Re-read: "To Build a Fire" twice
Read: Blog Notes
Find questions for sub-elements of plot.
"To Build a Fire" Day Two Notes:
Symbolism:
Man = Humanity
Dog = Instinct, Nature
Cold = Nature, Death,
Indifference
Fire = Knowledge
Central theme question: What
is man’s place in the universe?
The conflict in the story is
man vs. nature. Man is the protagonist and nature is the antagonist.
The man is trying to overcome
nature throughout the story. How will he overcome nature? With fire.
Diction is an important
literary device to consider while analyzing this story. Pay attention to words
like possibly and mysterious. These words demonstrate that man doesn’t understand
the workings of nature.
What must man overcome in
himself in order to survive? His hubris.
Why does the point of view
need to be the way it is? Because we need to be able to see the man’s hubris.
Why does the man have hubris? He lacks imagine and cannot imagine himself
dying. He is so overconfident in his ability to conquer his matter (mind over
matter). He attempts to use knowledge to survive in the wilderness. He forgets that he is an
object.
Why does he build the fire
under the tree? Because it was easier. Because he didn’t have the imagination
to see that the fire would melt the snow in the tree.
Fire is a cultural symbol of
knowledge, which comes from the myth of Prometheus.
Man is self-surpassing. We
reach for things that are beyond our grasp. The gods are anthropomorphic
projections of our being, which help us to understand our own psychology.
What is humanity’s place in
the universe? Are we just supposed to submit? We must know ourselves in order
to overcome ourselves.
What kind of hero is the man
in the story? Homeric, tragic, Naturalist, and Existential.
Arete – He goes off the trail
to see about getting logs in the spring.
Hubris – This is all
throughout the story – his internal conflict question.
Ate – He goes too far out by
himself (goes off the trail).
Anagnorisis – “You were
right, old hoss.”
Nemesis – He dies.
The bounds that the man must
not exceed are imposed by nature, not the gods.
External conflict – Can the
man survive?
Internal conflict – Can the
man avoid having hubris?
Setting – How does the
setting contribute to the theme?
What changes? The man dies.
What causes the change? The
cold causes his death. This happens because the man has hubris.
Why does it change that way?
The theme.
The point of view has to be
this point of view, because we have to be able to go into the mind of the man.
This helps us understand why he makes the wrong decision. It’s because he has
hubris. In what area does he have hubris? His mind over matter. He even forgets that he is an object.
Existentially, he sees himself as a mind and forgets that he also has a body.
We cannot go into the dog’s mind, because the dog doesn’t have a mind, only a
brain. Something in the denouement happens that is significant. Why does the dog
howl?
Diction is an important literary device to
consider while analyzing this story. Pay attention to words like possibly and mysterious. These words demonstrate that man doesn’t understand
the workings of nature. “The stars that leaped and
danced and shone brightly….” Why is the choice of words interesting here?
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