Jack Londod. "To Build a Fire". Reading Questions

1. In which geographic location does the story take place? What do you know about that location? Why is he going there?
2. Why do you think the protagonist is referred to as "the man", he is not given a name?
3. What is the weather like at day break when the story begins? What do you think this foreshadows for the rest of the story?
4. One of the themes of this story is about a man and a dog facing nature together and how they respond to it. In that sense, how are the man and dog similar and different?
5. What attitude towards nature does the man display?
6. List some of the images the narrator uses to set the scene and the cold.
7. The narrator tells us the temperture in Fahrenheit degrees. What is the equivalent in Celsius?
8. Why doesn't the man worry more about the cold? What is his reaction to the frostbite? Is that normal?
9. How does the narrator describe the coldness, so that you the reader can almost feel that coldness?
10. What do you think the narrator means when he says, "This man did not know cold"?
11. Who are the "old-timers"? Why do you think they are referred to as "old-timers"?
12. What did the "old-timer" tell the man the previous fall? Why do you think he did not follow his instructions?
13. When the man contemplates "using" his dog for survival, how does the narrator emphasize the qualities of naturalism?
14. What is the relationship between the man and the dog, and how does it change from the beginning to the end of the story?
15. What did the dog instinctively understand that the man did not?
16. How does the man and dog's relationship symbolize the man's relationship to his environment?
17. Why do you think at the end of the story the man dies but the dog survives? What did the dog instinctively understand that the man did not?
18. At the beginning of the story we are told that the man has no knowledge and no instinct? Did the man finally gain knowledge at the end of the story? Defend your answer.
19. In your opinion, is the man responsible for what happens to him, or is it simply an accident that could happen to anyone? Defend your answer.
20. Does the man have either knowledge or instinct?
21. Did the man finally gain knowledge at the end of the story?
22. What is the significance of the dog's final movement towards civilization at the end of the story? What does this suggest about the dog's relationship to nature? Is instinct driving this movement?