Man vs. Wild

Gustavo Quintero
English 48B
March 17, 2008
Journal #44 Jack London




Quote:
"Possibly all the generations of his ancestry had been ignorant of cold, of real cold, of cold one hundred and seven degrees below freezing-point. But the dog knew; all its ancestry knew, and it had inherited the knowledge"(London 1061).




Summary:
The man is ignorant as to how cold it truly is while the dog has the natural instinct that tells it that this weather is to harsh to be traveling in.



Response:
I love reading this story because it shows just how fragile and dumb humans really are. The man decides to travel on the trail in horribly old weather, against the warning of the old man from Sulphur creek. The man decides to forgo on this journey even though this is his first winter in Yukon country. The man's stubbornness and ego prove to be that very traits that cause his death later in the story. His ego tells him that the old man is a woman and that he does not know what he id talking about. His stubbornness also tells him to continue on through the cold even though it is well over 50 below. This just does not make any sense at all. To make this all worse the man is travelling alone, aside from a dog. This story acts as the epitome of a naturalist work. It pits man against nature and it explores the consequences that the man must face because he thought he was stronger than mother nature. The frailty of humans is really put in display here because it shows just how at the mercy of the environment the man is. The man thought he was smarter and stronger than the environment. Mother Nature on the other hand proves to be the victor in the constant struggle of man versus wild.

The reason I love this story is because of the grim reality that the man faces in the end. I enjoy it simply because it does not have your "Hollywood ending", where miraculously the man is saved by some great twist of fate. Rather it shows us the reality and just how weak humans are to the awesome power of the environment.