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The Main Yukon Trail
“The boys” are how the man refers to his traveling companions who he’ll meet up with at the end of a day of solo travel. The boys, who never appear within the space of the story, but who repeatedly appear in the man’s thoughts, function as a symbol, rather than as characters. This generic group represents many things to the man: his destination, security, comfort, and companionship. His focus on the boys evolves over the course of the story as his circumstances change. He looks forward to reaching the boys. He is disappointed when he stumbles into the water because it will delay his arrival at the camp to meet the boys. He imagines the boys finding his dead body and feels, as he dies, that he no longer belongs in their group. The boys symbolize an unattainable goal of “civilization,” a space that is controlled by humans. The man is not with the boys because he is in nature, alone. Nature, the opposite of the boys, presents physical threats, isolation, and indifference.
The Boys Quotes in To Build a Fire
The To Build a Fire quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Boys. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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To Build A Fire
Quotes
Later, the dog whined loudly. And still later it crept close to the man and caught the scent of death. This made the animal bristle and back away. A little longer it delayed, howling under the stars that leaped and danced and shone brightly in the cold sky. Then it turned and trotted up the trail in the direction of the camp it knew, where were the other food-providers and fire-providers.
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The Boys Symbol Timeline in To Build a Fire
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Boys appears in To Build a Fire. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
To Build A Fire
...than fifty degrees below zero. The man is hiking alone toward Henderson Camp to meet the boys , his traveling companions. He plans to arrive by six o’clock, when it’ll be dark,...
(full context)
...his feet from freezing, to reach the camp. If only he could get there, then the boys would take care of him. But he also starts to think that he’ll never reach...
(full context)
The man imagines the boys finding his frozen body after searching for him the next day. He pictures them on...
(full context)
