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Possible theme :

Nature’s overwhelming power and indifference make human attempts to conquer or even survive in harsh natural environments, without proper respect and preparation, ultimately futile.

Literature technique:

Imagery.

Example of how the author used that technique:

The author uses visual imagery to describe the “frost - bitten” spruce trees that “exuded a scent of resin” and the “crystalline air” that made the man’s breath “a frosty cloud” when he exhaled, vividly creating a harsh and unforgiving Arctic environment that emphasizes nature's dominance.

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Possible theme :

Nature’s overwhelming power and indifference make human attempts to conquer or even survive in harsh natural environments, without proper respect and preparation, ultimately futile.

Literature technique:

Imagery.

Example of how the author used that technique:

The author uses visual imagery to describe the “frost - bitten” spruce trees that “exuded a scent of resin” and the “crystalline air” that made the man’s breath “a frosty cloud” when he exhaled, vividly creating a harsh and unforgiving Arctic environment that emphasizes nature's dominance.

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The story argues that arrogance and an overreliance on intellect, while dismissing instinct and experience, lead to fatal consequences when facing the indifferent, brutal power of nature.

The author consistently uses symbolism throughout the story.

The most powerful symbol is about the fire. It does not only represent warmth, but also survival itself. The successful building of the first fire under the spruce tree symbolizes his temporary victory and control over his environment. However, when the snow from the branches extinguishes it, the fire's death symbolizes the abrupt collapse of his plans and the fragility of his existence. His frantic, failed attempts to build a new fire symbolize his dwindling hope and the final, irreversible triumph of nature over him. Thus, the fire acts as a clear symbolic gauge of the man's fate.

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1, The overconfidence and arrogance of human beings will ultimately lead to fatal consequences

2, Foreshadowing

3, In the front of the story, the man ignores the warning from the old-timer that he should never travel alone under extreme cold temperature, this foreshadows the ending of the man - dead under extreme cold due to the lack of fire and companion.

This foreshadowing not only reminds reader to build preparation for the man's ultimate failure to survive, but also emphasized the vulnerability of human beings and the consequence of arrogance.

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1. A possible theme of To Build a Fire is that underestimating the power of nature and acting with overconfidence in one’s own abilities, without respect for the harsh and unforgiving environment, can lead to tragic consequences.

2. The author uses imagery as a literature technique across the text.

3. The description of the “cold that made the life of the particles of the universe slow down” creates a vivid image of the extreme, bone - chilling cold of the Yukon. This imagery helps readers feel the intense harshness of the environment and emphasizes the danger the man is facing, showing how the relentless cold works against him throughout his journey.

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1. Theme

The story conveys that arrogance and disregard for nature’s power can lead to fatal consequences, emphasizing the importance of humility and respect for the harsh environment in survival.

2. Literary Technique

Symbolism

3. Example

The extreme cold and unforgiving Yukon landscape symbolize the indifferent and overpowering force of nature. For example, the man’s repeated failures to build a fire in the brutal cold ultimately result in his death, illustrating how nature’s harshness can defeat human arrogance and lack of preparation.

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1. The theme of the story is human's overconfidence cannot conquer nature.

2. Irony is used in the story.

3. Irony is also a significant literature technique used in To Build a Fire. London used irony in describing the old-timer's advice. At first, the man didn't listen to the old-timer's suggestions. He believes "those old-timers were rather womanish". However, after his fire is blotted, he thought that "Perhaps the old-timer on Sulphur Creek was right.". London wants to convey that human arrogance cannot overcome nature by using irony.

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1.Theme

The theme of To Build a Fire is too much confidence and ignoring nature’s danger cause death.

2.Literature Technique

A key literature technique here is conflict (man vs. nature).

3.Example

Description of Jack London in the original text when the man’s hands become numb from the cold. He drops his matches, and many break. He tries to light the remaining ones but fails because he cannot hold them well. This shows his fight against the cold.

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Characterization

1. It was all pure white, rolling in gentle undulations where the ice-jams of the freeze-up had formed

Mark: Describe the visual appearance of snow and ice.

2. This fact did not worry the man. He was used to the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun, and he knew that a few more days must pass before that cheerful orb, due south, would just peep above the sky-line and dip immediately from view.

Mark: Describe the man's internal thoughts abut the sun's absence, and show the arrogant quality of this man.

3. Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of mittens, ear-flaps, warm moccasins, and thick socks.

Mark: Used tactile sensation for frost "biting" the skin

4. Undoubtedly it was colder than fifty below -- how much colder he did not know. But the temperature did not matter. He was bound for the old claim on the left fork of Henderson Creek,where the boys were already.

Mark: The narrator emphasizes the man's disregard for how much colder it is predicted the extreme cold will prove essential later

5. He smiled agreeably to himself as he thought of those biscuits, each cut open and sopped in bacon grease, and each enclosing a generous slice of

fried bacon.

Mark: Reveals the man's contentment through his smile and detailed description of the biscuits.

6. the proper wolf-dog, gray-coated and without any visible or temperamental difference from its brother, the wild wolf. The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold.

Mark: This is the visual appearance for dogs.

7. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment.

Mark: This sentence shows the mind thought for dogs.

8. It experienced a vague but menacing apprehension that subdued it and made it slink along at the man's heels, and that made it question eagerly every unwonted movement of the man as if expecting him to go into camp or to seek shelter somewhere and build a fire. The dog had learned fire, and it wanted fire, or else to burrow under

the snow and cuddle its warmth away from the air.

Mark: Shows the dog thinking, and it desires to get the warm through fire, so it wants the man successfully build fire.

9. The frozen moisture of its breathing had settled on its fur in a fine powder of frost, and especially were its jowls, muzzle, and eyelashes whitened by its crystalled breath.

Mark: The dog was extreme cold, it can performed by the appearance of the dog.

10. The dog dropped in again at his heels, with a tail drooping discouragement, as the man swung along the creek-bed.

Mark: The change of mood of the dog, it became depression because we can saw the tail of the dog is down to the ground.

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The dog

1. "didn't know about anything about thermometers", "no sharp consciousness of a condition of very cold such as was in man's brain", "the brute had its instinct"

These sentences illustrate the characteristics of the dog that it has no knowledge of living in frost and wasn't aware of the dilemma they were facing. It only had instinct to help it survive in such extreme condition, which lay the groundwork for the man and the dog in the following text.

The man

1. "He stood and studied", "he reflected the creek-bed and its banks", "and decided the flow of water came from the right", "step gingerly and testing the footing for each step"

This series of actions shows the man observing the trap, which he fell into before. He was gingerly and careful and tried to prevent being defeated by a similar trap again and use rationality to fight against the nature. The description made the man's personality clearer

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（The dog’s instinct with the man's lack of respect of nature)

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For the man:

The text says "The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances." This shows the man lacks imagination and can't understand the deeper meaning of the cruel environment.

For the dog:

“The brute had its instinct. It experienced a vague but menacing apprehension... expecting him to go into camp or to seek shelter somewhere and build a fire.” shows the dog lives on instinct, feeling the cold's dangers and longing for warmth.

For the theme:

The theme is the contrast between human disrespect of nature's power (The man is overconfidence for his ability) and animal respect for it (The dog knows the cold is dangerous).

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1.Characterization(Man)

“The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all.”This shows the man is practical but lacks the ability to perceive the dangers of the extreme cold. He sees the cold only as a source of discomfort, not as a threatening force, highlighting his arrogant .

2.Characterization(Dog)

“Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment... But the brute had its instinct. It experienced a vague but menacing apprehension that subdued it and made it slink along at the man's heels, and that made it question eagerly every unwonted movement of the man as if expecting him to go into camp or to seek shelter somewhere and build a fire.”

The dog feels the true danger of the cold and finds the warmth of fire or shelter. This contrasts with the man's ignorance, showing the dog's survival instincts in the harsh natural environment.

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Characterization of the man

-Lack of imagination. “He was a newcomer in the land, a chechaquo, and this was his first winter. The trouble with him was that he was without imagination.” this support that the man was lack of imagination, he didn’t realize this extreme cold could kill him, or that humans are weak against such harsh nature. He couldn’t see the hidden danger behind the cold, which proves he had no imagination.

-Overconfidence. “The old timer had been very serious in laying down the law that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone ; and he had saved himself” An old man warned him: “No one should walk alone in the Klondike when it’s below 50 degrees.” But the man ignored this. After he saved himself from a small accident, he even thought the old men were “too weak like women.” He thought he was better than the experienced old man, which shows he was overconfident.

Characterization of the dog

-Instinctual awareness of cold: "The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was no time for travelling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment... But the brute had its instinct. It experienced a vague but menacing apprehension that subdued it and made it slink along at the man's heels." The instinct of the dog drives it actions.

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E.g.The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances/

It shows the man’s most obvious traits which has indirectly lead to his death —Confident.

E.g.Possibly ir its brain there was no sharp consciousness of a condition of very cold such as was in the man's brain.

It shows the difference of thinking between animal and human. The man believes in experience while the dog believes in instinct.

E.g.He did not expose his fingers more than a minute, and was astonished at the swift numbness that smote them.

The author use tactile to describe cold, it’s brilliant because its vivid.

E.g.Once, coming around a bend, he shied abruptly, like a startled horse, curved away from the place where he had been walking, and retreated several paces back along the tral. Tiaread he knew was frozen clear to the bottom,

Use metaphor to describe how cold the man is.

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The man

“the man was chewing tobacco, and the muzzle of ice held his lips so rigidly that he was unable to clear his chin when he expelled the juice." From this sentence, it describes the action of the man, we can know the man is very lazy and truth himself . Even chewing the tobacco can cause the man to feel uncomfortable, he still eats it. Also, the man underestimated the harm and power of nature.

The dog

“the dog had learned fire, and it watching fire, or else to burrow under the snow and cuddle its warmth away form the air." This sentence shows the dog are smart. Also, the dog have very strong adoption of the harsh environment. So, at the end of the man dies, but the dog survives.

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The two underlined sentences, which all focus on the mood of the man. The first one is “safe”, positive, with a smile as the other is “shock”, with “death”. The change of the tone is dramatic and successfully help the story’s development.

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The man

"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". The quotation illustrates that the man was really good at observing his surroundings. He could easily investigate small changed in the environment and it can also demonstrate that he is experienced. However, it also form a contrast that even a crazy observer cannot aware he is too arrogant which put himself in a dangerous situation. Also, the natural signal such as temperature changes is important for outdoor activities but the man just ignore it totally.

The dog

"Possibly in its brain there was no sharp consciousness of a condition of very cold such as was in the man's brain. But the brute had its instinct." Base on this content, the dog is not very sensitive about the temperature, however; it is the only one that survived in the end of the story. This demonstrates even the man was really experienced, but self-awareness is much more important than experience. Thus, the dog serve as the foil character to shows that overconfident could cause a huge problem even with sufficient experience and the nature is something that we always cannot ignore.

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"The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold;"

This reveals that the man is practical but lacks imagination and deeper awareness. He sees cold only as an inconvenience, not as a serious danger or even a threat to his life. The author depicts him as inexperienced and overconfident, underestimate the true power of nature.

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The last paragrah of page 4 shows the comparison between the dog and the man. "This man did not know cold. Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of cold one hundred and seven degrees below freezing-point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge." These words indicate that the dog is more experienced than the man. As normal thought, the man should be more anxious about the serious situation. However, after building up a fire, "he filled his pipe and took his comfortable time over a smoke.". This action indicates that the man is hubris, and he ignored the strength of nature. Comparatively, "The dog was disappointed and yearned back toward the fire.". The dog took more care about the fire, and it knew the importance of fire in such a cold environment. So, the dog lose trust on the man, and felt disappointed. "The one was the toil-slave of the other, and the only caresses it had ever received were the caresses of the whip-lash and of harsh and menacing throat-sounds that threatened the whip-lash." These words show that the dog was only the slavery of the man. The man considered the dog as his tool, and didn't care about the safety of the dog. Naturally, there is no emotional bond between the man and the dog.

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Dogs represent primal instincts and intuition. They stand in sharp contrast to men. Dogs don't need thermometers; their bodies and instincts directly tell them how dangerous the environment is. They know it's not the time to travel, while men just think they can. This symbolizes that in the natural world, evolutionarily developed instincts are often more reliable than human acquired knowledge and arrogant judgments.

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The underline sentence describes the man’s actions, highlights the conditions of the man’s body, such that actions show the coldness of the man and lead a comparison to his confidence at first.

Also, the underline sentence in P6 shortly mentioned the mental activity of the husky, it recognized the situation and made a impression of the weather, which attitude was different from the man in the opening of the story. It also hints how it will end for the two characters.

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9.3 FOR TODAY!!!!!!! You only need to focus on character

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9.3 FOR TODAY!!!!!!! You only need to focus on character

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Post the " details" (textual evidence) about how London depicts the two characters here from the story and what is shown through the evidence: one evidence for the man and one for the dog.

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also highlight the theme

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1.symbol

“It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out! Where it had burned was a mantle of fresh and disordered snow.”(p6)

The fire is always the representation of hope, warmth, nature and life. Just like what the man have  experienced before, if he was not able to build a fire immediately after his legs were being immersed, his legs would no longer exist and even his life might be threatened. When the fire is extinguished by the falling snow, it seems that the life of the man would fade away with the disappearance of the hope; meanwhile, it reflects the crucial  dependence of human beings to the nature.

2.characterization

“Once again, however, he had a close call; and once, suspecting danger, he compelled the dog to go on in front. The dog did not want to go. It hung back until the man shoved it forward, and then it went quickly across the white, unbroken surface.”(p3)

This quotation depicts the man’s attitude toward the dog and how he treated it. From the text, we are able to analyzed that the man only took dog as a tool when it came to areas with potential dangers. His behaviors were not like the other plot that the master and the dog own intimate relationship; instead, he didn’t care about the dog, which embodies a cruel, ruthless character.

3.conflict

“This time the shivering came more quickly upon the man. He was losing in his battle with the frost. It was creeping into his body from all sides. The thought of it drove him on, but he ran no more than a hundred feet, when he staggered and pitched headlong. It was his last panic.”(p10)

This is the internal conflict, which, to be more specific, belongs to the conflict between the mind and the reality. The man was feared about he had lost in the battle with the frost. He was not willing to be defeated by the nature, persuading to himself that he should be calm. Yet his frozen body did not allow him to keep going, attempting to destroy his last thought. The opposite trend forms a kind of struggle between the man’s mind and his physical ability.

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What you need to do today:

1. Express the possible theme of that story ( remember: it should be a claim)

2. One literature technique the author has used in that story (one technique across the text)

3. One example of how the author used that technique