Summary (Detailed)

In Jack London's "To Build a Fire", an unnamed newcomer to the Yukon sets out alone with a husky on a day when it is seventy-five degrees below zero, ignoring an old-timer's warning. After he falls through hidden ice and wets his feet, a chain of small mistakes leaves him unable to build a fire, and he freezes to death while the dog trots on to the camp.

The story follows one man through one bitterly cold day on a little-used trail in the Yukon, heading for a mining claim where his friends, "the boys", are waiting. He is practical but lacks imagination, so he does not grasp what seventy-five below really means, and his only companion is a native husky whose instinct tells it that it is far too cold to travel. He reaches the forks of Henderson Creek on time, but soon afterwards breaks through the ice of a hidden spring. His first fire is put out by snow falling from a spruce tree, his second fails because his frozen hands cannot manage it, he cannot kill the dog for warmth, and running only exhausts him. He finally accepts death, falls into a calm sleep and freezes, while the dog leaves for the camp.

"To Build a Fire": A Detailed Summary

Introduction

"To Build a Fire" by the American writer Jack London (1876–1916) exists in two versions. In the earlier one, published in 1902, the man survives. The version studied here, published in 1908, is the famous one, in which he dies. The story is told by an all-knowing third-person narrator who describes the thoughts of both the man and his dog, and it is a classic of naturalism: a human being pitted against a natural world that does not care whether he lives or dies.

The Setting and the Man

• At nine o'clock on a grey winter morning, the man turns off the main Yukon trail and climbs onto a faint, little-travelled trail through spruce forest. There is no sun at all; it has not shown itself for days.
• He is a newcomer to the land, a chechaquo, and this is his first winter. He is quick and alert in practical matters, but he is without imagination: to him, fifty degrees below zero simply means it is very cold, not that human life is fragile.
• When he spits, the spittle crackles in the air before it reaches the snow, so he knows it is colder than fifty below. In fact it is seventy-five below zero, which the narrator notes is a hundred and seven degrees of frost.
• He is heading for an old claim on the left fork of Henderson Creek, where "the boys" are already camped, and expects to arrive by six o'clock to a fire and a hot supper. His lunch of biscuits soaked in bacon grease is wrapped in a handkerchief inside his shirt, against his bare skin, so that it will not freeze.
• An old-timer from Sulphur Creek had warned him that no man should travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below. The man had laughed at the advice.

The Dog

• A big grey native husky, close to a wolf, trots at his heels. Its instinct tells it that the cold is too dangerous for travel and that it should be curled up somewhere warm.
• There is no affection between them: the dog has known only the whip-lash and harsh words, so it does not try to warn the man. It follows him because it expects him to build fires.

The Journey to the Forks

• His breath freezes on his red beard, and because he is chewing tobacco, a beard of frozen tobacco juice, the colour of amber, grows on his chin. His cheeks and nose keep going numb.
• At ten o'clock he reaches Henderson Creek, ten miles from the forks. Walking at four miles an hour, he expects to reach the forks at half past twelve.
• He watches for hidden springs: pools of water under the snow that never freeze even in the coldest weather, covered only by a thin skin of ice. Once he makes the reluctant dog go ahead; it breaks through, and at once bites the ice from between its toes by instinct. When the man takes off a mitten for less than a minute to help, his fingers go numb with startling speed.

Lunch at the Forks

• He reaches the forks at exactly half past twelve. He tries to eat but cannot, because his mouth is sealed by ice: he has forgotten to build a fire first. He laughs at himself, builds a fire, thaws out, eats his biscuits and smokes a pipe.
• The dog wants to stay by the fire, but the man sets off up the left fork.

The Hidden Spring and the First Fire

• About half an hour later, where the snow looks perfectly solid, he breaks through and wets himself halfway to the knees. Wet feet at this temperature will freeze quickly, so he must build a fire and dry his footgear, which will delay him an hour.
• He builds a good fire beneath a spruce tree, using twigs and dry grasses from the high-water debris, and he feels proud that he has saved himself. He thinks the old-timers are rather womanish.
• But every time he pulls a twig from the brush, he shakes the tree. The boughs are heavy with snow, and at last a whole load slides down and blots out the fire. He realises it was his own mistake: he should have built the fire in the open.

The Second Fire

• Shocked at first and then calm, he builds a new foundation in the open, but his fingers no longer work. He drops his bunch of matches in the snow and cannot pick them up.
• He gets one match between his teeth and strikes it on his leg twenty times before it lights, but the burning sulphur makes him cough and the match falls into the snow.
• Desperate, he clamps the whole bunch, seventy sulphur matches, between the heels of his hands and strikes them all at once. Holding the blaze to the birch bark, he burns his own hands: he can smell his flesh burning, and the pain deep below the surface grows sharp, but he endures it until the bark catches.
• Shivering violently, he clumsily adds fuel. A large piece of green moss falls squarely on the little flame; when he tries to poke it away, his shivering makes him poke too far, the burning twigs scatter, and the fire dies.

The Dog and the Last Hope

• He remembers a story of a man caught in a blizzard who killed a steer and crawled inside its body to survive. He decides to kill the dog and warm his hands in its body.
• His voice now has a strange note of fear, and the suspicious dog keeps away. When he finally calls it in his old commanding tone, it comes, and he gets his arms around it; but his hands can neither draw his knife nor strangle it, and he has to let it go.
• In panic he runs up the trail towards the camp, imagining himself skimming over the snow like the winged god Mercury, but he keeps stumbling and falling.

The End

• He decides to meet death with dignity rather than running around, as he puts it, like a chicken with its head cut off. A feeling of calm and drowsiness comes over him.
• He imagines the boys finding his body the next day, and even pictures himself standing with them looking at it. His last words are spoken to the old-timer of Sulphur Creek, admitting that the old man had been right.
• He falls into the most comfortable sleep he has ever known and freezes to death.
• The dog waits as the short day ends. When it catches the scent of death, it bristles, howls under the stars and then trots off along the trail to the camp, where there are other food-providers and fire-providers.

Conclusion

The story is built from a simple chain of small events, each worse than the last: a hidden spring, snow on a branch, numb fingers, a scattered fire. It shows how one man's confidence in his own judgment, and his lack of imagination, are no match for an indifferent nature, while the dog, guided only by instinct, survives.