Foreshadowing In Jack London's To Build A Fire
The arctic: a cold, barren, snowy wasteland that almost no one can survive. This landscape could lead to an inevitable end for anyone who tries to conquer it, especially alone. This situation is brought to light through the short story, To Build A Fire by Jack London. In this tale, an unnamed man makes an attempt to go through the snowy setting of Alaska during the freezing season of winter with only a dog by his side. Throughout the book, London builds up suspense and makes people uncertain about how the book will end. However, through the foreshadowing of the rising actions, climax, and repeating details, the inevitable end can be clearly seen. London’s story unfolds with suspenseful rising actions and elements of foreshadowing. The man
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The climax first came when finally, danger struck the man. He walked through the creek and suddenly he fell through. He was angry but not very concerned because it was only halfway to the knees, but he knew he had to act quickly. If he did not build a fire right away, his feet would freeze and it could lead to deep trouble. He started to build the fire under some trees by taking twigs from the tree and used a match to start it but then suddenly it all collapsed. “High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow. This fell on the boughs beneath capsizing them. This process continued, spreading out and involving the whole tree. It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out” (616). This shows that he was in danger and just when the reader and the man were getting comfortable, it took a turn for the worse. This gave the sense that he was in even more danger of suffering the impending result than he was before. Now the man was in real danger and had to quickly build another one. Unfortunately, almost his whole body was numb and he could not pick up things very well, but he still managed to get a fire going, however terror struck one final time. “The burning grasses and tiny twigs separating and scattering. He tried to poke them together again, but in spite of the tenseness of the effort, his shivering got away with him, and the twigs were hopelessly scattered. Each twig gushed a puff of smoke and went out” (618). This shows that he lost all hope of starting a fire and he realized that there was no way out of the now inevitable death that approached. The man came up with a crazy idea of killing the dog and using it to warm up, but there was no hope and he could not do it. He tried to run all the way there, but he is unable to and eventually he accepted the inevitable death in front of
The climax first came when finally, danger struck the man. He walked through the creek and suddenly he fell through. He was angry but not very concerned because it was only halfway to the knees, but he knew he had to act quickly. If he did not build a fire right away, his feet would freeze and it could lead to deep trouble. He started to build the fire under some trees by taking twigs from the tree and used a match to start it but then suddenly it all collapsed. “High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow. This fell on the boughs beneath capsizing them. This process continued, spreading out and involving the whole tree. It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out” (616). This shows that he was in danger and just when the reader and the man were getting comfortable, it took a turn for the worse. This gave the sense that he was in even more danger of suffering the impending result than he was before. Now the man was in real danger and had to quickly build another one. Unfortunately, almost his whole body was numb and he could not pick up things very well, but he still managed to get a fire going, however terror struck one final time. “The burning grasses and tiny twigs separating and scattering. He tried to poke them together again, but in spite of the tenseness of the effort, his shivering got away with him, and the twigs were hopelessly scattered. Each twig gushed a puff of smoke and went out” (618). This shows that he lost all hope of starting a fire and he realized that there was no way out of the now inevitable death that approached. The man came up with a crazy idea of killing the dog and using it to warm up, but there was no hope and he could not do it. He tried to run all the way there, but he is unable to and eventually he accepted the inevitable death in front of