An Analysis of Nature in To Build a Fire

Nature The story “To Build a Fire” features two distinct characters: the man and the dog, and one character that is often overlooked. That character is Nature. This character is often not even listed as a character in the story “To Build a Fire”. Even though it is often ignored, nature is the most important character in the book and is more important than any other character in any story we have studied this year. Nature is the most important character because it is a permanent and important aspect of our lives.

The story teaches us powerful and brutal Mother Nature can be. In the story “To Build a Fire” an unnamed man is traveling the Yukon Territory in the winter with his dog despite the warnings that he was given by an old man to not travel the Klondike alone in the cold temperature. The man underestimates nature and ignores signs of extreme cold. His face began to chap, parts of his body began numbing, and ice got in between his fingers.

The man fell through the snow, got his feet wet, and began to build a fire. The fire is later put out after snow from the tree he built the fire under fell on it.

The man felt that he could overcome nature and often ignored it just like we often do. Nature showed how it could be helpful at first when the fire helping him get warmer. As time went on Nature showed how brutal it could be putting out the fire and eventually killing the man.

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The stories we read for school are often given to us to teach us a lesson. This story taught me that Nature should not be ignored and that it could be vicious. “To Build a Fire” is a story under the literary movement of Naturalism. Naturalism is an extreme form of Realism and depicts man as an insignificant victim of nature. The story teaches us to pay attention to nature and that man is no match for nature. Readers of this story should take away from this book the themes of importance of understanding one’s own observations, and that survival requires instinct and intuition. Nature, in comparison to other characters in any other story, is the most powerful, unpredictable, and violent. Nature is an important aspect of our lives but we often ignore it. We often underestimate the power of nature .The man in the story represents every person in the world. Just like most people in the world, the man underestimated Nature and died. An example of us doing similar things is when we are warned of hurricanes or tornadoes and we refuse to leave the area that will be affected.

Nature is the only character that is present in stories and in our lives. Although the story talks about how nature is powerful and brutal to man, nature can also be a great thing. People usually ignore the beauty of nature and often hate aspects of nature that are beneficial to our lives such as rain or lightning. We must embrace nature but also be cautious of nature at the same time. Nature is present in many other stories but is most active in “To Build a Fire”. The story explains that man is no match for nature. Nature showed that it could be kind and peaceful with the fire to help the man get warm, but also showed how harsh it could be with the snow putting the fire out. We should all realize that nature is the most important part of any story and one of the most important part of our lives.