Art of Reading - "To Build a Fire" Reading Response

1) Pall - It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun.
Pall is a Middle English term meaning a cloak or mantle from the Old English poell deriving from the Latin pallium. A pall, in the context of its use in "To Build a Fire," is an overspreading element that produces an effect of gloom.

Unwonted - It experienced a vague but menacing apprehension that subdued it and made it slink along at the man's heels, and that made it question eagerly every unwonted movement of the man as if expecting him to go into camp or to seek shelter somewhere and build a fire.
Unwonted is a term dating back to 1553. London uses this word to emphasize the inexperience of the nameless man. The definition which best fits this context is "not accustomed by experience."

2) Character and Point of View are the most helpful for understanding "To Build a Fire." London sets up a story similar to a road journey where the further the man travels, the more is revealed. The third-person point of view gives insight into the man's thoughts as well as the dog's feelings. London has removed the name of the protagonist calling him "the man," this adds a layer of anonymity to the the protagonist and suggests that he is not important in the broader world of the Alaskan wilderness. At first the man is cocky, he has shunned the warning of an older experienced mountaineer, and chooses to travel with just a dog and no partner. He cedes to this warning as he lay dying, "You were right, old hoss; you were right," but by then it is too late.

3) "To Build a Fire," as London describes, is an "old Alaskan tragedy," pitting a man against the harsh winter cold of the Klondikes. A young, arrogant man is tested in the seventy-five below zero weather only to fail. This short story may have been a warning to new-comers to the Alaskan Gold Rush of what not to do, as the protagonist makes some very sophomoric mistakes which more experienced mountain men would not. His primary shortfall is he ventures out alone setting up his eventual death by freezing. As he ventures out he is energetic, making good time as he marches through the snow. He suspects he will make it to camp at six o'clock. However, nature strikes as he falls through the ice in an attempt to cross a creek. Earlier, the man had expressed how cold it the temperature was when he spat and it crackled before it hit the snow. Once his feet were wet, he was surely doomed. The rest is an uphill struggle to build a fire, which he once does only to have a tree unload the snow on its branches onto the fire. The man realizing that he can not build a fire unsuccessfully attempts to kill the dog. There is certainly a Darwinian tone in "To Build a Fire" as the man perishes because he is not fit for the wild and the dog survives even though they experience the same peril.