I decided upon getting this assignment that I would do my own research for short stories instead of going by any of the authors we had discussed in class. I was curious to see if I could find any short stories online that appealed to me. To my surprise I found a short story on one of the websites I discovered by Jack London. London was, and still is one of my all time favorite authors with his book White Fang being in my list of top ten books. I love the way he writes and the way he tells stories. The way he describes scenery is just spectacular. So when I read this short story of his I was not disappointed at all.
The story is about a man traveling the Yukon Trail with a single companion, his dog in very harsh conditions with the intention of meeting some of his friends. He comes across some unfortunate circumstances that he must face and deal with.
I would recommend this story to anyone who loves a story where the character has to fight for their survival out in the circumstances nature has provided for them. Also if anyone else is a fan of Jack London, I would definitely recommend this short story.
http://www.americanliterature.com/London/SS/ToBuildaFire.html
There are many aspects of this story that I enjoyed. To begin with, I appreciate the effort London put into explaining the dog's thoughts while still making him out to be a dog, not a human. I'm sure that it would take me years of revision to write a story like "To Build a Fire" in such a complicated point of view.
ReplyDeletePart of the reason I liked this story is because I love survival stories, especially when I have been in a kind of similar situation. While dog mushing in Iqaluit, Canada, I frostbit my hands out on the trail, and had to trust my dogs to get me back to the finish line. I loved that the main character was slightly cocky and unprepared, but was able to come to the conclusion that he was no foe for Nature. There are too many real life accounts of people going out into the wilderness unprepared and paying for it with their lives. Nature will always beat humans, no matter how much we try to win.
The descriptions of the scenery were beautiful, and perfectly captured how empty and powerful that landscape really is. One thing I thought was missing from the story though was background on what he was doing there. I really wanted to know what brought him out to the Yukon, and especially why his companions would let him go out alone. I think that in survival stories, motivation is incredibly important, since in my opinion, the ultimate point of the story is to explore why people have a need to adventure, rather than how they necessarily survive.
Thank you for posting this! It was nice to read a story so different from the others posted.