
Imagine trying to survive when the temperature was fifty degrees below zero with no fire or shelter. Millions of years ago, knowing how to survive was vital and could easily be accomplished. Primitive instincts have allowed individuals to overcome any treacherous scenario thrown at them such as the short story To Build a Fire. The main character, also known as the man, was hiking the Yukon Trail when the temperature was fifty degrees below zero in order to get to a nearby camp. He was walking next to a frozen river, and he fell in the river when he miss-stepped. He was in a fight for survival as his body began to shut down due to hypothermia. The main character’s next decisions were crucial, and he could not make any mistakes if he wanted any chance of living. Undoubtedly, the man made careless errors due to lack of primitive instincts but managed to live longer than he should have. There are certain psychological characteristics that allow for an individual to accomplish feats that others cannot fathom of accomplishing. These characteristics, such as mental toughness and perseverance, are essential for optimal performance. In his case, he needed these characteristics to build a fire and not get hypothermia. He was able to start a fire but was put out by falling snow from a tree above him. Once that happened, he simply let one too many negative thoughts into his mind. The man showed very few signs of these characteristics as he barely attempted to fight for his life. He eventually gave up all hope of survival as he just laid down on the ground to die. Overall, there were many careless errors in the story To Build a Fire that could have been prevented, but the lack of knowledge of primitive skills in today’s society caused the man face to face adversity which contributed to the man’s weakmindedness while he was trying to survive causing any chance of living to diminish.

Imagine trying to survive when the temperature was fifty degrees below zero with no fire or shelter. Millions of years ago, knowing how to survive was vital and could easily be accomplished. Primitive instincts would have allowed individuals to overcome any treacherous scenario thrown at them. In today’s society, the need to survive has become irrelevant. In the short, To Build a Fire, the audience can see the main character’s struggle for survival when he travels the Yukon trail. It was fifty degrees below zero, and without a doubt the main character, also known as the man, ran into troubles. He fell in shin deep water, and things started to go downhill from there. He started to lose feeling in his limbs as the beginning stages of hypothermia were oncoming. Meanwhile, he frantically started to make a fire, but the fire was immediately put out when snow fell off of the tree above it. Left without any other resources to start a fire, death was imminent. The main character eventually died due to many mistakes that could have easily been prevented, because the need to survive in today’s society has gradually made humans lose knowledge on how to survive.

One journal explained how evolution has caused the decline in knowledge and ability to recognize primitive instincts in certain situation. All humans are made of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA). Even the first human being was made of DNA which essentially makes the genotype, or genetic makeup, of an individual. This attributes to how a certain character looks, also known as the phenotype. This explained why overtime humans have evolved to more complex individuals. The most studied aspect of evolution is the human brain and how its size continues to increase. The brain “has 100 billion neurons and 10- to 50-fold more glial cells; it is the largest-than-expected for its body among primates and mammals in general, and therefore the most cognitively able; it consumes an outstanding 20% of the total body energy budget despite representing only 2%of body mass because of an increased metabolic need of its neurons” (Enard). Scientists are led to believe that millions of years ago the number of neurons in the brain were much less. Humans now have cognitive skills and are able to communicate with one another. The complexity of these two, and many more skills, led to a demand in increase of neurons in the brain. Neurons are need in the brain to recall and transmit information. The theory behind this journal is that if these pathways in the brain are not used, the brain in a way forgets about that pathway. Consequently, as humans evolved other pathways for neurons were created to accomplish more complex tasks. The primitive instincts and knowledge that early humans had disappeared causing some humans to not survive in life threatening situations.

One survival situation might be being stranded out in cold weather without any shelter or food. Typically, the first instinct for a person would be to panic, but the first priority is not to panic. Dave Hall, the author of Winter in the Wilderness, said keeping composure is key to survival. This allows someone to understand “priorities, stay focused, and act in accordance with the situation” (Hall 8). Most importantly, staying calm allows a human’s primitive instincts and knowledge to influence the decisions being made. Since humans in today’s society have lost the need for primitive skills, they do not know what to do in a survival situation. Hall explained that the most obvious and important step when stranded in cold weather is to start a fire. Fire keeps the onset of hypothermia away by keeping the body core temperature normal. What most people do not take into consideration when starting a fire in cold weather is snow and location. Snow can easily put out a fire, and what most humans do not do is clear snow around the fire pit they made. Snow could easily put out the fire surrounding the fire pit. The other consideration is location. People would often start a fire underneath a tree with snow on it. When the smoke rises to the tree, it melts the snow. This causes the snow to fall from the tree putting the fire out. 

After reading the two articles mentioned above, the reader gets a new, appreciated understanding of To Build a Fire. Before reading the articles above, someone would have no idea how the main character was going to survive. Now they can see how humans in today’s society have lost the ability to survive in dangerous situations. The man got stranded on the Yukon trail when the temperature was below zero degrees. He faced an unimaginable battle with hypothermia when he fell in shin deep water, and someone would completely agree with what he did in order to survive. He frantically built a fire. From what one of the articles said, the first rule in a survival situation is to stay calm. Since the man was not thinking properly, he did not take the fire’s location into consideration. He placed it under a tree. Enard’s articles said not to build a fire underneath a tree with snow, because the snow will melt onto the fire. Sadly, this is what happened to the man. Without any fire to stay warm, hypothermia eventually killed him. Humans millions of years ago would have persevered in the same situation. As mentioned in Hall’s article, humans in today’s society do not need to survive. They have food and shelter readily available. Therefore, the pathways in humans’ brains for the knowledge of survival are not being used. Over time the knowledge to survive in each generation gradually declines. The man was in the generation where survival was an Achille’s heel, people simply do not know how to survive. When someone does not know how to survive, they face adversity. Truthfully, when someone faces adversity, such as the man in the story, they do not have the appropriate state of mind in order to live.

How does a person react when they are faced with a daunting task? Does this person let the task defeat them, or does this person accomplish it? Psychological characteristics are what determines how a person performs. Certain psychological characteristics are essential for optimal performance, such as mental toughness or perseverance. These characteristics were needed in the short story, To Build a Fire, when the main character was faced with an unimaginable task. His task was to walk to a nearby camp off of Yukon trail, but this one task soon became a more drastic one. He faced temperatures fifty degrees below zero or lower when he fell in a frozen river. With the onset of hypothermia, the main character’s primary focus was to survive. With all the odds of survival against the him, negative thoughts started creeping through the main character’s mind about dying. In fact, the main character started to feel too overwhelmed and defeated that he eventually gave up on trying to live. The main character gave up, because he was missing certain characteristics that greatly hindered his thought process when trying to survive. Therefore, the lack of mental toughness and perseverance led to him losing all hope and eventually death.

One journal explained how some individuals perform at peak performance. The author, Jay Hardy, said that the components that make up mental toughness is resiliency, focus, and determination. These three components form two different types of mental toughness, domain and trait-based. Domain mental toughness is primarily described as a person’s pursuit, or their focus, for an achievement or task. Whereas trait-based solely focuses on resiliency and determination of a person. Some conceptualists believe that mental toughness as a developmental skill, or domain based skill. The majority of conceptualists though believe that everyone is born with mental toughness making it trait-based. Most importantly, Hardy explained that “mental toughness directly facilitates resiliency, determination, and adaptability…mental toughness should be particularly important when adjusting to new performance challenges.” Even though mental toughness has been determined to be one aspect of adaptability, ongoing experiments are still being conducted to determine exactly how it allows someone to adapt.

One ideal experiment of mental toughness was conducted in Australia with over three-hundred cricket athletes to determine the characteristics that make an individual mentally tough. Over the past decade, the importance of being mentally tough in sports has grown exponentially. This sudden interest in mental toughness has captured scientists’ attention. They have been determined to find the observable behavioral features of this psychological concept. The experiment found that “Persistence, effort, or perseverance often reported as a behavioral signature of mentally tough individuals, akin to the psychological concept of grit” (Peeling). The first process was to record the height, weight, and age of all the athletes. Then unlike other experiments in the past for mental toughness, a questionnaire was given to each athlete. This questionnaire allowed an individual to determine their mental toughness by asking them questions about self-efficiency, optimism, and emotional regulation. This allowed scientists to test the hypothesis that self- reported mental toughness would be “associated with behavioral perseverance” (Peeling). At the conclusion on each practice, these athletes were put through rigorous training for two to three hours for three days. After three days of rigorous and random training, results showed that there was a correlation between mental toughness and perseverance. Even though a wide variety of athletes were tested, the athlete’s height, weight, or age did not influence the results at all. In a way, mental toughness facilitates behavioral perseverance in performance situations that are goal oriented. Peeling was finally able to conclude that mental toughness “is a complex psychological concept that captures one’s personal capacity to deliver high performance on a regular basis despite varying degrees of situational demands.”

The main character showed a lack of mental toughness and perseverance when he faced adversity. Even though he was faced with unimaginable circumstances, his inability to deliver high performance on a regular basis led to his death. As mentioned earlier, the main character fell in a river while the temperature was below zero degrees. and he immediately felt the onset of hypothermia. He eventually made a fire, but the fire was put out when snow fell from a tree smothering it. In an attempt to start another fire “He picked up the match in his teeth and drew it across his leg. Twenty times he did this before he succeeded in lighting it. As it flamed he held it with his teeth to the tree bark…The match fell into the snow and the flame died” (London 75). Even though the main character tried to persevere and start another fire, he failed. His one and only demand to survive was to start a fire. If he did not start a fire, he would die. His inability to adapt to his surrounding environment caused the flame to go out. If he took into consideration that there was snow in the tress above him, then he would have not built a fire where snow could fall on it. The man did not take this into consideration, and now he was left with no other choice to start a fire. Watching the only hope of survival diminish also diminished the main character’s hope to live. He started to tell himself that the camp “was too many miles away, that the freezing had too great a start and that he would soon be dead” (London 77). Trying to survive in these conditions is unfathomable. It was almost impossible for the main character to adapt to these conditions. The experiment mentioned above concluded that mental toughness was how someone performs despite the circumstances. This experiment also said that mental toughness was shown through perseverance. The fact that he, in a way, gave up all hope mentally was a signal that he lacked mental toughness. He lacked resilience when he was fighting for his life. Since he surrendered mentally, he stopped trying and embraced the fact that he was going to die.

To Build a Fire showed how one man feebly attempted to overcome adversity when he had no knowledge of the situation he was in. Since the story ended when the character died, the reader is left wondering the importance of this story. After extensive research, the reader is left with a greater appreciation for the short story than imagined. When the man was unexpectedly thrown into a survival situation, he had no idea basic principles in order to live. He did not even know the first rule of survival, staying calm. He built a fire in a panic that was put out from snow falling from a tree above the fire. Then the man frantically built another fire that was put out immediately. Many generations ago survival was a necessity, and someone could have survived in this situation. People had to hunt for food every day, and they had to build their shelter for protection. Since primitive skills were relevant, people knew how to overcome adversity when given the chance. As each generation passed, the knowledge of primitive skills decreased at a steady rate. Once society became more civilized, the knowledge to survive became irrelevant. There was no need to hunt for food or build shelters, because they were both readily available. Eventually society would not have any knowledge on basic primitive skills causing them to not know how to handle any survival situation emotionally. The man could have survived if he had the right state of mind. He needed to be mentally tough and persevere, because these characteristics are ideal in any survival situation. However, the man had prominent qualities of weak minded person as he told himself that the temperature was too cold, and the camp was too far away. To Build a Fire conforms into a story of survival for one person, and the protagonist of such a story always has a tragic flaw. The man’s tragic flaw was the lack of primitive skills which is easily regarded as his Achille’s heel. This story also sends a message to everyone that the majority of society could not handle a survival situation emotionally. Today’s society has become civilized to the point where people cannot not recall primitive instincts that their ancestors once possessed making this, not only the man’s Achilles heel, but society’s Achilles heel in general.
