How Did Jack London Survive

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“Survival can be summed up in three words – never give up. That’s the heart of it really. Just keep trying.” This quote by Bear Grylls, a famous adventurer, says that you can’t give up when trying to survive. The main character in “To Build a Fire”, by Jack London, does not survive because he does not follow the rules in “Deep Survival”, written by Laurence Gonzales.
One reason the main character dies in “To Build a Fire” is because he does not stay calm (Gonzales 96). In his crisis he becomes frantic because he might die. For example, he would beat his hands against his body when they went numb because he was scared (London 87). Instead of starting a fire and staying there to warm up his hands enough to do uncomplicated tasks, but he would leave and not take advantage of the heat. He realizes that he is going to die, so he runs around like a mad man to help his body stay warm (89). He gets scared and thinks that this will help, but he just makes it worse for himself by becoming tired. When he was trying to build a fire he was dropping the matches in the snow and was getting frustrated and agitated (86). If he would’ve stayed calm he could have …show more content…
When the snow fell onto his fire he felt like he had just heard his death sentence and he was pressured (London 85). If he would have accepted the fact that he will die he wouldn’t have felt so scared. He kept saying that he would only lose some toes and fingers and that the boys could help him at camp (89). Just because he would lose some fingers and toes he could still die from other thing because he stayed in the snow. He put the thought of dying and not making it back in the back of his mind (89). If he would have thought about this and said it was okay then he could’ve felt less stressed in his final moments. The main reason why the main character failed to survive is because he doesn’t stay calm. If he would’ve stayed calm he could’ve

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