I'm not real familiar with the works of Jack London, but as the narrator explained the short story he had read in high school, I also remembered reading "To Build a Fire." Any time one author mentions another in one's work, I immediately wonder why that author was selected. To me the short story seems to parallel the narrators life. I read it comparing his struggles with alcoholism to the lighting of the fire. His first stint in rehab probably worked for a while, but eventually the alcohol covered him, much like the snow on the extinguished fire. The big question for me is, who is he talking to in the last line?
Random things that stuck out to me(kind of stream of consciousness):
"Like the rest of us, JP is first and foremost a drunk." - this is what defines them
Narrator waiting to break into seizures after it happens to Tiny- "So every time a little flitter starts up anywhere, I draw some breath and wait to find myself on my back, looking up, somebody's fingers in my mouth." - helplessness, outside forces we cannot control?
JP's story of falling down the well- "everything about his life was different for him at the bottom of that well." - Comparison to "rock bottom" at rehab?
Narrator asking JP's wife for a kiss for good luck?
The juxtaposition of the happy bedroom scene with his wife again the realities of what his life had become?
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