Jack London

Running Head : Jack London

To Build a Fire and The Law of Life by Jack London : Compare /Contrast

To Build a Fire and The Law of Life by Jack London : Compare /Contrast

Both short stories To Build a Fire and The Law of Life by the famous American author Jack London were similar and yet different in several ways . London is known for his stories about the Alaskan and South Pacific wilderness . He wrote during the Naturalism Period and instead of telling a pretty story with a happy ending , London told about life

as it really was

There are three major similarities in the stories . They both take place in the Alaskan Yukon where temperature of fifty below zero is not uncommon . The Alaskan Yukon is very harsh in its terrain and weather It is not easy to survive even if a person knew the area well . In both stories , animals are the ones that teach lessons in life to the humans The main character in To Build a Fire has a dog with him and when it is obvious that there is no chance for survival in the wilderness , he knows when to return to camp . If the man had noticed the actions of the dogs and realized that animals are better at predicting the conditions of nature , he would have survived . The Law of Life uses a moose and wolves to teach the lesson of death and dying to the elderly man who has been left to die by his family because that is the way that their tribe dealt with the elderly . He thought of the lesson in death that he had learned in his youth when an older moose could not keep up with the rest and was circled and finally killed by a pack of wolves . The man sees the cold that will eventually kill him as the wolves that have encircled him

The differences in the stories are there as well . First of all , the elderly gentleman in To Build a Fire is the one who ends up being the wise one . He knew about the harshness of the Yukon winter and because of that his life is spared . In The Law of Life , the elderly , while wise , looses his life . The main character in To Build a Fire has no family with him in the Alaskan territory . He must rely on the generosity and his own wits . The elderly man in The Law of Life was surrounded by his family , but it was his descendents who left him to die just as he had his father before him . While both stories use an animal to teach the lessons of nature , the characters are different in how they respond . The main character in To Build a Fire does not learn from the dog when it is time to give up and go back to the camp . In The Law of Life , the elderly does learn the lesson taught by the moose about death which...