Man Versus Nature Conflict example essay topic

Jack London's "To Build a Fire" and John Updike's "A&P" were very different, but interesting stories. Both authors chose a different approach to their chosen tone. Updike wrote in a more laid back and entertaining way, while London, on the other hand, chose to write in a more formal and serious way. The authors also developed much different characters. London's main character was much older and rugged than the complicated teenage girls and grocery clerk that Updike chose to focus his story around. The most significant difference, however, is the choice of conflict.

Updike's conflict was a simple one focusing on man versus man, but London's story had many conflicts that dealt with much more serious issues like, for example, life and death. From the beginning of both stories one can get an immediate sense of where each story is headed. The author's very appropriately set the tone to each of their stories early on. The first sentence in London's "To Build a Fire" said, "Day had broken cold and gray, exceedingly cold and gray, when the man turned aside from the main Yukon trail and climbed the high earth-bank, where a dim and little- traveled trail led eastward through the fat spruce timberland" (561). From that very first sentence the audience can immediately tell that this is going to be a dramatic story.

The strong and descriptive language prepares us for the rest of the story. The beginning of Updike's "A&P" sets a much different tone for the story to follow. He wrote, "In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits. I'm in the third checkout slot, with my back to the door, so I don't see them until they " re over by the bread. The one that caught my eye first was the one in the plaid green two-piece" (612). The beginning of this story has a relaxed and enjoyable tone.

We, the audience, are now prepared for some easy reading. Next, focusing on the characters, we see another big difference. London's story had very few characters. London took his time and very descriptively developed his main character throughout the entire story. The story is periodically filled with bits about how the unnamed man feels and what he's thinking.

London paid very close attention to how his main character physically felt. For example, he wrote, "After a time he was aware of the first faraway sensation in his beaten fingers. The faint tingling grew stronger till it evolved into a stinging ache that was excruciating, but which the man hailed with satisfaction" (566). Sentences like the previous were found all throughout the story describing in great detail how the man felt and what he was thinking, but it was very rare that we found anything describing what the unnamed man looked like. One of the only times we were told anything about what the man looked like was when London wrote, "The man's red beard and mustache were likewise frosted" (562). This left us with very little detail and forced us to form an imaginative image in our heads about the man.

Updike's story, on the other hand, had many characters and gave us very descriptive images about what they looked like. He told us in detail about all of the important physical aspects of the three girl's appearances. He said things like, "She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs" (612). With these sort of descriptive sentences found throughout the story, we have to use very little imagination to decide what the three girls look like. Updike has drawn a clear image with his words. However, he fails to mention what the main character, Sammy, looks like.

Perhaps this is because Sammy is the narrator of the story and most people are not always actively thinking about what they look like. The only thing we know about Sammy is that he is a young male. We are left to draw up our own mental image about what he looks like. We are, however, given a little more knowledge on what Sammy's character is thinking and feeling because he is narrating. For example, we know that he is fearful of what is to come after he quits when Updike writes, .".. my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter" (616). Although we know what Sammy is feeling, we don't really know what he other characters are thinking and feeling.

We only see the other characters how Sammy sees them. The conflicts that were chosen by London and Updike were also much different in both of the short stories. London's story was filled with serious and dramatic conflict. We saw examples of man versus himself and man versus nature. "To Build a Fire" was almost entirely based on the man versus nature conflict. The whole story was about a man walking through the Yukon in seventy-five below zero weather, fighting against nature's brutal cold.

We also saw how man versus himself came into play when he was trying to keep himself from panicking. These conflicts were solved when the man finally surrendered to nature and his panic and laid down to die. The panic caved in and allowed a peace to come over the man and nature caved in as well and allowed the man to feel as tough he had "taken an anesthetic" (569). Updike's story had much less dramatic conflict. We saw the man versus man conflict and man versus himself conflict in a sort of laid back and almost comical way. The man versus himself conflict was shown when Stokesie tried to stay loyal to his wife and push out the negative thoughts in his head that the three girls brought.

Updike described Stokesie to be a "responsible married man" (614). We saw the man versus man conflict twice in "A&P". We saw it once when the manager confronted the girls about their inappropriate attire and once again when Sammy stood up for what he believed and told the manager he quit. All of these conflicts are resolved when the girls and Sammy left the store. When the girls are gone Stokesie could begin to let their image erase from his head and once again fill that space with an image of his family and the manager could go on running an appropriately dressed store. After Sammy leaves the store he no longer has to worry about the confrontation between himself and the manager, only how to deal with what is to come.

These two very different, but very interesting stories did what they intended to do. They entertained their audience's minds for a short while and filled them with unique conflicts, tones, and characters. The serious toned, dramatically conflicted, and introspective character that London wrote about in "To Build a Fire" was as equally effective as the relaxed toned, comically conflicted, physically descriptive characters that Updike wrote about in "A&P.".