Essay: Jack London’s To Build a Fire
Even a hundred years after this story was written, mankind (as a whole) still does not have a healthy respect for nature. We have created immensely powerful machines that can literally change the face of the earth, but at the same time we are still dependent on the very planet we are pillaging in order to stay alive. Our polluting of the planet is comparable to the man’s disregard for the cold weather. We ignore warning signs, similar to his spit turning to ice in the air, and proceed onward in our path of self-destruction until nature forces us to stop. Jack London was attempting to warn humanity about being so secure in our knowledge that we disregard all warnings and charge forward with our god-like powers, only to destroy ourselves in the process.