1. To Build a Fire Introducing the Short Story
Short Story by Jack London
Introducing the Short Story
with
Literary Analysis: Setting and
Conflict
Reading Strategy: Predict
Vocabulary in Context
VIDEO TRAILER

2. Should you trust your INSTINCTS?
INTRODUCING THE SHORT STORY
Should you trust your INSTINCTS?
An instinct is unlearned, automatic behavior shown by all members of a species, such as birds building a nest.

3. Should you trust your INSTINCTS?
INTRODUCING THE SHORT STORY
Should you trust your INSTINCTS?
Do people, like animals, have instincts?
If they do, when are they likely to use them?
Are a person’s instincts as good as, say, a dog’s?

4. Should you trust your INSTINCTS?
INTRODUCING THE SHORT STORY
Should you trust your INSTINCTS?
The story “To Build a Fire” attempts to answer such questions.

5. Click on the title to play the trailer.
To Build a Fire

6. Setting and Conflict
In some stories, the setting can create the conflict a character faces.
It can even act as the antagonist, or opponent, of the main character.

7. Setting and Conflict
In “To Build a Fire,” the setting is the Yukon wilderness, and the main character must battle the crippling cold to survive.
The setting challenges him in other ways as well.
As you read, notice details about this harsh setting and think about the choices the setting forces the character to make.

8. Predict
When you predict, you use text clues to guess what will happen next in a story.
Predicting helps you become actively involved in what you are reading and gives you reasons to read on.

9. Predict
To make sound predictions about what will happen in “To Build a
Fire,” use the following strategies:
Think about the personality, actions, and thoughts of the main character when predicting how he will respond to his situation.
Note passages of foreshadowing, or hints and clues about future plot events.

10. Predict
As you read, jot down at least three predictions and the clues you used to make them. Use a chart like the one shown.
Predictions
Text Clues
The man will . . .

11. apprehension
conflagration
conjectural
imperative
intangible
peremptorily
reiterate
smite
Jack London uses the vocabulary words in the box on the right in his suspenseful tale. To see how many vocabulary words you know, substitute a different word or phrase for each vocabulary term. Sample answers appear in brackets.
1. intangible fear
5. smite in anger
[cannot be defined]
[strike, attack]
2. conjectural answer
6. imperative action
[involving guesswork]
[urgent]
3. baseless apprehension
7. forest conflagration
[fear and worry]
[large, destructive fire]
4. reiterate the command
8. peremptorily dismiss
[repeat]
[in a commanding way]

12. apprehension n. fear and worry for the future
conflagration n. a large, destructive fire
conjectural adj. involving guesswork
imperative adj. urgently necessary
intangible adj. unable to be perceived with the senses

13. peremptorily adv. in a commanding way that does not allow for refusal or contradiction
reiterate v. to repeat
smite v. to inflict a heavy blow on; past tense—smote