To Build A Fire
Characters
The Man
Being the protagonist of 'To Build a Fire', we are introduced to the man right off the bat. He is a slightly overconfident young man who is working in Yukon at the time. Against the better judgement of an old-timer, he goes out to work anyways. At -75 degrees Fahrenheit, the frozen wasteland is less than desirable to spend any excess time in and, on his walk back to the camp, the man runs into some trouble. He accidentally falls through a frozen creek at one point, leading to him attempting to build a fire to warm up. When this backfires after snow from the above trees topples down on it, he comes to the realization that he just might not make it back home alive. Following a vain attempt to murder his dog and use his hide for warmth, he succumbs his untimely fate and freezes to death in the snow.
The Dog
The lovable companion of the story's main protagonist and only true other character of the story is his unnamed dog. Present throughout the heart and end of the man's journey, the half-wolf faithfully follows the man throughout the frozen land of -75 degrees that was Yukon, Alaska in the dead of winter. He attempts at the beginning to, in his inhuman way, communicate to the man that he did not wish to go, as it was rather unsafe, but they continue in and ends in his master's death. Faithful to the end, he stays by the man's side until he catches a whiff of death and heads on his own back to camp.