Naturalism is closely connected with naturalism. Naturalism makes an accent on natural forces. It shows different situations, when people have to fight with nature or society.
Naturalism depicts extreme realism, when all natural phenomena and the way they affect human lives are depicted in great detail. The interaction between man the environment makes the core of naturalism. In London’s short story To Build a Fire we can see a very bright example of naturalism. During the entire story the protagonist has to deal with the environment, which finally becomes a result of his death. The nature becomes one of the characters of the story. The conflict between man and nature is the basic conflict of the story. The main character is trapped by the natural forces. He can not control them and they finally lead to his destruction.
Regionalism is used in order to underline the specific place where the story is set. In London’s story the setting has an important meaning. To Build a Fire, which is set on Arctic gives the depiction of this region. The region is described with great detail and the readers see the place through the eyes of the protagonist. The author spends much time in order to describe specific details of the nature. The main character fights the environment. He does a number of mistakes and finally steps on the thin ice and this becomes the reason of his death. In this case environment is described as hostile and the protagonist, who takes risks and goes alone along the frozen creek can not see different signs and finally dies. A skillful comparison of the man with the dog gives another shades of meaning to this story. The protagonist of the story is accompanied by the dog. The dog has more important function than following the protagonist. The author explores the influence of the surrounding on both – a human and an animal. “The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold.
It knew that it was no time for traveling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man’s judgment” (London). When the protagonist finally becomes aware of the danger we can see that his natural instincts to survive are very alike with those of animals. The exploration of natural instincts, peculiar to human and the way these instincts are realized is one of the realistic means.
Both, naturalism and realism count on exact facts as the main source of description. In London’s short story there are detailed descriptions of the effects of cold on the organism. The author describes freezing, numbing, and the effect of cold in great detail. “Once in a while the thought reiterated itself that it was very cold and that he had never experienced such cold. As he walked along he rubbed his cheek-bones and nose with the back of his mittened hand. He did this automatically, now and again changing hands” (London). These descriptions add credibility to the story. The readers focus more on exact facts than on the emotions and feelings of the characters. The feelings and different types of the conflicts are also discovered through the descriptions of the nature.