To build a fire (the story that the question is from)
reread lines 259- 276
what patterns can you see in the man's attitude and behavior?
but he was safe. toes and nose and cheeks would be only touched by the
frost, for the fire was beginning to burn with strength. he was feeding it
with twigs the size of his finger. in another minute he would be able to feed it
with branches the size of his wrist, and then he could remove his wet footgear,
and, while it dried, he could keep his naked feet warm by the fire, rubbing
them at first, of course, with snow. the fire was a success. he was safe. he remembered the advice of the old-timer on sulphur creek, and smiled. the
old-timer had been very serious in laying down the law that no man must
travel alone in the klondike after fifty below. well, here he was; he had had the
accident; he was alone; and he had saved himself. those old-timers were rather
womanish, some of them, he thought. all a man had to 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 cheeks and nose were freezing. and
he had not thought his fingers could go lifeless in so short a time. lifeless they
were, for he could scarcely make them move together to grip a twig, and they
seemed remote from his body and from him. when he touched a twig, he had
to look and see whether or not he had hold of it. the wires were pretty well
down between him and his finger ends.