Adam Childs
3/1/08
English 11


Simple Similarities

	Naturalism is a literary movement that portrays people caught within the forces of nature beyond their understanding or control. Both Jack London's "To Build a Fire" and Lawrence Hall's "The Ledge" are example of naturalistic literature. Furthermore, the two stories have similar settings, characters, and conflicts.
	To begin with, the settings in both stories are vast, cold and dangerous. In "To Build a Fire," London notes that, "Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray" (341). Temperatures reach -75° and London represents this by having the main characters spit freeze in mid air. It makes a crackling noise as it strikes the cold dense air. Accordingly, in "The Ledge" the scene is also set cold, as Hall explains, "The frosty air struck his nude flesh" (96). It's a representation of the cold and devastating day ahead.
	Furthermore, the characters in both stories are arrogant, careless, and think they know everything; these characteristics of the two characters play a major role in the stories. London's character shows carelessness for the cold and dangerous Yukon Trail. The sentence, "He was not much given to thinking..." (343) illustrates how arrogant the man really is. He believes that he can do things on his own without having to think it through first. It's ironic how much smarter the dog was than the man. The dog made a wise decision to turn back up the trail to a safe haven. In "The Ledge" the fisherman is self centered and arrogant also. He thinks he knows everything just like the character from London's short story. He also never makes mistakes; however, he makes the mistake of not tying down their boat, which puts their lives in danger.
	More importantly, the two stories share similar conflicts. In "To Build a Fire" the man is in risk of losing his life if he doesn't leave the side trail the he is on. Death is upon him as London writes, "Later, the dog whined loudly. And still later it crept close to the man and caught the scent of death" (351). Hall exhibits death through nature also. However, he chooses the forces of water, and the tides along with it. The disregard of common sense was a main factor in "The Ledge." The fisherman forgets to rope down his boat, and it floats away off into the distance. They are left to wait the arising tide and eventually persih amidst the dark and freezing winter waters. The passage, "He was standing looking at the shelf where the skiff was. Only the foolish skiff was not there!" (103) goes to show how inconsiderate someone who is overconfident can be. The omniscient fisherman, "For the second time that day had begun to feel the deep vacuity of disbelief" (103).
	Arrogance, selfishness, and nature all together in once setting can prove to be fatal. In order to gain control over nature, one must first respect it. In both London's and Hall's stories, the overweening personalities of the men show to be lethal. However intelligent these men may have been, they had forgotten one key aspect of survival, respect for nature.