American Literature

INTRODUCTION
Jack London wrote To Build a Fire in 1908. It was the story of an unnamed man who struggles against the snow in the Klondike in winter and eventually meets his tragic freezing end. It is a story that emphasizes mans helplessness against the wrath of nature. Dickinsons poem A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, on the other hand, was written early on in 1865. In this short poem about a certain creature believed to be a snake, Dickinson also shows mans fear of nature. However, Walt Whitmans poem Song of Myself 6, which he wrote much earlier on in 1855, is about the narrators communion with God, nature, and other people in the form of the grass. The first two works are similar in that the characters have experienced natures indifference towards them, and so their similarities will be discussed in the preceding sections. The third work, however, is clearly different from the first two in that there is no hostility that the narrator experiences as he basks in the beauty of and deep meaning in the grass, and so the differences of the poem from the first two will also be underlined.

SIMILARITIES OF LONDONS TO BUILD A FIRE AND DICKINSONS A NARROW FELLOW IN THE GRASS

Naturalism. Jack Londons To Build a Fire and Emily Dickinsons A Narrow Fellow in the Grass both speak of naturalism, or the idea that nature seems indifferent or even hostile to man despite his faith in it.

Several instances of naturalism are found in To Build a Fire, where the extremely freezing cold is seemingly indifferent to the man, or the unnamed narrator, and seeks to thwart his plans of getting to his friends. This otherwise cold hostility of nature is shown in the sinister sheets of ice in the creek and of which he knew their danger (London) and where the sheets of ice hid pools of water under the three-foot-deep snow (London). At the last part of the story, the unnamed narrator is somehow resigned as he mentions that the tremendous cold had already driven the life out of his fingers (London) and that he was definitely losing in his battle with the frost (London). In the end, nature triumphs over man as he drowsed off into what seemed to him the most comfortable and satisfying sleep he had ever known (London) for finally he was dead.

Naturalism in Dickinsons A Narrow Fellow in the Grass is not as harsh compared to that in Londons To Build a Fire. The agitation that the narrator experiences and the tighter breathing, (Dickinson) or a tightening of the chest, shows such separation between the narrator and this fellow which she meets.

Separation of Man and Nature. Aside from the elements of naturalism, the separation of man and nature is also one of the themes in Londons To Build a Fire. Through the years man has always proclaimed his deep and natural connection with nature but there is absolutely none of such connection in To Build a Fire. In the story, nature is pure antagonist and has the role of disrupting the mans painful attempts to build a fire just to keep himself alive. Nature shows no cooperation and no mercy but just pure ruthlessness. With his numb and completely frozen hands, he tried to painfully separate one match from the others and the whole bunch fell in the snow (London), and as if an omen of his death, the match fell into the snow and went out.

In Dickinsons A Narrow Fellow in the Grass, the narrators feeling zero at the bone (Dickinson) or a stone-cold fear is a sign that she is separate from the fellow that she describes in the poem. Furthermore, this feeling of zero at the bone is the thing he feels when he is attended or alone. (Dickinson)

DIFFERENCES WITH WHITMANS SONG OF MYSELF 6
Walt Whitmans Song of Myself 6 is different from To Build a Fire and A Narrow Fellow in the Grass. Whitmans poem is a celebration of natural communion.

Union with Nature. Unlike in the two other works where the efforts of the characters are thwarted by nature, Song of Myself 6 shows union with nature especially in the 5th stanza when grass is shown to live among the people as it sprouts alike in both broad zones and narrow zones and that it grows among black foes and among white. (Whitman)

Another instance of union with nature is in the 7th stanza where the grass seems to be the source of comfort of all sorts of people from young men, and old people to offspring, and that the grass itself is the mothers laps. (Whitman)

Continuity of Life. Unlike in Londons To Build a Fire where the unnamed narrator dies at the end of the story and in Dickinsons A Narrow Fellow in the Grass where the narrator is threatened by the snake, Whitmans poem tells of the continuity of life as shown in the lines of the 12th stanza They are alive and well somewhere and that the smallest sprout of grass shows there is really no death. It also says that the grass does not wait at the end to arrest it, and ceasd the moment life appeard. (Whitman)

The grass in Whitmans Song of Myself 6 is a living symbol of hope as in a hopeful green stuff (Whitman). It was also closely connected with God and nature as it is the handkerchief of the Lord (Whitman), and it is a source of great comfort as it is the mothers laps (Whitman).

CONCLUSION
Jack Londons To Build a Fire and Emily Dickinsons A Narrow Fellow in the Grass are two literary masterpieces that both speak of natures indifference towards man and his self-proclaimed greatness. The narrator in the first work dies and the second is threatened for his life. However, there are no such elements in Walt Whitmans Song of Myself 6. Whitmans poem shows not naturalism but union with nature, and not separation and death but continuity of life.