Jack London as an Idealist Writer - Book Report/Review Example

Jack London as an Idealist Writer Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire” tells the tragic story of an unnamed man who travels across the Klondike territory in winter to meet his friends at a mining camp. The setting of the story is Klondike region of Canada near Alaska during the ‘‘gold rush’’ which began in 1897 and it is believed London drew inspiration from Jeremiah Lynch’s book Three Years in the Klondikes. The whole story is narrated from a third personal point of view addressing the central character as ‘he’. The story resembles Shakespeare’s tragic plays as tension and anxiety mounts up in the minds of the readers regarding the plight of the man who neglects the old timer’s warning that he needs to take someone with him in his journey through the icy cold wilderness. Jack London makes his narration poignant by rendering all the feelings and thoughts that passes through the man’s mind all throughout the story, and the heroic fight displayed by the man to avert his fate is best narrated by him. The story ultimately ends with the tragic death of the man who fails to cope up with the extreme cold. Jack London is regarded as an idealistic writer as his short stories always bring to the attention of the readers the ideas and ideals that pass through the minds and inner consciousness of his characters. The attempt of this paper is to unearth the idealistic traits in the short story and point out how far Jack London can be regarded as an idealistic writer. The Columbia Encyclopedia (2007) defines idealism as the “attitude that places special value on ideas and ideals as products of the mind, in comparison with the world as perceived through the senses.” (“Idealism,” 23491). The man in the story believes in his own ideas and the accepted general opinion that it is unsafe to travel through the wilderness alone does not change his attitude. Jack London was very much influenced by Nietzsche’s concept of the Over man and there is no wonder that the hero in “To Build a Fire” acts unlike the other humans and shows super human traits. In modern times idealism not only means “the source of ideas to man's consciousness” but it also “proposes suprahuman mental activity of some sort and ascribes independent reality to certain principles.” (“Idealism,” 23491). One can come across a number of instances of idealism in the story. From the very outset of the story the reader gets the impression that the man is not conscious of the real world or rather he lives in a world of his own. When the story opens one finds the man in darkness, but he is not worried of sunlight or the extreme cold: “ But all this—the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all—made no impression on the man.” (London). London makes it clear in the beginning of the story that the man “was without imagination” who never thought of “his frailty as a creature of temperature”. However he is confidant that he would reach safely in the camp and “would eat lunch at the forks and that at six o'clock he would be in camp with the boys”. (London). Repetition is used as an effective technique by the writer to bring about the dramatic irony that he would never reach his destination. This is very well pointed out by Lee Clark Mitchell when he states: “The repetition of things and events creates an environment that seems to resist human intention—one in which desires fail over and over to be able to shape results.” (Clark Mitchell). The reference to the man from Sulphur Greek is repeatedly made by the writer and the writer shows how the hero’s attitude towards his warning undergoes changes. In the beginning the man laughs at the old timer’s premonition that “no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below” and considers the old timer as womanish. Later, he understands that the old-timer was right and that “after fifty below, a man should travel with a partner”. His attitude towards the old man undergoes drastic changes at the end of the story when he knows for certain that he is going to perish and this makes him to cry: “"You were right, old hoss; you were right," the man mumbled to the old-timer of Sulphur Creek”. (London). The man’s hope of reaching his friends acts as a strong factor in the idealistic treatment of the story. He believes that even though he would lose some of his fingers and face in his fight with the extreme cold, “the boys would take care of him, and save the rest of him when he got there”. Similarly, the calm disposition of the hero gets transformed and he begins to get panic when he is no longer able to light the fire and he realizes that he has lost ‘his battle with the frost’. Then he decides to meet death heroically and he cherishes the dream of ‘meeting death with dignity’ and he even pictures ‘the boys finding his body the next day’. Thus, all throughout the story the mind, ideas, thought process, the fears and anxieties of the man is made as an open book by London and the reader seems to identify himself with the central character. Jack London believed in the human idealism and he makes it clear that he has “warm faith in the human, glowing idealism, sweet nesses of unselfishness, renunciation, and martyrdom — all the splendid, stinging things of the spirit.” (London). Now the question under consideration is how far the man in the short story is a true idealist. Discussing on the three basic elements that define a true idealist Sean Starr, Colin Nasseri, and Matthew Thomas (2008) state that a true idealist should have a strong “desire to improve one’s environment”, which is not “hampered by the negativity and doldrums of day to day life”, and “the ability to take action against this negativity and overcome it, creating the envisioned beauty within the mind.” (Starr., Nasseri., and Thomas). Judging on these criteria, even though the man in the story does have the desire to improve his environment, he fails to fight against the odds of nature and does not display the ability to take needy actions. However, his consciousness is surmounted by unique ideas and ideologies that are ideal for him and cause his own downfall. The major theme of the story is man’s futile attempt to fight against the power of nature. Many critics are of the opinion that the man’s struggle for survival suffers set backs because of his lack of intuition and his inability to think rationally: “While some critics maintain that the protagonist of the story dies due to a lack of intuition or imagination, unable to conceive of the possibility of his own death, others assert that he dies as a result of panic and the failure of his rational faculties.” (To Build a Fire, Jack London | Introduction). The picture of nature as pictured in the short story is not a benevolent factor for humans. Instead, London pictures nature as a block to the man’s designs and he shows ho feeble man’s plans are compared to nature’s superior powers. Repetition is again used as a strong literary device to enhance nature’s violence towards man and the writer’s vivid description of the natural surroundings add to the ferocity of nature: “…London uses repetition and precise description to emphasize the brutal coldness and unforgiving landscape of the Northland, against which the inexperienced protagonist, accompanied only by a dog, struggles unsuccessfully to save himself from freezing to death after a series of mishaps.” (To Build a Fire | Introduction). This treatment of nature as a malignant factor in man’s life is followed by great poets like Robert Frost. Jack London provides realistic treatment to the characters as well as to the natural setting of the short story “To Build a Fire”. The behavior and responses of the companion dog, the realistic narration of the natural landscapes and the climate, and the actions of the central character are presented quite realistically in the story. Realism, in art and literature is understood as “an attempt to describe human behavior and surroundings or to represent figures and objects exactly as they act or appear in life.” ("Realism (art and literature)"). One comes across a number of examples for Jack London’s treatment of realism in the story. A vivid and clear cut picture of the man and the climate is provided in the initial part of the story. We find that the man was on ‘a steep bank’ and the day was clear even though “there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun” ( London). Thus, the very setting of the story predicts that something gloomy is going to happen. The dog in the story acts as a great foil to that of the man’s nature. The man lives in a world of his own and is not depressed by the cold. On the other hand, “the animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was no time for traveling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment.” Thus the animal is a true representative of the real world and shows better rational outlook towards the treacherous nature. At another instance in the story, one finds the dog showing reluctance to pass through the broken surface. The dog senses some kind of danger when the man calls him aside with the intention of killing it and it deserts its owner when it senses the scent of death. The relationship between the dog and the man can be understood on a greater plane. As George R. Adams remarks, “The essentially adversarial relationship between the dog and the man is the fore grounded version of the adversarial relationship between the larger environment and the man.” (Adams). All these do not mean that the man is totally incapable of action and do not thoroughly understand the real world. One finds that “he was keenly observant, and he noticed the changes in the creek, the curves and bends and timber-jams, and always he sharply noted where he placed his feet.” (London). He takes all the possible measures to get himself out of the dangerous situation. The attempts made by the man to light fire for a second time show that he does not miss his presence of mind altogether. When the fire was blotted out, “He picked it up in his teeth and scratched it on his leg. Twenty times he scratched before he succeeded in lighting it.” (London). At another instance we find him making plans to kill the dog and’ bury his hands in the warm body until the numbness went out of them”. However his plan does not succeed as he is unable to kill the animal with his numb freeze hands. When all these do not save him, he makes a final effort by running hard to reach his destination but he fumbles at the threshold. Thus we do have a series of realistic narration in the story regarding the futile attempts made by the man to escape his tragic fate and there are a lot of instances in the story that suggest the extremity of the cold like where the man spits the saliva. According to William Dean Howells, “realism is nothing more and nothing less than the truthful treatment of material.” (Howells, 966) and all the actions in the story are pictured realistically as they are without any sort of exaggeration. The story “To Build a Fire” is a good piece of short story with its masterly characterization, poignant setting and large variety of themes. The large number of literary criticism on the work is a real proof for the wide popularity and general acceptance of Jack London as a unique short story teller. The characterization of the man in the story adds to the conflict in the story: “The conflict in the story is two-fold; the man struggles between his will and reasoning and second with the man's desires and abilities.” (Criticism of Jack London's To Build a Fire). One of the factors that led to the tragedy of the man is his own flaw in the character- he fails to see the dangers that surrounds him and ignores them as insignificant: “He ignores all the facts that indicate danger--he underestimates the cold, he ignores the absence of travelers in the last month, he de-emphasizes his soon-to-be-frostbitten cheekbones.” (Summary and Analysis of Part 1). There are many critics who believe that the story has an existential theme, and the setting of the story is carefully chosen to suggest the helplessness, and fight of the man for his existence in a hostile and indifferent environment: “London places his solitary human character in the perilous setting of the wilderness of the Yukon, which is enough to begin to illustrate his theme, but when London combines this unforgiving environment with the deadly cold of the Yukon winter, he creates a setting which is the epitome of the hostile, existential environment.” (The Existential Theme in Jack London's "To Build A Fire"). Similarly, the mood and atmosphere of the story is created through gloomy imageries enhances this existential theme. As Earl Labor (1974) pointed out, the “mood and atmosphere, which is conveyed through repetitive imagery of cold and gloom and whiteness,” acts as “the key to the story’s impact.” (Labor, 63). Karen Rhodes (1994) believes that the story deals with the life of a single man who fights alone and single handedly “against the overwhelming forces of nature"(Rhodes, 1) and he identifies that the death of the man “came through no lapse of observation, no lack of diligence, no real folly but the nature of himself and his environment." (Rhodes, 2). Thus, the large critical appraisal of the story suggests the powerful narrative style of Jack London. Thus, one can clearly state that the story is comprised of both realistic and idealistic traits. The man in the story sounds much more idealistic in his thinking and Jack London uses effective third person point of view to bring out the inner thoughts and feelings of the man. Even the mental process or rather the inward instincts of the companion dog is successfully narrated by him. The absence of sunlight is used as a symbol to suggest the tragedy that is awaiting the man and all throughout the story the dramatic irony that all his attempts to preserve his life is futile is maintained. As it is said “London’s works were much more than transcriptions of actual experience.” (Jack London (Identities and Issues in Literature). And so he is undoubtedly an idealist writer who is much more preoccupied with the working of human mind rather than simply narrating incidents and actions. Works Cited Adams, George R., and Nuernberg, Susan M (ed). “Why the Man Dies in ‘To Build a Fire’” in The Critical Response to Jack London. Greenwood Press. 1995. Clark Mitchell, Lee. “‘Keeping His Head’: Repetition and Responsibility in London's ‘To Build a Fire,’” in Journal of Modern Literature. 1986. Vol.13. No.1. Criticism of Jack London's To Build a Fire. 123HelpMe.com. 2000-2007. 25 May. 2008. . Howells, William Dean. “Editor’s Study,” Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 1889. P. 966. “Idealism”: Encyclopedia Article: The Columbia Encyclopedia: Sixth Edition. 2007. P. 23491. Jack London (Identities and Issues in Literature). eNotes.com. 2008. 25 May. 2008. . Labor, Earle. Jack London. New York: Twayne. 1974. P.63. London, Jack. “To Build a Fire”. London, Jack. What Life Means to Me?. The World of Jack London, 1997- 2008. 25 May. 2008. . "Realism (Art and Literature)". msn. 2008. 25 May. 2008. . Rhodes, Karen., Watson, Noelle., and James, St. "To Build a Fire: Overview". Reference Guide to Short Fiction: 1st Ed. 1994. Starr, Sean., Nasseri, Colin., and Thomas, Matthew. The Idealist Manifesto. 2008. 25 May. 2008. . Summary and Analysis of Part 1: To Build a Fire. GradeSaver LLC. 1999-2008. 25 May. 2008. . The Existential Theme in Jack London's "To Build A Fire". Lone Star College: North Harris. 25 May. 2008. . To Build a Fire, Jack London | Introduction. eNotes.com. 2008. 25 May. 2008. . To Build a Fire | Introduction. eNotes.com. 2008. 25 May. 2008. . Read More