American Literature Portfolio
The reality of Judy's life conflicts with Dexter's vision of her, and her downfall destroys
Dexter's "winter dreams." The dream of being with her -- an unfulfilled dream -- has kept him
from realizing that the glory of his social climb lay in its progression rather than in its
fulfillment.
To Built A Fire
Part I
``To Build a Fire'' begins at nine o'clock on a winter morning as an unnamed man travels
across the Yukon Territory in Northwestern Canada. The man is a chechaquo (cheechako), a
Chinook jargon word meaning ``newcomer.'' This is the man's first winter in the Yukon, but
because he is ``without imagination'' and thus unaccustomed to thinking about life and death,
he is not afraid of the cold, which he estimates at fifty degrees below zero. He is on his way to
join the rest of his companions at an old mining camp on a distant fork of Henderson Creek,
and he estimates his arrival time will be six o'clock in the evening. The man is traveling on
annaabi.ee 
