Surviving A Wintry Landscape: “To Build a Fire” vs. “Blizzard Under Blue Sky” (ENG 2012)

Surviving A Wintry Landscape: “To Build a Fire” vs. “Blizzard Under Blue Sky”              What does it take to survive a wintry landscape? It all depends on who you ask. If one were to base it on Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” (1908) and Pam Houston’s “Blizzard Under Blue Sky” (2011), the answer is simple: one’s state of mind. Written over 100 years apart, London’s and Houston’s work details the story of two characters who decide to venture all alone in winter, in defiance to the advice of other, more experienced winter campers. While the two stories share the same story elements, there are a number of differences. One obvious contrast between them is the main character’s view of their self and their respect for the might of nature, which then affects their experience of the dangerous extremes of cold environments. Their differences in fate were sealed early on their journey, in the way they treated their furry companions, a representative of nature, and their only hope and support for the seemingly impossible feat.             Written in 1908, “To Build a Fire” is about a man attempting to cross the Yukon trail in order to join his companions camped several miles away. He begins his journey in the morning, his heart full of confidence. He knows that the climb would be steep and dangerous, and he notices the gloom in the air before heading out. “But all this – the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the absence of the sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all – made no impression on the man” (London, 1908). Read today, one would think immediately, “why didn’t he pay attention to the signs?” But taken in context, the man’s actions were not at all baffling. For one, the men of this age did not pay attention to “signs”; they were the modern man, they created their own destiny, and not even nature can deter them from doing what they think they can do. The character’s attitude is reflective of the consciousness of the time. The year 1908 is a golden age for the United States. It was a time of hope, the peak of the mindset, “anything is possible”. The United States, on the verge of becoming a world superpower, had its industrial systems on full steam. Forests were cut down to build more impressive homes. On the streams were the waste of newly built factories and mines. Nature was nothing more than a resource, a source of income that must be exploited and taken advantage of. The misuse of environmental resources at the time was alarming. In fact, as early as then, President Theodore Roosevelt was already starting to worry about the environment (Hampson, 2011). But there was no time for imaginings of a gruesome future; after all, this was the year that man finally conquered nature: with the creation of the assembly line, man could now reproduce products at an astounding rate; the release of Model T has enabled families to purchase their own cars and control their mobility. Perhaps the two most impressive achievements of 1908 are Wilbur Wright’s two-hour, mind-bending demonstration flight, and the fact that two Americans, independent of each other, reached the North Pole. Looking at London’s character in the eyes of history, one can say that he was an epitome of William Ernest Henley’s “Invictus” (2015), he mastered his fate, and he captained his soul. This is an admirab...