《生火论文》

摘 要 摘 要 本研究通过对《生火》中人死亡的原因进行剖析，旨在了解杰克•伦敦作品中所蕴涵的深刻思想：他的自然观和“适者生存”的进化理论。同时，本文还对作品中人与自然，人与狗之间的矛盾进行分析，从而探索其作品中深刻的社会意义，即：人类无论多么的强大，在自然面前都是渺小的，微不足道的；人在自然中生存发展，就要遵守自然的准则，对自然提出的种种挑战给予积极的应对，而更重要的是克服人自身的缺点，与自我进行抗争，只有战胜自我才能获得生存和发展。此外，在总结分析结果的基础上，本文指出了人与自然和睦相处的必要性和必然性。 关键词：生存；意义；矛盾； 弱点 Abstract This research aims to penetrate into the profound implications in Jack London’s works through analyzing the causes of the man’s death in To Build a Fire: his naturalistic ideas and the theory of the survival of the fittest. Meanwhile, it also gets down to seeking for the sociological value from the perspective of the relationship and contradiction between the man and the nature, the man and the dog. Thus, a deep practical value can be emerged: although we human beings are very powerful, compared with the nature, we are fragile and obscure; if we want to have a stand in this brutal society, we should learn how to show our reverence toward the nature and its rules, what’s more, it requires us to play an active role in dealing with every challenge posed by the nature, more importantly, to overcome our born weakness, and to fight against ourselves, for we are the toughest enemy of ourselves. Only can we defeat ourselves, we can win a little space for our survival and development. In addition, based on the analysis of this research, the author also puts forward the necessity and inevitability of keeping a harmonious relationship between the man and the nature. Keywords: survival; value; contradiction; weakness Contents TOC \o "1-3" 摘 要 I Abstract II Contents III 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Jack London’s Life Career 1 1.2 The Plot of To Build a Fire 2 2 Causes of the Man’s Death 4 2. 1 Exterior Factors: Coming from the Environment 4 2.2 Internal Factors: Human Being’s Weakness 5 2.2.1 Liking Day-dreaming and Not Taking Concrete Actions 6 2.2.2 Being Irrational 7 2.2.3 Being Careless 8 2.2.4 Having a Sense of Superiority 8 2.3 Man’s Attitude toward the Nature 9 2.3.1 Having Not Noticed the Nasty Weather 10 2.3.2 Contempting the Nature 10 2.4 Not Listening to the Old Man’s Advice 11 3 Conclusion 12 Acknowledgements 13 Bibliography 14 1 Introduction Being famous for his novels, Jack London is both a great realistic and naturalistic writer in America. His novels are the embodiment of the contradiction between the man and the nature. Many specialists take great interest in the peculiar settings, the comparison between human beings and the animals centering on naturalism, and his life career. As a student majoring in English Literature, I was engrossed in Jack London’s personality and his works, and strongly motivated to explore the causes of the man’s death in To Build a Fire. This thesis aims to have a deep understanding of the application of Naturalism, the theory of the survival of the fittest and the themes of the strong and praise of the spirit of perseverance by analyzing the causes of the death in To Build a Fire from the perspective of the environment, the man himself --- human being’s weakness. From above mentioned angles, a profound truth can be found: however strong we human beings are, we are obscure and small in front of the nature; only by respecting the nature and its rules, facing the challenges posed by the nature courageously, can we survive in this world .Therefore, we should come to know and recognize the nature actively in order to live in harmony with our nature. 1.1 Jack London’s Life Career Jack London was born on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco. He was deserted by his father, William Henry Chaney, and raised in Oakland by his mother Flora Wellman, a music teacher and spiritualist, and stepfather John London, whose surname he took. London's youth was marked by poverty. At the age of ten he became an avid reader, and borrowed books from the Oakland Public Library. 　After leaving school at the age of 14, London worked as a seaman, rode in freight trains as a hobo and adopted socialistic views as a member of protest armies of the unemployed. In 1894 he was arrested in Niagara Falls and jailed for vagrancy. Without having much formal education, London educated himself in public libraries, and at the age of 19 gained admittance to the University of California at Berkeley. He had already started to write. For the remainder of 1898 London again tried to earn his living by writing. His early stories appeared in the Overland Monthly and the Atlantic Monthly. In 1900 he married Elisabeth Maddern, but left her and their two daughters three years afterwards, eventually to marry Charmian Kittredge. In 1901, London ran unsuccessfully on the Socialist party ticket for mayor of Oakland. He started to produce novels, nonfiction and short stories steadily, becoming one of the most popular authors in his lifetime. London's first novel, The Son of the Wolf, appeared in 1900. His Alaska stories, The Call of the Wild (1903), in which a giant pet dog Buck finds his survival instincts in Yukon, White Fang (1906) and Burning Daylight (1910) gained a large reading public. Among his other works are The Sea-Wolf (1904) and The Road, a collection of short stories. In 1902, London went to England, where he studied the living conditions in East End and working class areas of the capital city. His report about the economic degradation of the poor, The People of the Abyss (1903), was a surprising success in the U.S. but criticized in England. In 1906, he published his first collection of non-fiction pieces, The War of the Classes, which included his lectures on socialism. London also published a semi-autobiographical novel Martin Eden (1909) and a travel book The Cruise of the Snark (1911). London had purchased in 1910 a large tract of land near Glen Ellen in Sonoma County, and devoted his energy and money to improving and enlarging his Beauty Ranch. In 1913 London's Beauty Ranch burned to the ground, and his doctor told him that his kidneys were failing. A few months before his death, London resigned from the Socialist Party. Debts, alcoholism, illness, and fear of losing his creativity darkened the author's last years. He died on November 22, 1916, officially of gastro-intestinal uremia. However, there have also been speculations that London committed suicide with morphine. Jack London, whose life symbolized the power of will, was the most successful writer in America in the early 20th Century. His vigorous stories of men and animals against the environment, and survival against hardships were drawn mainly from his own experience. As a prolific American novelist and short story writer, London’s works deal romantically with the overwhelming power of nature and the struggle for survival. 1.2 The Plot of To Build a Fire The novel mainly tells us about a newcomer came the roundabout way to take a look at the possibilities of getting out logs in the spring from the island in the Yukon under the temperature of seventy-five below zero and he intended to arrive at the camp and reunion with his family members at six o’clock. However, He didn’t notice the cold weather. What’s more, He was ignorant of the old man’s advices that no man must travel alone in the Klondike after fifty below and he even thought the old man was womanish. He didn’t expect the potential dangers were befalling on him. At first, he successfully avoided one after another traps by his own experience and carefulness. Nevertheless, during such cold weather, no matter how clever and confident one can be, barely can he survive in such severe weather. Even one mistake can be dangerous and result in a chain reaction. The man was not aware of those springs, for he was taking it for granted that there didn’t seemed to be so many springs on the left fork of the Henderson because he saw no signs of any, so he was not keeping his eyes on the ball. Thus, he was unfortunately wetted himself halfway to the knees before he floundered out to the firm crust. At this very moment, he had to dry out his foot-gear and the only way to settle it was to build a fire. He endured the gradual freezing of his numb hands and feet because he must have no failure at the first time in making a fire. Failure meant sentence of his death, so he handled it with earnest efforts and he managed to do so. Yet, a fatal disaster was brought about; the man was so indiscreet to build a fire under the spruce tree with heavy snow. The fire agitated the snow and it fell squarely on the fire and blew it out. So the man decided to build another fire. This time, he chose to make it in the open air and the slightest mistake would be definitely avoided because his feet and hands are completely frozen and if he can not relieve the freezing condition of them, he would be reduced to this frigid land and waiting for death coming by. As he can’t use his hands, he had great difficulty in clutching the matches, only to get hold of and snap it by his mouth, but every time the birch-bark was about to burn, it ended up in failure. He was so hopeless, and run wildly. Suddenly, he came up with a crazy idea, that is, to kill the dog and bury his hand in its warm body until the numbness of his feet and hand went out of them. But his hands were not at his beck and call. He could neither clutch, encircle its body with his arms and hold his sheath-knife, nor even throttle it. The scent of death is around the corner and he finally came up to a peace of mind and find out that to sleep off to death is the best way to die. The man finally admitted that the old man’s advice is right, but to prove it is so dear, at the cost of his life. 2 Causes of the Man’s Death In this novel, it seems plausible to argue that failure to build the fire led to the man’s death, but as we explore this novel deeper, we will find out that the causes of the man’s death derived from both exterior and interior factors without difficulty. The exterior factor mainly resulted from the environment, while the interior factor came from the man himself, including liking day-dreaming and not taking concrete measures, being irrational, careless, what’s more, having a sense of superiority beyond the nature. Taking all these factors into account, by no means, can he overcome his weakness, which was attributed to his death. Although we human beings can change the environment to our hearts’ will to certain extent, but we can not surpass the nature, let alone make it subject to us. The man in To Build a Fire represents we human beings in general. No one is perfect. We have boundless weakness and defects which is not under our control. Sometimes, certain defects are filial under particular circumstances in respect to our success even our survival. Since time immemorial, human beings have been challenging the nature and its surroundings, fighting against the natural calamities, even against the nature’s will in order to have a good command of the nature and let it serve all men’s purpose and be their slave. On the one hand, he can leave a mark of his creative work and alter the nature substantially only in form, on the other hand, those intended to oppose the nature are bound to eat his own bit fruit. As nature will revenge for their wrong doings and they will have to pay for it. If we human beings do not obey the jungle rules, we are digging our own grave and the human civilization would no longer exist. This is the law of life. 2. 1 Exterior Factors: Coming from the Environment The setting of this novel was in Yukon region, a territory located in northwest Canada adjacent to the Arctic Ocean, which was named after the Yukon River. It was in winter. Undoubtedly, it was extremely cold. You can imagine how cold it was in Yukon in winter. The coldness can be also inferred from the beginning of the novel. It said: “it was nine o’clock. There was no sun or hint of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. The Yukon lay a mile and hidden under three feet of ice…North and south, as far as his eye could see, it was unbroken white. ” In such a cold winter, the man was supposed to stay with his boys but not walking abroad. Not mentioning that he was brave and confident in himself, he was so foolish that he was putting himself in hot water. After all, in a month, no man had come up and down the silent creek. All in all, in such adverse environment, although one has strong determination and vitality, hardly can a single man stand up to the severe winter conditions there. No matter how resolute his will can be, he will absolutely hurt himself physically to a greater extent at least. At first, the man can use his mittened hands rubbing his numb nose and cheek bones. As time went on, when he unbuttoned his clothes and brought out his lunch, the exposed fingers soon went numb. Before he wetted his shoes, he made sure that his feet were numb, all of which were not counting too much to him. However, when his not caring about the environment caused him austere troubles, he stamped into the unexpected spring and wetted his feet. The conditions were becoming more and more serious and dangerous. He made his first attempt to build the fire, but his feet froze the faster and his exposed fingers numbed the faster. It seemed that the speed of freezing exacerbated. As he was taking a breath and pride of his success in making the fire as well as looking down upon the old man’s claim that no man can travel alone in this area under fifty degree below zero. To his surprise, at this very moment, the nature was beginning to take revenge on his arrogance. The snow on the tree was falling down precisely onto the fire and it went off. His hands and feet were badly frozen by now. His second attempt was doomed to failure. As his fingers were totally frozen, right now, it was not a matter of losing some fingers and toes, but perishing of life. In a short, if he took a insight into the harsh environment and took certain measures accordingly, such as devising a nose-trap of the sort bud wore in the cold snap, some kind of this, or walking with a partner, or never coming out in such a nasty weather, he would be likely to survive. Above all, underestimating the environment really played a big part in his death. 2.2 Internal Factors: Human Being’s Weakness It is hard to find out one single man without any weak points and faults. We human beings are without exception having one kind or another defects or shortcomings. It is thorny to generalize one or two common weakness among all of us. But most of us may share several defects or weak points. For example, a majority of people may wish at there will always be a pie in the sky, and they can just wait for the opportunities, wealth, a handsome job, a beautiful wife etc coming by, but they are unwilling to spare any efforts to get it by their own hands and labors, only sitting idle to form it in their brains. They have dreams in their minds, but they do not take actions to make the dream come true. What a pity! Or a large proportion of people may be irrational at one time or sometimes or even frequently. For example, they would make ill use of our limited resources and pollute our environment without taking our future generations into consideration. They ignore the consequence of their wrong doings such as destroying of the ozone layer, the vanishing of the rain forests, the spreading of the detrimental diseases etc. Those irrational acts can bring about countless disasters that can hardly be retrieved. Another defect which you and I may have in common is that being indiscreet. Only few of us can remember our mom or dad’s birthday, or be cautious enough to come across the road by watching the traffic lights and never against the traffic rules. In most times, we may look at the vehicles rather than the traffic lights at first. Another defect, many young people may share is that they regard themselves all-mighty. Even without them, the earth will stop swirling. There is nothing that they can not do, just because that they are rich and money can talk, or they are young and full of energy, so they can despise the poor and old. These people have a sense of superiority toward everything. In this novel, the hero was the representative of all these four characters. he was not taking concrete actions, as he delayed to build a fire until he wetted his shoes; he was careless, as he build the fire under a spruce tree loaded with heavy snow; he was irrational, as he thought of killing the dog and bury his hands in its body to relieve the numbness; he had a sense of superiority, as he did not have a sense of coldness, and walk alone in such a cold weather. 2.2.1 Liking Day-dreaming and Not Taking Concrete Actions In the land of wide and deep ice, adding to the temperature of seventy-five below, staying in the snow field sinking into too much thinking would not do any good to a traveler. What was more practical was to walk on steadily toward one’s destination. At the beginning, the hero put the cold weather aside and carried on his journey. As he perceived the coldness around him, he tried to transfer to the cheerful reunion with his boys instead. Then, he began his wild and irrational dreaming, and not took concrete actions. After his second attempt to build the fire had failed, the man himself actually had a strong will to survive. As he intended to kill the dog and availed him of its warm fur to save his numb hands, but did that really work? Of course, it was just a waste of the man’s time either in building the fire or in his journey. His method for survival was not feasible at all. The failure of this wild thought can only threw him into panic, but brought no good. When he adopted another method instead of making fire, he chose to run to the camp, but he lacked endurance. His mind was full of the frozen conditions of his whole body and lost his battle with the frost. He thought of the possibilities of coming together with his boys after his death, which also proved that he was in pursuit of living, but he could not fight against his mind which was indulged into the decent way of death. At last, the man yielded to his will and died in sleep. Above all, he was dreaming too much and lost battle with himself, and did not take actions to find a way for his survival. 2.2.2 Being Irrational Since the man was a new comer in this region, it is reasonable for him to be acquainted with the new surroundings and pay attention to other people’s sound advices and keep it in mind. However, it appeared that the man only believed in himself. Even when he was exposed to the sub-zero temperatures, he was insensible of the coldness. He wasn’t worry about the terrible environment and did not care about the exact temperature. All of these considerations should be top priorities when going outdoors, especially to an untrodden area for a long time. Ironically, the temperature did not matter to the man, he eventually went out, what’s more, without taking another man with him, ridiculously, he brought a dog with him. The dog was just an animal, which had no intimate feelings with his owner, thus communicated little with his owner. Even if the dog could communicate with his owner, indicating how cold it was, could it act like a normal man to help the man avoid the potential dangers and to build a fire. Of course, it can not. It counted on the man to make the fire to keep it warm. It was just like a parasite. What is more ridiculous is that when the man was at the end of the rope, he was coming up with a frantic idea. He was making an attempt to kill the dog and hide his numb hands under its skin to warm his hands. It certainly was silly because killing the dog would do him no good. If he slaughtered the dog, the carcass would be perished with coldness in the twinkling of the eye. How can he get any heat from the corpses? Having this wild idea was unbelievable to an adult, but putting it into practice was even startling. He was reduced to a maniac, but at this time, he found no way to do it owing to his numb hands. Even more ridiculous wa