The existential theme of London's “To Build A Fire” Jack London's short story, “To Build a Fire”, is the tragic story of a man who decides to travel alone through the harsh environment of the Yukon in sub-zero temperatures and falls victim to the relentless and unforgiving power of nature. During his journey, the man gets his feet wet as he falls through the ice into the water of a hot spring ( London 122). . Because of the severity of the cold, approximately “one hundred and seven degrees below [the] freezing point,” the man's life depends on his ability to promptly make a fire to prevent his feet from freezing (122-23). , a half-successful fire-starting attempt, and many other pitiful attempts, the desperation of man's solitary struggle against the Yukon's hostile environment begins to become apparent. After a long episode of panic in which the man desperately tries to reciprocate the feeling to the extreme by "running here and there like a chicken with its head cut off" (128), the man finally "calms down and decides to face the death with dignity. . .” (Work 66). The central theme of the story is the one represented by many existentialist writers: man lives a solitary existence subject to the implacable and ruthless forces of nature; an even more subtle part of this theme is that man's goal is to find meaning in his existence. The word existentialist, like the subject of existentialism itself, eludes definition. Davis McElroy highlights this problem by comparing the act of defining existentialism to the act of trying to “explain human existence in a single sentence. . .” (xi). For brevity, perhaps a short and simple definition would be better; according to the American Heritage Dictionar... middle of paper... the clever placement of irony within the story. Works Cited "Existentialism". The Dictionary of American Heritage. 3rd ed. New York: Dell, 1994.Hendricks, King. Jack London: master craftsman of the short story. Logan: Utah State UP, 1966. Rpt. In Jack London: Critical Essays. Ed. Ray Wilson Ownbey. Santa Barbara:Peregrine, 1978. 13-30.Labor, Earle. Jack London. New York: Twayne, 1974. London, Jack. "To light a fire." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.6th ed. Ed. XJ Kennedy and Dana Gioia. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. 118-29. McElroy, Davis Dunbar. Existentialism and modern literature. Westport: Greenwood, 1968. Perry, John. Jack London: an American myth. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1981. Walcutt, Charles Child. Jack London. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota P, 1966.