Luck Of Roaring Camp Analysis

Man versus Nature Bret Harte first shows us the unforgiving nature of Nature in “Luck of Roaring Camp” (1868). To show how very little Nature cares about us puny humans, and how swiftly she can destroy us, Harte states “… The North Fork suddenly leaped over its banks, and shot up the triangular valley of Roaring Camp” (Harte). Not only did Mother Nature come upon them swiftly, she also claimed three lives, including the innocent baby all the men in the camp had come to love. The same baby that earlier Harte described Nature being almost nurse-like to. “She would send wandering breezes to visit him with the balm of bay… the tall redwoods nodded familiarly and sleepily…” (Harte). The men even knew the flooding was a possibility – Stumpy himself, in a horrible twist of foreshadowing, claimed the river will return again to their little encampment. He is aware of the perilous nature of Mother Nature, but is either resigned to it or believes he’s above it. Even today, people refuse to evacuate ahead of floods, fires and hurricanes, thinking they are above it all. Harte uses his text here to show us how dangerous Nature truly is. Even tornadoes aren’t methodical in their destruction – they skip over entire homes, but
Here is a man, who lacks proper training, who tries to best Nature. He’s described as having figured the signs of weakened ice by the “sunken, candied appearance that advertised the danger” (London). However, Nature is not so easily figured out; the man encounters a spot where “the soft unbroken snow seemed to advertise solidity beneath” (London). Once he steps into the ice and gets his feet wet, the real war between man and Nature begins. The text is called “To Build a Fire” after all. The fires he works on through the text are the biggest show of his gradual realization from he is better than Nature to Nature is better than