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Jasmin Oh
Lynda Haas
Writing 37
9 March 2015
Disconnection Between Man and Nature: Omniscient Narrator, Logos, and
Ethos
About seventy-one percent of the Earths surface is covered by water
while the other twenty-nine percent is made up of the seven continental
landmasses (We Need Your Help!). Humans live in the realm of nature; they
are constantly surrounded by and interact with it. But even with nature being
everywhere, are humans losing touch with nature? Have they started to drift
away from being reliant on nature to being reliant on modern technology and
the knowledge from technology? Jack Londonan American author,
journalist, and social activistseemed to believe so and expressed it through
logos and ethos in his short story, To Build a Fire, which is, in part, a
reflection of his own journey to Yukon, Canada, in 1897 (Kingman). Jack
London was born as John Griffith Chaney on January 12, 1876, in San
Francisco, California (Vitale). Form a young age, he aimed to make endsmeet as a writer, but when that did not work out end in success, he dropped
out of University of California, Berkeley, and went to join the 1879 Klondike
Gold Rush in the Yukon region of northwestern Canada. In Jack Londons
short story To Build a Fire, the omniscient narrator is a rhetorical device
that persuades readers of Londons Message about the disconnection

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between man and nature in the modern world through the rhetorical appeals
logos and ethos.
The omniscient narrator is a third person narrator that is not a figure in
the story (Leveen). Instead the omniscient narrator of To Build a Fire
provides insight for both partiesman and dogand to provide a certain
bias towards the characters in the story (Alessandro). The main character is
a nameless man traveling from one mining location to another. He appears
intelligent from what he can recall in times of distress, but he is arrogant. He
does not heed the old man from Sulphur Creeks warning and rebels by going
out in the negative seventy-degree weather (London). The narrator
exemplifies through the mans arrogance, to the misjudgment about
environmental cues, and advice from the old man, and his just there
relationship with the wolf-dog the disconnection between man and nature.
His ignorance to advice lack of knowledge about environmental cues
and failure to heed advice are examples of disconnection between man and
nature. The first environmental cue in the story is the emphasis of the
exceedingly gold and gray weather in Yukon (London). Another would be
the spits sharp, explosive crackle on the snow (London). If the cues around
him were not enough, there were cues that affected him directly. For
example, [the] mans red beard and mustache were likewise frosted, but
more solidly, the deposit taking the for of ice and increasing with every
warm, moist breath he exhaledand the muzzle of ice held his lips so rigidly
that he was unable to clear his chin when he expelled the juice (London).

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Environmental cues work as logos towards the point that man is
disconnected from nature by connecting the lack of association with extreme
weather and shelter. Fifty degrees below zero meant 80 degrees of frost.
Such facts told him that it was cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It
did not lead him to consider his weaknesses as a creature affected by
temperature (London). It would be logical, if it were that cold, to not travel
in such weather no matter how skilled and knowledgeable one is. Especially
for this man, who has not lived in Yukon for very long. It would be logical for
him to have stayed at the other camp and waited for better weather. This
arrogance is evidence of disconnection in that because his arrogance is in
the way of his survival. Especially when the mysterious, far-reaching hairline trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the
strangeness and weirdness of it allmade no impression on the man
(London).
The aspect of heeding the old man from Sulphur Creek falls under two
Aristotelian appeals: logos and ethos. Logos because the old man had more
experience than he. Instead of heeding the old man, he had laughed at
him and is later realizing after making the mistake of traveling alone in the
below minus seventy-degree weather that he made a mistake (London). This
works as ethos too. It works as ethos in that the older man had more
credibility and has more experience and knowledge than the nameless man.
This is another disconnection because nature is built on a hierarchy of

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survival of the fittest and ignoring this hierarchy can lead to unfortunate
consequences.
The mans disconnection to nature is most prominently shown through
his disconnection with the dog. The first sign of the disconnection can be
seen throughout the story of how the man does not notice the behavior of
the dog. Most times, owners who have a good relationship with their animal
can sense when the dog is in distress. But because the dog and man only
have a relationship of provider and receiver, the man did not pick up on the
subtle cues that the animal gave. The second sign of this disconnection is
when the man pushed the dog in front of him to test the ice. This is a
disconnection because people who have a connection, however small, with
an animal will not risk the animals life. In the mans point of view, the dog
was seen as replaceable. Although the man helps the dog get the ice that
had formed between the dogs toes. Another is that [the] warmth and
security of the animal angered [the man], and he cursed it till it flattened
down its ears appealingly (London). The word appealingly is a key word in
that the narrator demonstrates the disliking of the dog. The narrator is trying
to get across that even though the dog ran alongside the man, the man held
no appreciation to the animal even if it stayed with the him till his death. I
the end, the dog only saw the man as a fire and food-provider for [the] dog
sat facing him and [waited][then] it turned and trotted up the trail in the
direction of the camp it knew, where were the other food-providers and fireproviders (London). The dog did not have any emotional ties with the man.

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The dog simply saw the man who had a role to play. He was seen as
replaceable.
The third person narrative in this short story provides a certain bias
towards the nameless man in the story. Instead of stating the facts about
what happened, the narrator focuses on the wrong actions. The narrator
shows bias by mentioning the frailty of human beings. London writes:
It did not lead [the man] to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of
temperature, and upon mans frailty in general, able only to live within
certain narrow limits of head and cold; and from there on it did not lead him
to the conjectural field of immorality and mans place in the universe.
(London)
It is true that humans can be fragile, especially when they are out of
their element. But the use of the word frailty aimed towards the man
specifically shows that the narrator belittles him. Another example of how
the narrator sees the man as a lower being is through his syntax. Using the
words just and merely to describe the negative fifty-degree weather the
nameless man predicted. This syntax is very important because between
average words are subtle hint into the mind of the narrator. These two words
used to describe the estimate of the weather have a connotation of being
negatively naive. Especially when the weather could be the cause of whether
you live or die. The bias is shown specifically in the instance the narrator
informs the audience of the man and his ancestors ignorance to real cold,
but the dog and its ancestors knew (London). Many see dogs to be below

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humans on natures hierarchy since man can dominate them. By comparing
the ignorance of man and understanding of the dogand ancestrythe
narrator makes the point that man is nave.
London is not the only one with the belief that man is becoming
disconnected with nature. Dr. John Groholan author, researcher, and expert
in mental healthshares Londons view (Grohol). Dr. Grohol believes that,
although technology in modern day does wonders for us, using it as a
foundation for an important economic pillar in our country, [he] suspect[s]
[humans are] pushing the envelop of sane thinking (Grohol). For example,
he states that there is no such thing as an unhackable computer system. He
explains that, because humans have become very dependent of technology,
if a disaster such as a power outage were to happen or if all the natural
resources were to run out, the world would be at a loss. This is a very similar
argument to Londons: the connection between man and nature is dwindling.
Jack London expresses his disapproval of disconnection between man
and nature through the omniscient narrator in his short story To Build a
Fire. The mans naivety of traveling alone with a dog through an
outrageously, negative seventy-degree weather lead the man to death. If the
man were not as ignorant, the subtle cues he would have gathered would
have advised him against the trip.

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Works Cited
Alessandro. "A Critical Analysis Of To Build A Fire By Jack London." Binus
University: English Department. Binus University, 28 Oct. 2014. Web.
22 Feb. 2015.
Grohol, John M., PSY.D. "Why Reliance on Technology Is a Bad Thing." Psych
Central.com. Psych Central, 18 Feb. 2015. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.
Kingman, Russ. "HOW JACK LONDONS CABIN CAME TO CALIFORNIA." Jack
London's Klondike Log Cabin Found! n.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2015.
Leveen, Lois. "Narrator." Narrator. n.p., 2002. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
London, Jack. "To Build a Fire." To Build a Fire, by Jack London. The World of
Jack London: Jack London Stories of the North, n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
Vitale, Tom. "Jack London Believed 'Function Of Man Is To Live, Not To Exist'"
NPR. NPR, 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 Feb. 2015.
"We Need Your Help!" NOAA: National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. n.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.