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.
Much like humanity as a whole, the man in the story ignored countless warning signs. “He knew that at fifty below spittle crackled on the snow, but this spittle had crackled in the air.” The man was completely aware that he should not have continued into the extreme cold of the Yukon, and yet he was so secure in his abilities that he pressed forward. Similarly, humans release enormous amounts of toxic gases into the atmosphere, even though we are fully aware of how damaging they are to life. We know better than to breathe in the gases our chemical plants release, and yet we don’t seem to grasp the fact that those gases have no way to leave the planet. Eventually, perhaps sooner rather than latter, they will come right back to harm us.
“It was as though he had just heard his own sentence of death…Perhaps the old-timer on Sulphur Creek was right.”(London) Even though he continued to struggle for the chance of surviving the ordeal, from that point on he knew that he was as good as dead. He had enough intelligence to realize how hopeless his situation was. Shortly after this he accepts the cold reality of the situation and determines that “he might as well take it decently.” While humanity may not have reached such a tipping point yet, many do not realize how close we are to an irreversible decline, like the man’s death, we may actually be. If enough of the polar ice caps melt, the amount of sunlight (and heat) reflected back into space will diminish to the point where the poles will no longer be able to refreeze, and the world climate will change even more drastically (Revkin). This is in addition to the more well known concept of rising sea levels causing entire cities to be flooded, including New York and London (Revkin). From that point on there would be nothing we could do to repair the damage in any measurable amount of time
Mankind continuously “tests the ice” of the world by adding more destructive abilities to what we already do. Man builds a single coal power plant, testing an area of ice. Because there was no immediate change in the area as an effect of the new power plant, humans build hundreds more. Mankind might hear a metaphoric crackle in the ice, but continues building yet more toxic machines, such as automobiles. It might not be until our entire civilization has fallen through the thin layer of ice that we realize that we probably shouldn’t have been so reckless, and that all of those pesky environmentalists were actually right all along. “You were right, old hoss; you were right”(London). Even with all of the abuse the Earth has taken because of us, it will take no notice of our departure.
Jack London’s century old story warned the world about the dangers of trusting knowledge over wisdom Since then, few improvements have been made in how humanity treats the planet, in fact, the situation as become even more dire. Nature has warned us countless times to discontinue our destructive ways, all to no avail. The global community attempted to set the gears in motion to attempt to alter our amount of destruction with the Kyoto Protocol, but it has the same effect as the man building his fire under the snow covered tree. An attempt at survival was made, but it was not sufficient. Humanity now has far more wisdom than the lone man in the Yukon, but only time will tell if we posses more wisdom than he had.
Works Cited
London, Jack. To Build a Fire. 1908. Wikisource. 6 Sept. 2006. 2 Feb. 2009 .
Revkin, Andrew. “Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts.” New York Times 2 Oct. 2009. Feb 2009
Merriman, C. D. “Jack London – Biography and Works.” The Literature Network: Online classic literature, poems, and quotes. Essays & Summaries. Jalic Inc. 10 Feb. 2009 .