Jack London's tragic and often-anthologized short story "To Build a Fire" takes place in Canada's
Yukon Territory during the winter. This dramatic setting, where the temperature is seventy-five
degrees below zero, is so frigid that the main character's spit freezes in midair, and a six-foot layer
of snow and solid ice covers the ground. In this weather, the man, accompanied only by a dog, a
native husky, foolishly attempts a long journey through the unforgiving landscape. Remarkably, the
man's perpetual comment regarding the impossibly bleak, frozen wilderness is simply that it is
"cold.
Why does the author focus on London's character's use of the word cold?
1. to point out the difference between London's description of the setting and the character's
ability to comprehend his circumstance
2. to express that mere words cannot convey the bleakness of the setting in the Yukon Territory
3. to show that London admired the man for his brave endurance of the Yukon weather
