A Fire Not Built "To Build a Fire", a short story written by Jack London, is considered a masterpiece of naturalistic fiction. “To Build a Fire” features a miner and his wolfdog companion who travel to the Yukon Territory to meet other miners. The miner is the protagonist and the wolfdog companion is the foil as the wolfdog plays off the protagonist's traits. The central theme of “To Build a Fire” concerns the struggle of man against nature. “To Build a Fire” tells the story of a man traveling in extreme cold through the Yukon Territory. Before setting out on a journey, the man is warned not to travel alone in the extreme cold, but he travels anyhow. The man faces many difficulties during his journey. Despite his efforts to stay warm and survive, the man freezes to death before reaching his destination. The wolfdog in the story studies the situation and knows that traveling is not a good idea. The wolfdog stays with the miner until he dies. Once the miner is dead, the wolfdog ends his journey by heading towards the miners' camp alone. The most discussed point of this short story is the reason for the protagonist's death. Although the miner in "To Build a Fire" eventually panics after being unable to light a fire, he struggles in the wilderness of the Yukon Territory and ultimately meets his death from ignorance caused by a lack of intuition and imagination. Contrary to the idea of ​​the miner dying due to lack of intuition and imagination, critics say he dies due to panic (Short Story Criticism). The theory that the miner dies due to panic is incorrect. The evidence shows that the miner panics, but he doesn't do so until the end of the story. At the beginning of his journey, the miner shows...... middle of paper ...... the danger of the journey, but the man ignores the harshness of the environment and continues his journey. In this short story, there is a link between the miner's death and his lack of intelligence. The end of the story shows the lack of intuition of the man falling into the sleep of death and the superior intuition of the wolf dog sensing death coming upon the poor miner and going in search of the comrades' cabin of the minor. The miner ends up dying due to the lack of decisions he makes during his journey through the Yukon Territory. Works Cited To Build a Fire, Jack London - Introduction. " Review of the short story. Ed. Justin Karr Editor. Vol. 49. Gale Cengage, 2002 eNotes.com. 2006. January 22, 2010 build-fire-jack-london> WebLondon, Jack “To Build a Fire”, Bantam Classic & Loveswept, 1990 Web.