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Exposition: Setting
The story is set in Klondike, Yukon, Canada during winter. As the story suggests, it is “a bleak January day” in the north, as the temperature has reached sixty degrees below zero. -
Exposition: Characterization
The main character's name is Tom Vincent. He is considered a pretty hard man who is very confident in himself and feels that he can conquer over nature. Although he was once informed by a wise man to "'[n]ever travel alone,'" he decided to go on a nin-mile hike through the snow solo, which leads him into trouble. -
Rising Action
As the story continues, Tom hikes for some time, and rewards himself with lunch. -
Rising Action
As he begins eating his biscuits he has to take his gloves off, but his fingers start to freeze. -
Climax
Tome tries to run around and warm up, but the ice breaks below him and he falls into a lake. Tom realizes that he has lost his battle with nature and decides it is time to build himself a fire. -
Falling Action
Because his first attempt at a fire failed, he decided to try again. During his second attempt, snow from a tree branch above fell on him, so he had to try yet again. It took him five failed attempts to light the fire that he realized he was going to die in the snow. -
Falling Action
As he's preparing for death, he thinks about happier times with his mates and wishes he was with them rather than stuck by himself in the harsh Klondike. He strikes the idea (no pun intended) to light a match and put his hands into the fire, with the logic that it would be better to have no hands than to have no life. -
Resolution
He ends up gaining enough strength to escape the cold, and lives on to see another day. After a tough but influencial experience in the Klondike, Tom returns home a changed man, both physically and mentally.