Into the Wild Lesson Plan

To Build a Fire

Kind of Activity:

Classwide Discussion

Objective:

To compare the protagonist of Jack London's "To Build a Fire" with McCandless

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.9

Structure:

As homework prior to this activity, assign students to read Jack London's 1908 short story "To Build a Fire," available at http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html. Ask students to compare the story's narrator, a man who sets out alone in the Yukon, with what they know so far of Chris McCandless. What might it have been in stories such as these that inspired McCandless to write "Jack London is King" on a piece of wood outside his bus?

On an interactive...