Both Jack London’s short story, “To Build a Fire,” and the film, The Revenant, rely on themes of naturalism to portray nature as an antagonist to each story’s main characters. Naturalism is a literary style portraying extreme realism, and both protagonists’ fights for survival are portrayed in vivid detail.
The protagonist of “To Build a Fire” involves a young man who arrogantly ignores advice to travel in the snow with a companion, and ultimately makes the mistake of building a fire underneath a tree. When snow from the tree extinguishes the fire, he slowly comes to the realization that he will freeze to death before the morning. He considers killing his dog companion to stay warm, but is unable to do so. He is overcome by nature. When considered under the lens of social darwinism, it becomes clear that his lack of intelligence is what dooms him; the dog, however, is able to sense the danger, and is more naturally attuned to the inherent dangers of nature.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"A Comparison of “To Build a Fire” and The Revenant".
The Revenant similarly depicts a struggle against nature as seen in Glass, who is separated from his hunting group and forced to fend for himself. Glass is more resourceful than the protagonist in “To Build a Fire” because he is able to ultimately survive. However, he must overcome betrayals from members of his own party when he is injured, out of fears he will slow them down. Glass must therefore contend with both nature and his fellow men.
In the wilderness, only violence has absolute power, and those who are strong survive. Glass uses his intelligence to perform self-surgery after becoming weakened, and this allows him to be strong enough to eventually escape. The two stories therefore contrast in how protagonist uses his mind: the man in “To Build a Fire” is ignorant, which leads to his death, while Glass is intelligent, so he is able to survive.
