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Jack London uses the devices of plot, setting, and characterization in this short story To Build A Fire to convey his message that humans need to be social. London sets an average, middle-aged logger in a deserted Yukon trail during a wintry season. The temperature is seventy-five degrees below zero and the logger and his husky are traveling towards Henderson Creek, about ten miles away, where the loggers companions are located. London places the man in this Yukon environment to symbolize that in this cold, cruel world, we need to learn how to benefit from each other.
Prior to embarking on his journey, the logger is given advice from an old-timer at Sulfur Creek that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. The logger thinks this is rather womanish and believes he can survive by himself. Along his journey, the man encounters death as he falls into a spring, where At a place where there were no signs, where the soft, unbroken snow seemed to advertise solidity beneath, the man broke through. It was not deep. He wet himself halfway up the knees before he floundered out to the firm crust. Then the man builds a fire beneath a tree and snow falls over it putting it out.
London creates these natural events in the plot to prove they are not the cause of the mans death. Using characterization, London is able to display on account of who is alive at the end how one benefits from being social. The old-timer at Sulfur Creek is alive because he is experienced and wise enough to benefit from others experiences that it is not wise to travel alone in the Yukon. The boys at camp are also alive because they are together and can benefit from each other. The loggers husky is alive because it is well-suited for the Yukon environment, while the logger is not. Unlike the other characters, London has the man die at the end of the story to display that he dies because of his arrogance in his ability to travel alone.
If the man travels with a companion, he can benefit from him and possibly return safely to camp. London's point is achieved through these three devices to prove that the cause of the loggers death is his rugged individualism which concludes to not having anyone to benefit from. London's message is that all of us need to learn how to be social and learn how to benefit from each other in order to survive.
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Research essay sample on Timer At Sulfur Creek Timer At Sulfur Man
