrying about his survival to notice the mistake of building a fire underneath a tree which has collected an enormous amount of snow. After the first fire is put out, his desperation becomes more defined as he seemingly will do anything to survive, including attempting to kill his dog for warmth and using all his matches at once in a final attempt to light his last fire. His desperation for survival and his fear of death cause him to panic, leading to his final demise as he freezes to death at the end of the story.[5]

The earlier version was first published in The Youth's Companion on May 29, 1902.[16] Although it differs in some details, the general structure and storyline are similar; the primary differences are as follows: in the first version it is not as cold, there is no dog, the fire is not doused, and the man (named Tom Vincent) suffers some permanent frostbite damage but survives, sad but wiser.

• Construire un feu (1927–1928) is an early short film by Claude Autant-Lara.[17][18]
• To Build a Fire (1969) was made by David Cobham, with Ian Hogg as the man and Orson Welles as the narrator.[19]
• To Build a Fire (2003) is a French version starring Olivier Pagès.[20]
• Build a Fire (2011) is an American version with a modified story.[21]
• To Build a Fire (2016) is an animated short film directed by Fx Goby.[22]
• COLD (2015) is a Spanish short film based on this story.[23]

• "The Little Match Girl," an 1845 short story by Hans Christian Andersen about a child dying of hypothermia
• "The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree", an 1876 short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Wikisource has original text related to this article: To Build a Fire

• To Build a Fire public domain audiobook at LibriVox
• To Build a Fire by Jack London