Jack London, an American author known for his exciting adventure stories, showed the world that even an exciting story set in exotic settings can include all the complexities of great literature. This is seen in many of his stories with the implementation of symbolism, many times a recurring theme in his work. Additionally, London used many ideas of the time such as Darwinism and Spencerism in his writings to better represent his views. However, perhaps one of the most telling signs that London wrote good literature was London's mastery of an emerging literary movement known as naturalism. As seen in a multitude of London's works, symbolism plays an important role in his writings. One of London's greatest works of short fiction, "To Build a Fire" is a prime example of this inclusion of literary technique that is so crucial in so many of London's greatest stories. In this story fire is an important symbol, it symbolizes life in a cold world, the icy Klondike. This symbol helps London demonstrate its belief that to survive in nature you need nature. This is a recurring symbol/theme in London's work, also appearing in "Law of Life". Here, an old Native American must harness fire to survive the harshness of the wilderness. When the old man's fire finally goes out, as it does in "To Build a Fire," so does the old man's (Hamilton) life. Along with the use of fire as a symbol in many of his stories, London uses the symbolic canine in most of his stories, including "To Build a Fire", "Law of Life", Call of the Wild, and White Fang among many other stories. In all these stories some kind of dog appears, be it dog or wolf, which becomes a motif in the works of Jack London. London often uses these characteristics...... middle of paper ...... incorporated into his masterful works the element of literature known as naturalism and joined other great American authors such as Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser in the sphere of great naturalistic writers. Author of such short stories as the White Fang and The Call of the Wild, Jack London incorporated many aspects of literature into his writings that demonstrated that a story can be both exciting and thought-provoking. This was achieved in numerous ways, such as the use of symbolism as the driving force behind the highly naturalistic stories London produced. Furthermore, the use of very different intellectual ideas, such as those of Herbert Spencer and Carl Jung, helped maintain London's belief that exotic stories could be great in the world of literature and have a place alongside other great works such as The Adventures by Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn.