To Build a Fire

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Naturalist Elements”

In this activity, students reflect on elements of naturalism in “To Build a Fire” before writing a portion of the story from the point of view of the “character” of the Yukon setting.

The setting in “To Build a Fire” can be thought of as itself a character, given its impact on the story. Two elements of naturalism are objectivity, or the detachment from emotion, and environment, or setting, as a major influence on outcomes.

• Consider how the man’s eventual surrender to hypothermia is caused by the setting and observed by the dog.
• Once you’ve developed an understanding of these elements, write an account of the story, or a part of the story, from the perspective of the Yukon setting that reflects these elements of naturalism.
• Share your account aloud or via a peer response circle as time allows. Consider the ways that other students writers include elements of naturalism in their accounts.

Teaching Suggestion: Objectivity and setting are prominent throughout this story, with the man serving as a kind of “case study” and his failure to respect the threat of the Yukon causing his eventual death.