The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

Reading Classic Literature
From a Christian Perspective
Part I

If you have never read Jack London’s classic 1908 short story To Build a Fire, you should put it on your winter eading list. This harrowing description of a man’s struggle for survival in the sub-zero temperatures of the Yukon Territory will make the upcoming season’s coldest day seem balmy by comparison.

The story’s protagonist (referred to only as the Man) has been warned about the dangers of extreme cold, and yet as the story opens he foolishly begins a daylong hike on foot toward a distant mining camp, accompanied only by his dog. As the temperature falls, the Man slowly realizes that he is engaged in a life-or-death struggle against the cold. It will take careful planning and foresight to survive.

Unfortunately, the Man is plagued with bad luck from the start. He accidentally steps in an icy stream. He builds a fire to dry himself but stupidly locates it beneath a snow-laden tree. The fire’s heat dislodges the snow from an overhanging branch, which falls on the fire and puts it out. By the time he arranges wood for another fire, his hands are too cold to manipulate the matches.

A dull sense of dread overtakes him as
he realizes that he has miscalculated the
cold and his own powers to withstand
it. He tries to kill his dog so that he can
use its body for warmth, but the animal
senses his fear and will not allow him to
approach. In the end, the man quietly
freezes to death while the dog slinks off
to find another, wiser master.

Is there a way to
redeem this story, or
at least understand
it better, by reading
it from a Christian
perspective?
A Common Approach

One day recently I taught this story to a class of Christian parents. At the discussion’s end, one parent approached me with a familiar reaction.

“This book does not seem to have any
Christian lessons in it,” she said. “It’s dis-
turbing and full of hopelessness and de-
spair. Is there a way to redeem this story,
or at least understand it better, by read-
ing it from a Christian perspective?”
She was absolutely correct in her initial
observation, of course. There aren’t any
obvious Christian lessons in To Build a
Fire, because the story was written by an
atheist as a faithful expression of his own
naturalistic worldview. It is disturbing
and full of hopelessness and despair be-
cause the author wanted it that way.