Theme as Literary Element in To Build a Fire by Jack London

Table of Contents

Introduction
Impact of Theme as a Literary Element
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

Literacy texts employ different features of style to convey a message to a reader. The style used will have the impact of attracting and making a reader relate to the story. Jack Londons To Build a Fire uses an array of literary elements to capture the attention of a reader and make the story more relatable to the contemporary world. London employs the theme of hopelessness to narrate the misfortune that befell a man traveling alone in harsh weather conditions and how he lost hope in saving his life and conceded to freezing to death.

Impact of Theme as a Literary Element

Jack London uses hopelessness as a theme to narrate a tragic story of a man who went to travel alone in the harsh and unforgiving weather conditions of the Yukon mountains. The man is hard hit by the extreme cold and is forced to make a fire to warm his feet for survival (London, 2021). None of his attempts come to fruition and he decides to improvise by running around like a headless chicken in a desperate attempt to keep warm (London, 2021). The man finally agrees to meet his fate of dying with dignity. Hopelessness has therefore been used to show how a lone traveler, tries to survive in the wilderness but later on gives up. The man tries to keep warm by attempting to make a fire and by desperately running around. Eventually, the hope of keeping warm is lost consequently losing the hope of living. With no other alternative left, he concedes defeat to the harsh weather and embraces death. The author has extensively used hopelessness to show how the man gives up on keeping warm. As a result, the man sees no point in trying and decides to embrace death which shows giving up on life.

The geographical and environmental setting where this man is found speaks volumes about hopelessness. The story happens in the freezing Yukon mountain-a place that has no sign of human life. It is impossible to find dry sticks to start a fire in a freezing forest. The freezing nature of Yukon shows that it is futile to make a fire in such an area. The man is alone in the wilderness and has no name. At all times, London constantly refers to him as the man (London, 2021). London intentionally fails to give the protagonist a name to perfectly paint a picture of the bleak and hostile world that the man lives in. Moreover, the author uses a harsh environment to show that when a man is isolated in uninhabitable weather conditions and is lonely, he loses hope in living. The Yukon region being a solitary area kills the mans hope of survival making him cede to freezing to death.

Conclusion

Death becomes inevitable when ones life is full of despair, solitude, and harsh environmental conditions. Jack Londons story uses the theme of hopelessness to explain the tragic death of a lone traveler in Yukon. The man is unable to withstand the freezing terrains of Yukon and all his attempts to keep warm bear no fruit. The man hits rock bottom when he realizes that he is unable to devise a method to keep warm and sees no point in trying. The lone man gives up on saving his life and agrees to meet a dreadful death. The author helps a reader to understand how hopelessness in hostile conditions can easily take away a persons determination to fight for dear life and substitute it with accepting death.