Overconfidence and Arrogance in To Build a Fire by Jack London Essay

Overconfidence and Arrogance in To Build a Fire by Jack London Overconfidence and arrogance led to the death of the man in Jack London's "To Build a Fire." This overconfidence in his own abilities led to him making poor decisions and scorning the advice of those who know what they are talking about. Instead, he laughs at the old man after he tells him "a man should travel with a partner" (1769) and goes out into the frigid weather anyway. He knew that it was 75 degrees below zero and that his body was numb but he didn't care because he thought he could handle it. Even when he was about to die he thought, "freezing to death is not as bad as people thought it was"(1772) and "when he got back to the states he could tell the folks what real cold was."(1772) Obviously the man did not take the situation seriously. Instead of dying with dignity he thought about himself "running around like a chicken with its head cut off." (1772) He time and again snubs the warnings that he is receiving from nature. He encountered many warnings that it was too cold to be outside. First...