Excerpt from To Build A Fire (excerpt)
Jack London
He remembered the advice of the old man on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The man had been very serious when he said that no
man should travel alone in that country after 50 below zero. Well, here he was; he had had the accident; he was alone, and he
had saved himself. Those old men were rather womanish, he thought. All a man must do was to keep his head, and he was all
right. Any man who was a man could travel alone. But it was surprising, the rapidity with which his face and nose were
freezing. And he had not thought his fingers could lose their feeling in so short a time. Without feeling they were, because he
found it very difficult to make them move together to grasp a stick. They seemed far from his body and from him. When he
touched a stick, he had to look to see whether or not he was holding it. All of which mattered little. There was the fire,
promising life with every dancing flame. He started to untie his moccasins. They were coated with ice. The thick socks were
Like iron almost to the knees. The moccasin's strings were like ropes of steel For a moment he pulled them with his unfeeling
fingers. Then, realizing the foolishness of it, he grasped his knife. But before he could cut the strings, it happened. It was his
own fault, or instead, his mistake. He should not have built the fire under the pine tree. He should have built it in an open
space. But it had been easier to pull the sticks from the bushes and drop them directly on the fire.
Now the tree under which he had done this carried a weight of snow on its branches. No wind had been blowing for weeks
and each branch was heavy with snow. Each time he pulled a stick he shook the tree slightly. There had been just enough
movement to cause the awful thing to happen. High up in the tree one branch dropped its load of snow. This fell on the
branches beneath. This process continued, spreading through the whole tree. The snow fell without warning upon the man
and the fire, and the fire was dead. Where it had burned was a pile of fresh snow.
Which would be an appropriate question for further inquiry based on this passage from the story?
Which would be appropriate question for further inquiry based on this passage from the story?