TO BUILD A FIRE
Jack London
Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earthbank, where a dim and little-traveled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland. It was a steep bank, and he paused for breath at the top, excusing the act to himself by looking at his watch. It was nine o'clock. There was no sun nor hint of sun, though there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun. This fact did not worry the man. He was used to the lack of sun. It had been days since he had seen the sun, and he knew that a few more days must pass before that cheerful orb, due south, would just peep above the skyline and dip immediately from view.
The man flung a look back along the way he had come. The Yukon lay a mile wide and hidden under three feet of ice. On top of this ice were as many feet of snow. It was all pure white, rolling in gentle undulations where the ice jams of the freeze‑up had formed. North and south, as far as his eve could see, it was unbroken white, save for a dark hairline that curved and twisted from around the spruce-covered island to the south, and that curved and twisted away into the north, where it disappeared behind another spruce‑covered island. This dark hairline was the trailthe main trail‑that led south five hundred miles to the Chilkoot Pass, Dyea, and salt water; and that led north seventy miles to Dawson, and still on to the north a thousand miles to Nulato, and finally to St. Michael on Bering Sea, a thousand miles and half a thousand more.
But all this ‑ the mysterious, far-reaching hairline trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all ‑ made no impression on the man. It was not because he was long used to it. He was a newcomer in the land, a chechaquo, and this was his first winter. The trouble with him was that he was without imagination. He was quick and alert in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances. Fifty degrees below zero meant eighty‑odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold; and from there on it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and man's place in the universe. Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of mittens, earflaps, warm moccasins, and thick socks. Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero. That there should be anything more to it than that was a thought that never entered his head.
What details in the first three paragraphs establish a forbidding and ominous setting for this story?
Here's one: "It was a clear day, and yet there seemed an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark, and that was due to the absence of sun."
Which other ominous details can you find?
Are these right?
"It was all pure white, rolling in gentle undulations where the ice jams of the freeze‑up had formed."
"Fifty degrees below zero stood for a bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by the use of mittens, earflaps, warm moccasins, and thick socks. Fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely fifty degrees below zero."
The details in the first three paragraphs that establish a forbidding and ominous setting for this story include:
1. The description of the day as "cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray" creates a sense of harshness and bleakness. The absence of sun contributes to the gloom and darkness of the day.
2. The mention of the "dim and little-traveled trail" that the man turns aside to follow, implies a sense of isolation and unfamiliarity. This suggests that the man is venturing into an unknown and potentially dangerous territory.
3. The description of the landscape, with the Yukon river hidden under three feet of ice and covered with feet of snow, evokes a sense of desolation and harsh winter conditions. The pure white expanse stretching as far as the eye can see reinforces the idea of a vast and unforgiving environment.
4. The mention of the main trail, which leads south to the Chilkoot Pass and north to Dawson, creates a sense of distance and remoteness. The long and treacherous journey ahead suggests that the man is embarking on a challenging and perilous adventure.
Overall, these details paint a picture of a harsh winter landscape and convey a feeling of danger, isolation, and uncertainty, establishing a forbidding and ominous setting for the story.