I don’t read many short stories, because I’m not a huge fan of the genre. There, I said it. I enjoy longer books, with more substance and plot to them. Illustrations are of course nice, but not something that I’d consider crucial to getting something out of reading. Thus, I don’t really have any short stories that are particularly meaningful to me. So, I went on the internet and randomly chose a short story that sounded somewhat interesting to me.
What I came up with was “To Build a Fire”, a 1902 story by Jack London. An adventure story about a man hiking alone through the Northwest Territory of Canada, against the suggestions of the locals. A typical man versus nature story, it’s a quite captivating story that was considered one of the first of its kind in the genre. Throughout the story, a large amount of character development takes place, and perseverance and bravery become some of the dominant themes within the story. The entire man versus nature motif would be completely meaningless if the main character were to die halfway through the story. While there is no digital medium to this short story, it could easily be brought alive with illustrations and other media formats.
