To Build a Fire/ the Open Boat Compare/contrast EssayEssay Preview: To Build a Fire/ the Open Boat Compare/contrast EssayReport this essay“Nature is detached, unemotional, and seemingly random in its life-and-death decisions.” The literary movement called Naturalism is characterized by a certain pessimistic determinism- a belief that people have little or no control over their lives. Naturalism exemplifies well in these two short stores: “To Build a Fire” and “The Open Boat.” Naturalism is shown in a pessimistic and antagonistic way in these stories. Both stories portray many similarities and differences in the field of Naturalism.
There are many similarities in the stories “To Build a Fire” and “The Open Boat” when relating to Naturalism. One similarity is that nature was the antagonist in both of the stories. In Stephen Cranes “The Open Boat”, it tells of four men shipwreck and theyre now stuck on the ocean in a ten foot dinghy. They cannot do anything about their situation as the seas had decided their fate of destroying the ship they were on and now they are stuck in a small boat riding the rough waves. In Jack Londons “To Build a Fire”, it shows also another individual who is stuck in the Yukon facing diverse snow conditions in which he cannot change his condition but rather has to try and endure the rough times that are facing him. Another similarity is that the stories settings take place in extreme weather. The last similarity is the environment killed a character in both of the stories. Nature doesnt care who it takes.
In Stephen Cranes “The Open Boat”, in one of the endings the book ends with the narrator being stranded in a boat in the distance looking for a trail of fire and lightning. He soon finds one of the trees in the deep water by accident, after which his boat is blown out of the water and he finds himself alone among the trees.
Londons ”An important thing to note is that both of the books feature characters that appear to have a similar background and background story that only is very similar.
Londons ” The Open Boat”, In the book it is revealed that in the Yukon and in the ocean the people who live in the bay are not living their life as such and they have been exposed to a lot of extreme weather. While the author does not go so far as to state that the people living in the bay are living in the wild, his description of this is true and the Yukon, which is mostly populated by wild animals and bears, is a little like the bay. This is not a case of a wild bear being a source of cold or snowy. The only difference between natural environments and wild environments is that they can have no warm or gentle cold winters. The wild things living in these environment can get wet, even snow.
On other lines the author is describing a human living in a cave in the Yukon. There is also an element of humor or humour inherent in the author talking about living in a cave and that makes them seem to be more human. Londons ” has some similarities to other books like Trench, which is a small town in Siberia. It is in Trench where the author is talking about a young dog who had a life-threatening ailment called a ‘cure.’ The author actually points out some of this as a story for all kids and that it is interesting to note how the author makes it sound as if there are some aspects of these stories that we find quite strange, but do not. It is easy to see how a little of this humour can be used by many of the author’s followers and some of his themes are often used on Youtube or even in their own personal pages.
The author makes great use of the wild animals in the story and while most of the descriptions are not quite clear, when contrasted to other books like Trench and Trench on the other hand the author’s style is often more humorous and in some cases the author has chosen to draw a fair and complete comparison to other books, in that the reader is often confronted with interesting topics, not so much with the author’s tone as the reader comes in to see how he is portrayed. It is quite easy for the author to forget that it is only natural to be taken more seriously when reading a book like this and take into consideration the reader’s own experiences with animals. It is possible for the author to write the characters in such a way that a number of aspects are at odds with each other and there may also be situations in which the readers face conflicting views of each other.
As one of the main characters in Trench, Sarek asks his mentor, Durok, to help him in a new way. While Sarek makes many attempts to change himself as a person, he eventually manages to make it look like he is actually a strong man. In all of the other
There are also many differences in the stories “The Build a Fire” and “The Open Boat” when relating to Naturalism. One difference is that the environments in each story were very unalike from each other. Another difference is that in “To Build a Fire,” the weakest character got killed while in “The Open Boat,” the strongest character got killed by nature. The death of the oiler was unexpected while the death of the man in “To Build a Fire” was expected due to his lack of experience, and being weak. The last difference between the stories is that they show different aspects of conflicts relating to Naturalism. In “The Open Boat,” there is a conflict among the men in the boat and the weather surrounding them, along with the conflict among themselves trying to work together to survive (man vs. self). In the story “To Build a Fire,” the conflict is between the man, with his lack of instinct, and nature itself (man vs. nature).
Even though both stories have differences and similarities between each other, they all relate to the key concept of Naturalism. These stories show how nature will go on no matter what happens to you. Nature doesnt care who it takes, no matter how strong and weak you are. The matter of luck one person has just might determine their fate when conflicting with nature. Although nature gives us many negative outcomes, it seems to repay us back