In Jack London’s short story “To Build a Fire” as well as Zane Grey’s “Roders of the Purple Stage,” the dialogue between the old and the new texts, exposing multiple levels of intertextuality, offers a wide-ranging reading experience. Despite each having its unique environment, both texts are related to each other as far as they share some common themes, characters, and narrative elements. London’s depiction of how to fight in the inhospitable-to-human-life Yukon tundra is like Grey realizing the impossible difficulties of the Wild West of the United States. Through the use of Thomas Foster’s theory of intertextuality, this essay explores the fact that both characters experience the same hostile nature, a case of loneliness and resilience, as well as morals. This shows not only the engagement in a profound dialogue but also the existence of the same literary landscapes.
London’s depiction of the unforgiving wilderness of the Yukon brings the readers to a world where life depends on one’s ability to fight against the dangers of nature and resist extreme weather conditions. The author demonstrates a similar description in “Roders of the Purple Stage,” where he brings out the toughness of the wild West as a place with ferocious animals, harsh weather, and dangerous challenges. Here, the writer emphasizes the moral dilemmas and societal issues that are only possible through frontier life. The identification of nature as a relentless foe common to both stories is aimed at developing the image of an unsteady man’s success in a fight against the natural forces that are beyond our control.
In addition, the theme of isolation appears not only in the first but also in the second book, which underlines the experience of the protagonist’s longing and solitude among nature, which is becoming bigger. The main hero of the book goes on an independent trip, which illustrates how he is going to experience the dangers of the vast wilderness and terrible loneliness, as London has explained it. As a matter of fact, in the “Roders of the Purple Stage,” too, the characters are forced away from society; the wilderness might be a landscape, but the canyons and desolation are what they are confronted with. They portray how they feel being alone in different surroundings through their works; therefore, they pay more attention to the affected mental and existential sides (Bandy et al., P.3). Therefore, they vividly recreate isolation’s emotional effects.
Moreover, both authors use the motif of success against unbreakable obstacles to highlight how the stubbornness of the human spirit can keep people calm when confronted with adversity. What is indigenous to Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” is the moment when the protagonist’s survival touches the bottom, consuming his immense desire to stay alive. Additionally, “The Roders of the Purple Stage” brings to the fore the character’s battle with extreme risks that test their courage and endurance, which in turn demonstrate the human’s power to fight on in the face of unknown and threatening situations. As their narratives concerning the idea of survival navigate the specter of the human condition, London and Grey show the astonishing resilience of the human spirit to triumph over the most formidable hindrances, even while offering thousands of other insights that underline the triumph of the human will over adversity.
As the intertextual connection between “To Build a Fire” and “Roders of the Purple Stage” goes deep, London and Grey create a beautiful pictorial image to encompass the audience within their landscapes, amplifying the atmosphere and tension. London’s experienced pen-writing invests a lot of detail in portraying the Yukon’s icy irony of the danger and its vast and malevolent terrain as ominous rivals (London, P.1). They are a very real threat that Barker has to survive. Alongside this, Grey’s imagery of a wild west America as portrayed in “Roders of the Purple Stage” throws the reader onto a terrain of raw beauty and peril, in which plates of towering rock formations, or wide deserts, fit themselves seamlessly into a story fabric. Through their careful use of illustrative techniques, the two authors succeed in raising the curtain and allowing readers to step into their worlds, and it stays in the minds of the readers even after turning the final page.
Furthermore, the narratives of both heroes show the complicated ways in which men can feel the need to be strong, lasting, and, at the same time, weak when they fight with the burning theme of humanity in the tough moments of events, according to(London p.14). A man’s staunch stubbornness and strong dependence on himself in the story “To Build a Fire” are eventually surpassed by his arrogant pride and inability to follow the experiences of life’s lessons. An example is “Roders of the Purple Stage,” the influence of socially constructed norms and gender stereotypes on two male personalities is shown; their demonstration of strength and dominant behaviour often bears heavy consequences. Popular media usually depicts dominant gender stereotypes where masculine characters are lionized. However, both London and Grey provide insight into the complexities of gender identity and power structure in the frontier context.
Besides this, the motif of morality upsurges in both writings as individuals are trapped in ethical haziness and try to figure out what is morally right and what is wrong in an ethically ambiguous environment. In “To Build a Fire,” the relationship between the foolish protagonist and divinity bound by destiny raises questions about human hubris and the outcomes of nature’s execution. In “Roders of the Purple Stage,” fairly similar to our case, human characters, which are set in frontier society, encounter moral dilemmas and ethical boundaries where justice is often written by the gun barrel (Mary Lea P.3). Through their style of developing moral questions, both authors give readers room to think critically about essential and ethical issues shown in their harsh and unfavourable settings.
Besides that, the image of the frontier as the space between phenomena that are shady and identities that are manufactured creates a symbolic purpose in the story that is told. In “To Build a Fire,” the main character walks into the wilderness. This means he crosses thresholds that involve both civilization and the natural wilderness, as well as life and death. Likewise, in “Roders of the Purple Stage,” a wilderness is a place where justice and lawlessness clash, where tradition brings its progress, and where known and unknown coexist by their novel being infused with mystical frontier as intermediate places of transition and aspiration, London and Grey doubtlessly point out the mobility of identity and her inevitable advance in American territories.
The authors also both slip into the psychological intricacies of their main characters, which explain in detail how the human mind reacts under extreme circumstances. “To Build a Fire” is an exciting story with John London’s main character, who undergoes a difficult struggle in which he is in the middle of a fight for a life-threatening situation and his death. A person who is trapped in unearthly circumstances cannot comprehend either fear or despair or compel themself to continue despite all challenges, as stated in (London P. 13). Similarly, in the episode “Roders of the Purple Stage,” Grey’s Heroes, as well as heroines, probe deep within themselves to conquer their inner demons and struggles while trying to get accustomed to the rigorous frontier hardships. Through the most intimate exploration of both authors, the human spirit becomes even more precious and an unbreakable feature, being so powerful and made of resilience.
Both Johannesburg and Grey often put their texts into the nature element using the deterministic forces that are trying to shape the lives of people and the meaning of humanity and nature. In “To Build a Fire,” London renders the unconvincing battle of the protagonist with inevitable stronger forces from nature, according to naturalistic thinking, which claims the incompatibility of human capabilities against the higher powers of nature (London.p.g.14). Likewise, in “Roders of the Purple Stage,” in which human affairs are played out in the large arena of nature against the reality of the western slopes, the characters begin the drama with a struggle of their destinies as a canvas representing the contrast between human desires and the relentless forces of nature. Using naturalism theorists, both authors give a solemn warning to humanity about how unstable life is and the prime laws of the remainder of nature.
In conclusion, it is important to mention that the discursive treatment of Jack London’s “To Build a Fire” and Zane Grey’s “Roders of the Purple Stage” indicates that the dialogue is far more subtle than may initially appear, involving two very different works. By using a similar set of themes like the challenging natural environment, isolation, resilience, morality, and psychological depth, these writers provide the readers with a fascinating panorama of human experience and the intensive experience of surviving in unforgiving nature. Through intertextuality, their accounts, which incorporate both hard-won successes and difficult challenges of the human condition, tangled together to demonstrate the durability of the human spirit when placed amid adversity. In totality, this mosaic of texts reaffirms the abiding relevance of literature as a means of examining the enigma of human experience, which unfolds on the varied literary canvases of the world.
Work Cited
London, Jack. To build a fire. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TrzDDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT2&dq=Jackson+London+%22To+Build+a+Fire%22&ots=ByQHWfyHo5&sig=ztxIHYnNXI2nDJznFRGkMExeie8
Mary Lea, and Kevin Stoehr. Ride, Boldly Ride: The Evolution of the American Western. Univ of California Press,https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_wmuit7kV6AC&oi=fnd&pg=PP2&dq=The+Riders+of+the+Purple+Sage%22+brings+to+the+fore+the+character%27s+battle+with+extreme+risks+that+test+their+courage+and+endurance&ots=Y1v6Yy_iIp&sig=L_EYk-H5cVmlYf_sMPwUBIhYQ5w
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