A story’s setting refers to the time and place of a literary text. The setting of a story has several possible functions:

• It often provides background for the story, a place where the characters live.
• It can evoke a specific mood.
• It may provide conflict; sometimes the characters are in conflict with hostile weather conditions to endure, a stormy sea to navigate, or a mountain to climb.
• Setting can be used to reveal a person’s character.

Jack London’s setting for “To Build a Fire” is the Yukon, a mountainous, wild territory in northwestern Canada where gold was discovered in the late nineteenth century and where London himself prospected for gold. London frequently references the weather and the time of day in order to alert the reader to the man’s increasingly dangerous situation. London also repeatedly reminds us of the passage of time and the omnipresent cold. The later it gets, the further the temperature falls. The cold is depressing and inescapable; there is no glimpse of the sun; the atmosphere is gloomy. This setting conveys the unlikelihood of a happy ending. It suggests that the man is doomed. Students should appreciate the importance of the setting to the overall impact of the story.

This story involves the most basic literary conflict: man versus his environment—in this case, the rigors of an Alaskan winter where the temperature drops to seventy-five degrees below zero. Thus, the basic conflict is between protagonist and antagonist—the environment. In this case, the environment wins.

Students should be able to provide details that characterize both the dog and the man:

The husky:

• The dog’s instincts are far more astute than those of the man.
• The husky is apprehensive and depressed about the sub-zero temperature.
• It is nervous about thin ice over pools of water.
• There is a lack of camaraderie between dog and man; the dog has no concern for the man’s welfare.
• If the dog had been a devoted companion, it may have run off for help from other prospectors, a development that may have resulted in the man’s survival.
• The dog instinctively shies away when the man attempts to kill it for warmth.
• At the end of the story, the dog abandons the dead man to find food and shelter.

The man

• In sharp contrast, the man, a newcomer to the Yukon who lacks imagination and insight, does not share the dog’s concerns.
• Although he is constantly aware of the cold, the freezing temperature does not concern him.
• He is not concerned about being without a sled or companions.
• He forgets to build a fire until his extremities are frozen.
• He neglects to watch the ice under his feet and falls into a spring of water hidden under the snow and is soaked to his knees.
• He builds a fire beneath a tree laden with snowy branches; a heavy fall of snow extinguishes his fire. This moment is the story’s climax.
• The end is now inevitable as the man vainly attempts to rebuild the fire.

What would students have done differently if placed in the man’s dilemma? Here are some typical responses:

• Take a companion along, especially because the man is a newcomer to the area.
• Before setting out, determine the extreme to which the temperature will fall.
• Dress more warmly, especially one’s extremities.
• Be more alert to the dropping temperature.
• Stay on the main trail.
• Build a fire in the open.

Most young people will agree that the newcomer to the Yukon was doomed the moment he set out without a companion on a circuitous path along a little-used trail in frigid temperatures. That about sums up this man’s lack of common sense.

The story lends itself to an essay that explores this question: Why was the man inevitably doomed to experience a frigid death? Students usually suggest ideas such as the following:

• the man’s personality—unimaginative and impulsive
• his obliviousness to the frigid temperature
• his ignorance about the terrain
• his taking a little-used trail
• his lack of a companion
• his inadequate clothing
• his relationship to the dog
• his inability to build a fire

Student essays could center on these general topics:

• man’s personality
• his relationship to the dog
• his ignorance about temperature and terrain

The most fascinating and perhaps the most important question for students to consider is this one: Why didn’t London name the man? London’s protagonist represents mankind pitted against implacable nature.