Question

For each of the passages below, identify the title and author of the short story from which the passage comes, explain what the passage depicts or illustrates, provide the larger context in which the passage can be understood, and interpret the significance of the passage to the whole story.

"He should not have built the fire under the spruce tree. He should have built it in the open. But it had been easier to pull the twigs from the brush and drop them directly on the fire. Now the tree under which he had done this carried a weight of snow on its boughs. No wind had blown for weeks, and each bough was fully freighted. Each time he had pulled a twig he had communicated a slight agitation to the tree - an imperceptible agitation, so far as he was concerned, but an agitation sufficient to bring about the disaster. High up in the tree one bough capsized its load of snow. This fell on the boughs beneath, capsizing them. This process continued, spreading out and involving the whole tree. It grew like an avalanche, and it descended without warning upon the man and the fire, and the fire was blotted out!"

Answer 1

This passage belongs to the short story " To Build A Fire" by Jack London.

This passage depicts the futile attempt of a man to built a fire under a spruce tree that is weighed down with snow. His short-sightedness to evaluate the reality creates problem for him. As he collects wood for his fire by pulling the twigs from the tree,it disturbs the snow in the tree that was collected on it. The movement of the snow collected in the tree takes the form of mini avalanche when it started falling from the top branches to the lower ones and finally when it falls on the fire and causes to dampen down the fire.  

This passage shows how the rationality of man becomes futile when he ignores to calculate the actual conditions and possibilities of dangers regarding the forces of nature. The over confidence of man may lead him to danger that may even cost his life especially when it comes to miscalculation of natural forces. As in this passage, for his ease he built the fire under the tree , he opts his ease over assessing the situation that costs the fire to dampen down leaving him to face the severe cold and frost bite.