Jack London's To Build A Fire

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In To Build a Fire by Jack London, the main character, the man, was trying to build a fire so that he would not freeze. In Breaking Away, the cutters decide to prove a point to the rich college kids. The man and the Cutters, are both competing for a goal they want to achieve, but unlike the cutters, the man gives up in the end. In both, the story and the movie, some sort of competition happens. In To Build a Fire, the man is fighting for his life. He wants to build a fire to stay warm to survive the harsh weather, but the wind will not allow it to stay burning. If he wants to stay alive, he needs to figure out a way to keep the fire going. He is trying to survive, and win his race, just like the cutters were. The cutters had a feud going on with the university kids who considered them to be lowlifes. They wanted to prove …show more content…
He went as far as trying to eat his dog, because he was so desperate. But his effort to survive was not strong enough, he had been foolish for being out in the cold by himself. There was nothing he could have done so he slowly begun to accept the fact that death was getting closer to him. Eventually he lost all efforts to keep fighting, and he let death come to him. In Breaking Away, Dave, one of the cutters, did not give up that easily. He fell off his bike, and got hurt, but even then he kept going. He went in the race wanting to prove a point and he was not giving up until that point was proven. The cutters win the race in the end, their efforts had not been wasted. Although the character had a competition, they handled them in different ways. The cutters carried on their competition, they pushed themselves harder when they started getting behind. Their best rider was hurt but they still went on. The man did not push himself to survive. He believed he could not go on any more, and just gave up. He did not try to keep going, like the cutters did, he felt it was the end and it was all he could
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