Answer to Question 1
- Along the way the man unknowingly makes several fatal mistakes, but perhaps his most serious flaw is to ignore an old-timers advice. This man on Sulphur Creek had told our protagonist not to travel alone. Underestimating his adversary, the man fails to ascertain the temperature and to cover his face. He knows about the danger of the springs (snow that appears solid on the surface but hides pools of water underneath that can be as deep as three feet). As he and the dog walk over the creek and encounter many traps, the dog doesnt want to go. Instead of listening to the dogs instinct, the man forces him forward, and, eventually, the man does fall into a spring. After he is wet to the knees, he builds a fire in the wrong placeunder a tree. The snowfall from the tree branches extinguishes his fire, and he tries unsuccessfully to build another fire. Since his hands have begun to freeze, his fingers cannot hold a match, and by that time it is too late to rectify all that has gone wrong. Once his fingers freeze, he drops all his matches in the snow, and he cannot build a second fire.
Ultimately, the man dies because of his pride (which led him to reject the warnings of others with more experienceincluding his dog) and because of his failure of imagination.
Canadian Broadcasting made a film of To Build a Fire, with Orson Welles reading the entire text of the story over dramatic footage. It is available on DVD.
As a class writing assignment, ask students to retell this story in 500 words from the dogs point of view.
Answer to Question 2
- Although Laurel never directly states her view of Arnetta, she clearly views this group leader with a mixture of fear and suspicion. There is significant tension, and perhaps dislike, between these two young girls. Arnetta controls her Brownie troop by saying vulgar words and intimidating everyone around her; she is a bully who wants to fight. She decides to teach Troop 909 a lesson and runs the secret meeting. It is Arnetta who said shed heard one of the Troop 909 girls call Daphne a nigger (par. 15), and it is Arnetta who says they smell like wet Chihuahuas (par. 3). Ironically, only the consummately hypocritical Arnetta has memorized Mrs. Margolins religious aphorisms (par. 6). Laurel notices that Arnetta always gave Mrs. Margolin what she wanted to hear (par. 7), a method she uses to deflect attention from her decidedly un-Christian attitude, which is full of revenge, envy, and prejudice.
Early in the story, Laurel highlights a seemingly insignificant moment from a past Brownie meeting that reveals a few characteristics of Arnetta. Laurel says that once, Arnetta killed the troop goldfish by feeding it a French fry covered in ketchup and justified this action to Mrs. Margolin by claiming that the goldfish had been eyeing her meal for
hours, so then the fishgiving in to temptationhad leapt up and snatched a whole golden fry from her fingertips (par. 7). Arnetta easily creates a ridiculous storythat the gullible Mrs. Margolin believesto shift the blame away from herself. This foreshadows Arnettas actions with Troop 909 at camp.
It is clear that Laurel struggles with Arnetta because during the secret meeting, Arnetta turns to Laurel and asks, Snot, youre not going to be a bitch and tell Mrs. Margolin, are you? (par. 34). For Arnetta to ask such a question, there must have been a time in the past when Laurel did tell on Arnetta, and the grudge remains. But Laurel is right to question Arnetta as the entire fight was based on a false accusation. When Arnetta twice accuses two innocent girls (one of whom does not even speak), she tries to do what she did before with the goldfish: put the blame elsewhere to get herself out of trouble.
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