There are two violent situations in the story; the first situation was when all of his seventy sulphur matches roared into flames, he moderately choked on the fumes from the matches. But as he held the “ blazing bunch” he could smell and feel his own burning flesh. “ It flared into flames. Seventy sulphur matches at once! ……
His flesh was burning. He could smell it. Deep down the surface he could feel it.”
A violent situation like this was again predictable, something influential had to give. Before this situation, there really wasn’t a worse situation than this. The build up to this situation was fairly plain to understand. I noticed, that the man actually contemplates going on his own, and thinking is not a strong feature of his character, as he is out of his depth.
The language is of great quality in this situation; Short sentences bring out the most out of the circumstances “ The flesh was burning. He could smell it. Deep down below the surface he could feel it.” The Short, sharp straight to point sentences has an effect on the reader, as if the reader was there. The choice of words, “ Burning, sensation, acute, absorbing are expressive in the sense that, that situation happening has the right choice of word to fit it. Unexpectedly enough the sentences are relatively simple to understand. “Then he scratched the bunch…. There was no wind to blow them out”
The second violent situation in the story was, the attempted killing of his dog.
“ The sight of the dog put a wild idea in his head.” The reader finds out he would do anything to save his life, including killing his dog and burying his hands in its warm body to protect his numbed hands, so he can build another fire. The man tries to call the animal but it wouldn’t respond “ He spoke to the dog, calling it to him, but in his voice was a strange note of fear that frightened the animal”. The man finally got the dog’s attention with the “sound of whip lashes in his voice” thankfully for the dog he could not grab, due to his numb fingers. He realised, he was incapable of killing his dog. This situation happens, due to the desperation of the man setting in. The dog was his only hope, and he couldn’t grab the dog. The sequence of events sets up the mental imagery; I for one could have foreseen the man killing the dog. The language summed up his desperation, desperate the way he feels and desperate the way it is written “ He got on his hands and knees and crawled towards the dog.” He spoke to the dog, which is something he doesn’t do at all throughout the story. The situation is largely written in much detail. It lasts nearly two paragraphs, unlike the other situations that were short in comparison. These last two paragraphs, possibly signifies his last situation ever, in other words London is slowly writing him out of the story, saving his best till last. The sentences are fairly long until a full stop occurs. “He glanced down at first in order to assure himself that he was really standing up, for the absence of sensation in his feet left him unrelated to the earth.” By having long sentences it keeps the momentum of the story going, at a regular pace keeping the reader that little bit more interested in the outcome. Jack London finally starts writes out the man,
“ His idea of it was that he had been making a fool of himself, running around like a headless chicken with its head cut-off.” This is a simple simile to suggest, his life may be over finally. The man accepts his death “A good idea, he thought. To sleep off to death… There were lots of worse ways to die”. He literally moves from desperation to resignation and philosophy. He accepts he has to die and this reflects the only rare time he thinks.
“Indian Camp” by Ernest Hemmingway, is an emotionally sparse story, about three people who travel to an Indian camp to help a woman in need. Nick, Nick’s father and uncle George, set off on a rowing boat with two of the Indians guiding the outsiders to their destination. The beginning is unusual where it starts “ At the lake shore there was another rowboat drawn up.” It could be a very bare opening because it sets the trend for the rest of the story; the language throughout the story is very sparse and lacks much-needed description. Ernest Hemmingway writes the story very basically to get only the main points across “ the two boats started off in the dark.” He doesn’t say it is dark in another sentence anywhere else, but instead joins it to a sentence to keep the description to a bare minimum. The language features are very few, there are not many adjectives and adverbs; Hemmingway wants the narrative to be foremost descriptive of people and places, also to carry the true meaning. Action, however, are key features of the story.“ There is an Indian lady very sick” “Uncle George gave both the Indians cigars” “ Later he started to operate”
This story introduces the theme of masculinity. Hemingway turns a typically female act, set in a female space into a male-dominated situation. Although this story is about childbirth, it focuses on the experience of the doctor rather than the woman. After the birth, Uncle George and Nick’s father have a playful, exuberant camaraderie over the job well done. Another theme introduced is racism or sexism, Uncle George says “damn squaw bitch” to the Indian woman. Depending on how your interpret this remark, it could be racist or sexist, with the fact being we aren’t told. Another emphasis to racism is from Nick’s father saying, “ I don’t hear them (screams from woman) because they are not important”. This remark could be argued is racist. Simply by adding these themes, Hemmingway has included a true-life prospective life and enhanced the interest of the story; otherwise without some themes this story could have been uninteresting. The language in the statements is quite abusive and downgrading. Although it could be argued they were not racist comments and just aggravated words from Uncle George perspective as he was bitten! In Nick’s father’s view, we can’t really tell if or not he is racist, as his words are not as downgrading as Uncle George’s. We can interpret his words to mean anything, for example it could mean he concentrates on the job, instead of being put off by the screams or it could mean, as she is a poor woman he doesn’t simple care.
After Nick’s dad had finished his small operation he conversed a lot, using a simile “ He was feeling talkative as football players are in the dressing room after a game.”. Then came Nick’s interrogations of his experience he has had, “Do ladies always have such a hard time having babies…Why did he kill himself, daddy… Do many men kill themselves, daddy… Do many women…where did uncle George go” the father responds back minimally “ not many Nick…Hardly ever … He’ll turn up alright. Childish language is present from Nick. The father could be uninterested in what Nick has to say or simply unable to answer Nick’s questions and just tries to evade them, hence the short answers.
The only violent situation in this story shows quite a gruesome image. “ The Indian laying with his face towards the wall. His throat had been cut from ear to ear. The blood had flowed down into a pool where his body sagged the bunk. His head rested on his left arm. The open razor lay, edge up, in the blankets.”. The language and style is fairly simple, there is nothing complicated to read, the language is more like everyday words. It creates a bloody mental image with the paragraphs sharp words “ Throat” “Cut” “Blood” “Pool” “Razor”, to mind it looks like a story for a movie. There was no build up to the situation; it is just the way that Uncle George found the Indian. The paragraph read out, is fast paced due to the varied action words above, lacking descriptive adjectives that could slow it down.
The ending of the Indian Camp is a strange ending, “ In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die.” Ernest Hemmingway creates a simple effect. I feel the ending has an element of ambiguity like this, to make the reader ponder and think about what Nick is trying to say. It leaves the reader pondering several interpretations in their mind. He could suggest he will never die, because his Father is with him who is a safe surgeon, or after viewing of what he saw of the operation, he felt safe if he had to go for an operation. The fact is we would never know, which keeps the beauty in the simple effect.
Comparing the stories, they are two very different stories in terms of language, sentence structure, beginnings and endings. The language is completely different in terms of complexity with To Build a Fire far more complex than Indian Camp. The Sentence structure is far longer in To Build a Fire than The Indian Camp, the beginning and endings to say the least is different in its own way and the tone is different with the Indian Camp, being fast dues to its simple words and To Build a Fire, slower due to more complex words. London’s language contains similes and metaphors richer in description of places, people and events. Hemmingway pushes the action story to its limit. He takes it as far as he can by allowing the action to drive the story. Hence the ambiguity, as he can’t explain the thoughts, feelings or beliefs, when he hasn’t allowed himself that option from the start.
In conclusion, the storywriters have completely different styles in terms of writing a story. The feature, similar in both books are both sets of characters enter a strange world, with the characters trying to adjust to their location, using any means possible. Desperation from the man to survive and desperation to keep Nick away from the shocking observations, loneliness in a place not many foreigners go to, inquisition to himself (the man) and from Nick and reservations from the man about not having a partner with him and reservations on Nick coming. The mere fact is, if this were not a foreign place, the individuals would not be as circumspect as they were then. Actions are the key features of both stories. Moreover the authors describe to us vividly a world that we will never experience. If the man thought of his action and went with a partner, would he be dead? If Nick’s father did not bring Nick along, would Nick have been introduced to poverty, operations or suicide? This just proves that if you think hard before you act, all will be successful in which neither responsible characters did.
The most comparable factor is the language, of the weather is mentioned. Indian Camp is dark and gloomy and To Build a Fire is exceedingly cold and grey. This truly outlines the writer’s intentions, to build a lonely approach on the basis of descriptive words.
