Theme
The theme of the story is that a man’s arrogance in the natural world will result in his untimely death. The young man is warned against going too far into the wild, but he does not listen because of his arrogance. Though he successfully starts one fire, he falls into water, gets wet and struggles starting another fire. His hands grow cold and numb, but eventually he manages. However, when that fire is accidentally extinguished, the man is much less successful at building a fire for a third time.