An Unbuilt Fire“To Build a Fire,” a short story written by Jack London, is seen as a masterpiece of naturalist fiction. "To Build a Fire" features a miner and his wolfdog companion who travel to the Yukon Territory to meet other miners. The miner is the protagonist and the wolfdog companion acts as a counterpart because the wolfdog exploits the protagonist's characteristics. The central theme of “To Build a Fire” concerns man's struggle against nature. “To Build a Fire” tells of a man traveling in extreme cold through the Yukon Territory. Before traveling, the man is warned not to travel alone in the extreme cold, but he travels anyway. The man faces many difficulties during his journey. Despite his efforts to stay warm and survive, the man freezes to death before reaching his destination. The wolfdog in the story studies the situation and knows that traveling is not a good idea. The wolfdog stays with the miner until his death. Once the miner is dead, the wolfdog concludes his journey by heading alone to the miners' camp. The most discussed point of this story is the reason for the protagonist's death. Although the miner in "To Build a Fire" ultimately panics after being unable to start a fire, he struggles in the wilderness of the Yukon Territory and ultimately meets his death due to ignorance caused by lack of intuition and imagination. Contrary to the idea of ​​the miner dying from lack of insight and imagination, critics say he dies from panic (Short Story Criticism). The theory of the miner dying due to panic is wrong. Evidence shows that the miner panics, but he doesn't until the end of the story. At the beginning of his journey the miner shows... in the middle of the card... the danger of the journey, but the man does not realize the harshness of the environment and continues the journey. In this story there is a connection between the death of the miner and his lack of intellect. The ending of the story shows the lack of intuition of the man who fell into the sleep of death, and the superior intuition of the wolfdog who senses death approaching the poor miner and sets out to find the hut of the miner's companions. The miner ultimately dies due to the lack of decisions he made during his journey into the Yukon Territory. Works Cited for Building a Fire, Jack London - Introduction. "Short Story Criticism. Ed. Justin Karr Editor. Vol. 49. Gale Cengage, 2002 .eNotes.com. 2006. 22 January 2010 build-fire-jack-london> WebLondra, Jack “To Build a Fire”, Bantam Classic & Loveswept, 1990 Web