Imagine trying to survive when the temperature was fifty degrees below zero with no fire or shelter. Knowing how to survive in these conditions was vital and could easily be accomplished hundreds of years ago, due to primitive knowledge. Primitive knowledge has given individuals an advantage to overcome most survival scenarios. Jack London wrote about one survival scenario in his short story “To Build a Fire” when the main character, also known as the man, was hiking the Yukon Trail to meet friends at a nearby camp. He decided to hike this trail even though the temperature was fifty degrees below zero. The man was given advice that when the temperature was this low not to travel, or if he did decide to travel to make sure to have a partner. He went against this advice and decided to travel the trail alone. As he was walking the trail he noticed how unbearable the temperature was. The temperature was making his cheeks and hands freeze. In order to get to the nearby camp faster, he started walking next to a frozen river. The frozen river collapsed from the man’s weight, and he fell shin deep in the river. 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. Most importantly, the man’s life would not have been in jeopardy if he had any type of primitive knowledge. Sometimes knowledge is not always the key to survival though. There are certain psychological characteristics that allow for an individual to accomplish feats that others cannot fathom of accomplishing, which is often referred to as mental toughness. Mental toughness is essential for optimal performance. In his case, he needed these characteristics to not give up fighting for his life. In the end, he eventually gave up all hope of survival as he just laid down on the ground to die. Overall, the man’s death could have been prevented. His death was not prevented, because his weakness, or Achille’s heel, was primitive knowledge and mental toughness. London showed through the main character in his story that people who do not have primitive knowledge and are weak minded cannot withstand the adversity of survival.

There is going to be adversity in any survival situation. To overcome difficulties in a survival situation, primitive knowledge is a necessity. The main character needed this knowledge to survive in the harsh weather conditions of the Yukon trail. As mentioned earlier, the temperature was fifty degrees below zero. With these weather conditions, nobody should be traveling outside. One person, known as “the old-timer”, gave the man advice not to travel the Yukon trail in these conditions alone or not at all. The man went against the wise words of “the old-timer” and the man found himself in a survival situation when he fell in the river. He recalled “the advice of the old-timer on Sulphur Creek, and smiled. The old-timer had been very serious in laying down the law that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below” (London 72). When the man fell in shin deep water, 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. Once the fire was out, the man realized “the old man on Sulphur Creek was right. If he had a companion on the trail he would be in no danger now. The companion could have built the fire. Now, he must build the fire again, and this second time he must not fail” (London 73). The man also realized that death was imminent. If the man at least brought a companion with him, he could have had a better chance of survival. Ultimately, he went against the advice of a person who has lived in the Yukon for all of their life. The man’s realization was that “the old-timer” has primitive knowledge on how to survive in these harsh weather conditions. If the man listened to the knowledge of “the old-timer”, he would have had a better chance to survive. Unlike “the old-timer”, survival was not an everyday experience for the man. Many people who do not need to survive are losing the ability to learn primitive skills or retain this knowledge. 

Wolfgang Enard explained how evolution has caused the decline in knowledge and ability to recognize primitive instincts in certain situation. At one point in time, humans needed these skills in order to survive. Since primitive knowledge was need, these skills were in humans Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA). Even the first human being was made of DNA which essentially makes the genotype, or genetic makeup, of an individual. The genotype explains how individuals think. The first human beings on Earth needed to think on how to survive. This thinking process eventually evolved into primitive knowledge. Humans were also evolving as well into more complex individuals. Humans did not have to hunt for food or build shelter in order to survive. Overtime, humans started to use primitive knowledge less and less as food and shelter were readily available. Amazingly, the human brain continued to increase in size even though primitive knowledge was diminishing. 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). Through extensive research, scientists are led to believe that thousands 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 needed 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. However, “the old-timer” still had to use these neuron pathways for primitive skills every day while living in the Yukon. Food and shelter was not readily available for him. He had to hunt animals and build shelter for himself in order to survive. Unlike other humans who do not use these neuron pathways anymore, any survival situation might be troublesome.

It is normal for every person to feel troublesome in a survival situation. The first instinct is unnecessary in a survival situation. Typically, the first instinct for a person would be to panic because they do not know how they are going to survive. Dave Hall, the author of Winter in the Wilderness, believes 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 knowledge, if they have any, to influence the decisions being made. Since humans do not have any need for primitive knowledge anymore, 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 consider is starting 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. This is exactly what happened to the man. Once his fire was put out, he started to panic. The man had a “fear of death…He realized that it was no longer a mere problem of freezing his fingers and toes, or of losing his hands and feet. Now it was a problem of life and death with the circumstances against him. The fear made him lose control of himself and he turned and ran along the creek bed on the old trail” (London 77). He panicked because he had no idea how he was going to survive. If the man had any primitive knowledge, he would have no idea what to do next to survive. His state of mind was causing him to forget what to do next in order to survive. The man was in the generation where primitive knowledge was an Achille’s heel, he simply did 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 survival situation? Does this person let the task defeat them like the man in “To Build a Fire”? Psychological characteristics are what determines how a person performs. London showed that certain psychological characteristics are essential for optimal performance, such as mental toughness. Mental toughness was needed in the short story to keep the main character in the right state of mind, so he could survive. As stated earlier, the main character fell in a river while the temperature was below zero degrees. He immediately felt the onset of hypothermia, and successfully started a fire. After a glorious couple of minutes of warmth, the fire was put out when snow fell from a tree. 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. As the second fire started to distinguish, this signaled all of his hope to live to distinguish too. He knew he was left with no other choice to start a fire. 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). With all the odds of survival against 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 weak minded which greatly hindered his thought process when trying to survive. Therefore, the lack of mental toughness led to him losing all hope and eventually death.

Not every person has mental toughness as Jay Hardy stated in her journal about trait and domain mental toughness. Hardy determined that the components that make up mental toughness is resiliency, focus, and determination. Also, 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.” It can be concluded that the man did not have trait-based mental toughness because he had an “idea of running until he arrived at the camp and the boys presented one problem: he lacked the endurance. Several times he caught himself as he was falling. Finally, he dropped to the ground, unable to stop his fall” (London 77-78). He showed no sign of resiliency and determination whatsoever. He eventually just laid in the snow ready to die. His weak mind had not developed into a resilient and determined one needed to survive. Consequently he felt he had no other choice to fight for his life. 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 of each practice, these athletes were put through new and unusual 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.” In the man’s case, his only demand was to stay alive which he did not do. According to Peeling’s definition of mental toughness, another Achille’s heel for the man was mental toughness. He was not able to sustain a fire despite the surrounding environment which was one of the factors that led to his death.

London showed in the short story “To Build a Fire” that people cannot survive in situations if they do not have primitive knowledge or are not mentally tough. When the man was unexpectedly thrown into a survival situation, he had no idea basic principles in order to live. He panicked, which goes against what Hall said in his journal. This interfered with the knowledge that the man might have had about primitive knowledge. Most importantly, he would not have been in this situation if he listened to “the old-timer’s” advice. “The old-timer” had to use primitive knowledge every day in order to survive in the Yukon. Since the man did not use the neuron pathways for primitive knowledge, this situation that he was in would be troublesome. He needed to be mentally tough, because this characteristic is 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 knowledge which is easily regarded as his Achille’s heel. London is able to accomplish his message to everyone that the majority of people could not handle a survival situation emotionally. People have become too civilized to the point where they cannot not recall primitive knowledge which causes them to become weak minded in a survival situation, therefore, survival is the Achilles’ heel for people.
