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Basic Instincts!

London, ''To Build a Fire'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)

"Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the mans judgment"

When I read this quote it made me think of how in very dier situations we as people revert back to our natural instincts. Whether we're lost or someones been hurt, we don't necessarily follow "procedures" and in that aspect we are sort of like animals. Yea we think we know everything and are competent enough to handle it, but in case of an emergency all that common sense seems to go right out the window. Or maybe not out the window but our survival instincts definetly pick up, and we do things we don't normally think we're capable of.

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Comments (3)

EllenEinsporn:

I totally agree with you. Instinct plays a major role in difficult situations and causes people to act differently. For instance, although the man did not have the instinct to go back home in London's "To Build a Fire," he desperate attempt to light a match was very instinctual. He resorts to using his teeth and even burns his hands in the attempt.

I agree. Whenever people are in these dangerous situations, they tend not to fully think straight. Instinct, like you said, is what gets them through the situations.

HallieGeary:

More than lighting the fire,I think that his desperate run for the camp and human help was instinctual. In the end even the dog's instincts tell it that it needs to find humans and fire to save itself. I think ignoring instincts, too, is very important in this story, because of how recklessly the man ignores the instinct to find warmth in cold temperatures. He even ignores the warning of the old man, who tells him to travel with another (the instinct to travel in a pack) when the weather is under 50 below. If he had listened to these things he probably would have survived.

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