Osmosis Concentration Gradient

Osmosis Concentration Gradient Plant cells at all times have a tough cell wall adjoining them. When they occupy water by osmosis they begin to swell up, but the cell wall prevents them from bursting. Plant cells turn into turgid when they are placed in dilute solutions. Turgid means swollen and tough. The pressure inside the cell increases; ultimately the internal pressure of the cell is so high that no more water can enter the cell. This liquid or hydrostatic pressure works in opposition to osmosis. Turgidity is incredibly vital to plants since this is what makes the green parts of the plant keep upright. Given that potatoes are plants the similar thing will occur to its cells, they will enlarge and become extra turgid. But if a plant cell is put in a concentrated sugar solution it will drop water through osmosis and become flaccid, this is the precise opposite of turgid. So, if you then place the plant cell into a concentrated sugar solution and also look at it beneath a microscope you would notice that the inside of the cells have shrunk and pulled away from the cell wall, this would be known as plasmolysed. But if a plant cell is put in a solution which has accurately the similar osmotic strength like the cells they are in a position between turgidity and flaccidity. The water movement of a cell has the potential of disturbing a whole organism as contrasting to just a single cell. This can be achieved through numerous diverse ways. First of all, if water is occupied into a plant through the roots the ending consequence will be the hydration of the whole organism. Also, if a plant cools down, water or sweat is unconstrained and passes throughout the organism. In this investigation I have used many scientific definitions, which I have explained below: Hypotonic A hypotonic cell surroundings is an atmosphere with a minor concentration of solutes than the cytoplasm of the cell. Within a hypotonic environment, osmosis creates a current of water into the cell, causing the growth and spreading out of the cell. The growth may perhaps guide to the bursting of the cell. A hypertonic result has a higher concentration when compared to the cell. Hypotonic means it has a lesser concentration compared to the cell. Isotonic is a condition in which the concentrations of the cell and of the solution are in an identical proportion. Plasmolysis Plasmolysis is the reduction of the protoplasm of cells inside plants suitable to the loss of water during osmosis. It is while the cell membrane takes off the cell wall and the vacuole collapses when put in a hypertonic atmosphere. The reverse of Plasmolysis in plant cells is cytolysis. Hypertonic A hypertonic cell atmosphere has a bigger concentration of solutes at the outer of the cell. Consequently, in hypertonic surroundings, osmosis makes water to run out of the cell. If a sufficient amount of water is taken away in this way, the cytoplasm will contain such a tiny concentration of water that the cell has trouble working. Turgor Pressure Turgor pressure is the risky internal pressure in a cell ensuing from osmotic pressure. Hypothesis I expect that when there is a high concentration of sucrose the water molecules from inside the potato section will go away from the potato and set off into the sucrose. Since sucrose has a big concentration of sugar and a small concentration of water, this is subsequent laws of osmosis. Once the procedure has happened, the cell of the potato will happen to be flaccid. In addition, as the quantity of sucrose in the solution increases the potato piece will get smaller more and as the quantity of distilled water increases in the solution, the potato piece will become turgid. I expect that the more water there is in the solution, the more the potato cell will swell up, which would make it turgid. This will raise the total mass of the potato however; the cells will not come apart as the cellulose cell wall is inelastic. Because of the Turgor pressure the inside of the cell will initiate to move forward alongside the cell wall and provide support to the plant tissues. Variables There are numerous diverse variables which may well affect the results of the experiments. They are listed below: Mass of the potato piece: The size of the potato piece must be tiny enough to fit within the tube. The size ought to be large enough to observe an outcome in mass following the experiment. This variable will be controlled by cutting and measuring the mass on weighing scales. Concentration of Sucrose: The concentration of the sucrose must not be excessively large, or else the molecules of the potato will travel towards it rapidly and the weight of the potato will rise too fast. It must not be excessively low or else the potato will become bigger in size as the water molecules will shift from the solution into the potato. This variable will be controlled using equal concentration of sucrose in every experiment but will be changing the amount. Amount of Sucrose: The amount of sucrose is the variable which I will be changing. This is because by changing the volume of sucrose but keeping the quantity of the solution stable, the concentration of sucrose becomes more diluted. So, from there I preserve the result of different concentrations on osmosis. Temperature: The temperature should stay stable to maintain the investigation to be fair. The experiments ought to be carried out in the same area with the same equipment to keep reliability of results accurate as possible. It must stay put at room temperature to guarantee fairness and reliability. Time: Every experiment must be recorded up to a firm time. It must not be too lengthy or there would be sufficient time for the water molecules to travel in or out of the potato making incorrect results. If it is not long enough then there would not be sufficient time for osmosis to happen. The time must stay the same all the way through the experiments to make sure it is fair and to guarantee that the results are similar. To ensure the experiment to be fair, some aspects of the experiment will have to be kept the same, at the same time as one key variable is changed. If the experiment is not a fair test, I will be getting the incorrect results which could guide me to the wrong conclusions. I have preferred to vary the concentration of the sugar solution. The primary and mainly the important thing to do, is to get the measurements of the solutions and the mass of the potato cores as precise as possible. This will be prepared to each single potato core. I will use a size 6 cork borer to get the potato cores out of the original potato. I will be equally cutting the potato cores with a scalpel to make them as identical in length as achievable to make it a fair test. I will clarify how the length will influence the result of osmosis beneath. I will also be measuring the length to the nearest millimeter. If some of the non-variables are not kept steady, this would then not be a fair test then. If we obtain the potato core for example., if the potato core was taken away with several cork borers, then the potato core would be a different width, or else if one potato core was longer than another potato core, there would be an raise in surface area which would consequently mean that there is more surface area for osmosis to take place which wo uld either mean that the potato core would be heavier than it should be or lighter than it ought to be. I will use the same top-pan balance to weigh my potato cores because measurements can faintly differ between scales. Before using the scale, I will wipe the scale as it would have been used by other fellow classmates. The potato core to be entirely covered in the sucrose solution is too another very important part in order to make the experiment as fair as achievable. Because if the potato core is not entirely covered by the sucrose solution, the outcome of osmosis will not take place to its fullest and I would obtain dissimilar readings of the mass for each potato core, which will also make the test unreasonable. For that reason, I will use 10cm of every concentration of solution for each potatoes core. Carrying out the experiments in stable temperature surroundings is extremely essential. The temperature can have an effect on the consistency of the experiment. Every test tube will be located in the same site at room temperature. On the other hand, this might not create a constant environment. Obtaining and experimenting with the accurate measurement of concentration of sugar solution is awfully important to the experiment. If the amount of one solution in a test tube is greater or lower than another, it will influence the pattern of results. E.g. if the amount of solution is greater than the rest, it would be rather possible that there will more osmosis taking place, bearing in mind that there is additional sucrose solution, while there is a smaller amount of solution in the test tube, not as much osmosis will happen. Yet again, this cannot always be correct. I can always find out by essentially doing an experiment where I put two potato cores of the identical length in separate test tubes in the same concentration of sugar solution but with a dissimilar amount. E.g., one potato core can be placed in a test tube of 10ml of 0.50M of sugar solution and one potato core can be put in a test tube of 25ml of 0.50M of sugar solution. Equipment Distilled Water Potato Sucrose Solution Scalpel Cutting plate Ruler Test Tubes Measuring Cylinder Weighting Scale Initially I will make sure that every potato piece weighs approximately the same. In addition, I have to make the surface area available the same. All of the potato pieces will be cut 4cm by 1cm by 1cm. Once I weigh the potato pieces, I will put them into fifteen different test tubes. Then I will make the solutions of distilled water and sucrose concentration. The concentrations will vary by: 5ml in each test tube, each experiment will be repeated three times. Each experiment will be repeated three times Experiment No. Sucrose Quantity (ml) Distilled Water Quantity (ml) I will put in the dissimilar amounts of sucrose to water into dissimilar test tubes. I will leave the solution for 24 Hours and then take measurements. All experiments will be repeated 3 times and an average will be prepared to enhance accuracy. Safety Safety glasses are not a critical part of safety, because there are not any dangerous chemicals I will be using in this experiment. Each and every apparatus must be labeled visibly; as a result there would not be any disorder. A first aid kit must be set aside nearby to save time in case of a cut ought to happen all through the experiment. Preliminary Results From my Preliminary Results, I am to trying to find out: If the length I have chosen is a good choice If I will change the concentrations If the method should be changed or not Preliminary Results-Changes to be made for Actual Experiment If the length I have chosen is a good choice To cut the potato piece to 4cm took a long time, the length was also too big, so therefore for the actual experiment, every potato will be 3cm by 1cm by 1cm. If I will change the concentrations The concentrations used are perfect and the results given are consistent. If the method should be changed or not The method used was well-organized and straightforward. It was enormously simple to replicate and since I have carried it out numerous times I have become used to the method, so the method will not be changed and will be the same as the Prelimary experiment. Conclusion After the finishing point of the investigation I can bring to a close, that correct results were produced. I have presented my data in two ways, graphs and the tables above. I drew graphs because you are able to spot any trends. My results evidently show the comparison between increasing the concentration of sucrose-mass of potato will decrease. My graph can be said to be a straight line, so my results are accurate and reliable. From my outcome I can see that as the concentration of sucrose increases, there is a steady increase in the percentage change of the potato mass.At highest concentration the potato has lost the most mass 54%, this will be called flaccid. So, the concentration gradient was at its maximum, for this reason the highest rate of osmosis took place at this concentration. Still, as the sucrose concentration altered to lesser values the loss in mass from the potato also decreased. Once the concentration of sugar was completely water, the potato had gained mass 20%. O smosis of water molecules was currently going on back into the potato. At that point the Potato Cells were Turgid. From the outcome I can say that my prediction was right. At high sucrose concentrations the potato lost mass and became flaccid, and at small sucrose concentrations the mass enlarged. This would be because of osmosis taking place, the water molecules moving from low concentration of sucrose to the high solution in the potato. Evaluation On the whole, the investigation was good. As I did a preliminary experiment, I could make changes to the Actual Experiment. From looking at the 3 graphs and the tables, it can be said, there were no anomalous results. This can be said because the values are precise and accurate with each other. The method used was well-organized and reliable upon. I used the same method in the preliminary and the Actual Experiment, this was good for me as I got used to the method and the whole experiment became easier for me. In the experiment, I could have improved accuracy, if I did the experiment further times. I could have also tested more Sucrose concentrations. Also, I could have measured every hour instead of 24 hours. I can also carry out an investigation into how osmosis is affected when it takes place in different conditions, i.e. Low and High temperature.

Jack London

ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, Vol. 23, No. 3, 172–178, 2010 Copyright  © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0895-769X DOI: 10. 1080/08957691003712363 R USSELL M. H ILLIER Providence College Crystal Beards and Dantean In? uence in Jack London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† James I. McClintock has described Jack London’s classic short story â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† as the â€Å"most mature expression of his pessimism† (116).In what follows, I wish to explore the possibility that there is a substantial element of spiritual allegory operative in London’s narrative. London originally conceived his tale as a moral fable and a cautionary narrative to American youth never to travel alone. To this end, London published the story in Youth’s Companion. In its ? nal version, though, the tale assumed decidedly darker and more sinister tones.In capturing the menace of the inclement northland, London was dr awing upon his own travels in the Klondike, but I would argue that his narrative was also inspired by a fusion of his experience of the harsh and bleak environment of Dawson City with his encounter with the literature he read while he was sheltering in a winter cabin beside the Stewart River, in circumstances London’s biographer Andrew Sinclair characterizes as â€Å"a trap of cold and boredom, short rations and scurvy† (48). Sinclair describes the modest library with which London weathered that cramped and piercingly cold spell of ? e months and writes how, â€Å"In the tedious con? nes of the winter cabins, [London] settled down to absorb the books that became the bedrock of his thought and writing, underlying even the socialism which was his faith. These were the works of Darwin, Huxley, Herbert Spencer, and Kipling, Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno† (48). The last two works Sinclair accounts for are of particular consequence. Between the pages of Milton and Dante’s epics London would have encountered fallen angels and unrepentant sinners who had been immured in Hell for committing crimes of hubris.Indeed, London transferred his fascination for the hubris of Milton’s Satan to his antihero Wolf Larsen in the novel The Sea-Wolf . 1 Most importantly, though, London would have discovered, at the outer reaches of Milton’s Hell, â€Å"a frozen Continent [ . . . ] dark and wilde, beat with perpetual storms / Of Whirlwind 172 Jack London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† 173 and dire Hail, [ . . . ] all else deep snow and ice† (PL 2. 587–89, 591); and, within the innermost circle of Dante’s pit of Hell, he would have found a frozen subterranean lake blasted by biting winds.Neither infernal vision would have been so very far removed from London’s own experience of the subzero temperatures and appalling conditions of the Klondike. Indeed, the inhuman cold that defe ats London’s protagonist was as much an attribute of the traditional medieval idea of Hell as its notorious qualities of ? re and brimstone. The landscape of London’s revised tale is conspicuously preternatural— â€Å"the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all† (1302).Where Milton’s Hell is characterized by the paradoxical quality of â€Å"darkness visible† (PL 1. 63), London’s comfortless northern world has â€Å"an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark† (1301). London’s protagonist is an anonymous â€Å"man,† a gold prospector who not only lacks the imagination to survive in the Yukon wasteland, but who is also oblivious to any metaphysical possibilities and unmindful of â€Å"the conjectural ? eld of immortality and man’s place in the universe† (1302).Incapa ble of companionability, the man always travels alone, except for his husky, an animal he treats with contempt and even with hostility. His disdain for the wise counsel that â€Å"the old-timer on Sulphur Creek† (1309) gives him to travel into the northland with a partner is a recurrent reminder to London’s reader of the man’s improvidence, unsociability, and willful self-alienation. London’s own brutal ordeal in the Klondike had taught him the importance of having a trail-mate: when wintering by the Stewart River, London and Fred Thompson, journeying for supplies through the wilderness, had â€Å"backpacked all the way or they pulled heir own sled, for they owned no team of huskies† (Sinclair 48). In the case of the man in London’s narrative, the idea of working alongside or depending upon other creatures means no more to him than the enjoyment of the commodities he associates with them: â€Å"the boys† at the camp, for example, whom the man always keeps in mind throughout the tale, are, to the man, indistinguishable from the material comforts he hopes to gain from â€Å"a ? re† and â€Å"a hot supper† (1302).The marked in? uence of Dante in London’s narrative, a crucial factor in one’s appreciation of the tale which, to the best of my knowledge, has hitherto escaped critical attention, helps to con? rm London’s infernal rendering of the unforgiving Yukon wasteland. In structural terms the story has a repetitive, nightmarish quality as â€Å"the man† makes three desperate ventures to build a ? re that are each time frustrated—? rst, by having the ? e â€Å"blotted out† by an â€Å"avalanche† of snow (1309); second, by having his book of sulphur matches extinguished in one fell swoop (1310–11); and, third, by having â€Å"the nucleus of the little ? re† snuffed out by a â€Å"large piece of green moss† (1311). Lee Clark Mitchell has drawn attention 174 ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews to the ominous, reiterative quality of the tale and to how â€Å"events [ . . . ] repeat themselves into an eerie signi? cance, as the man attempts over and over to enact the story’s titular in? nitive† (78).The man’s predicament recalls the unrelenting fates of transgressors in the classical underworld—of Sisyphus, who pushes a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll down the hill’s other side, or of Tantalus, who fruitlessly reaches out to eat from a branch that is always eluding his grasp. But the man’s thwarted actions also mimic the commitment of Dante’s sinners to both the unending nature of the punishment they must suffer and the experience of their particular sin’s interminable round in each of the nine vicious circles built into the funnel of Dante’s Hell.London underlines the infernal atmosphere of his tale. He is careful, for instance, to identify the old-timer on Sulphur Creek, who warns the man that a traveler should never venture alone into the Klondike in treacherous weather, with that essential feature of Hell, namely Hell’s sulphurate fumes. London further emphasizes this theme by having his antihero build a ? re with â€Å"his bunch of sulphur matches† (1310) that, when lit, emits an evil smell of â€Å"burning brimstone† (1311). On bungling his second desperate attempt to build a ? re, the man not only blunders and sets a? me all of his remaining seventy matches, he also sets alight his own hand, so that the burning of his ? esh by ? re becomes associated with the freezing cold that burns into the core of his being at the story’s climax. The freezing cold that literally chills the man to the bone is as apt a fate as a case of Dantean contrapasso, where the punishment of the sinner is appropriate to the nature of their sin. The man’s ethical insentience, his lac k of a moral and metaphysical compass to direct his choices and regulate his attitude toward others and toward the universe of which he is a part, is re? cted in the deadening numbness that torments and ultimately destroys him. London includes in his narrative one small but revealing detail from Dante’s Inferno that gives the reader a key to unlock the moral of his fable. Because of the intense cold, the beard of London’s nameless protagonist, like the coat of the husky that reluctantly accompanies the man, sports an icy â€Å"appendage† (1303): The frozen moisture of [the husky’s] breathing had settled on its fur in a ? ne powder of frost, and especially were its jowls, muzzle, and eyelashes whitened by its crystalled breath.The man’s red beard and mustache were likewise frosted, but more solidly, the deposit taking the form of ice and increasing with every warm, moist breath he exhaled. Also, the man was chewing tobacco, and the muzzle of ice hel d his lips so rigidly that he was unable to clear his chin when he expelled the juice. The result was that a crystal beard of the color and solidity of amber was increasing its length on his chin. If he fell down Jack London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† 175 it would shatter itself, like glass, into brittle fragments. But he did not mind the appendage. 1303) This curious â€Å"ice-muzzle on his mouth† (1304) elongates as the man progresses on his journey, so that â€Å"he continued monotonously to chew tobacco and to increase the length of his amber beard† (1304); later still, the â€Å"ice-muzzle† (1306) obstructs his mouth when he attempts to eat his meal. The â€Å"amber beard,† a vivid if admittedly bizarre feature of London’s tale, gathers in signi? cance if we recollect events in the ninth and ? nal circle of Dante’s Inferno. When Dante the pilgrim arrives at Hell’s bottom, he discovers a frozen Lake Cocytus that i s swept by bitter, freezing winds.As Dante ventures toward the heart of Lake Cocytus, where the ? gure of Lucifer weeps, gnashes his teeth, and beats his wings, he eventually arrives at the region of Ptolomea (Inf. 33. 124). In this place he ? nds wretched sinners buried up to their waists in ice: We went farther on, where the frost roughly swathes another people, not bent downwards, but with faces all upturned. The very weeping there prevents their weeping, and the grief, which ? nds a barrier upon their eyes, turns inward to increase the agony, for the ? rst tears form a knot and, like a crystal visor, ? l all the cup beneath the eyebrow. (Inf . 33. 91–99) The â€Å"crystal visor [visiere di cristallo]† (Inf . 33. 98) or â€Å"the hard veils [i duri veli]† (Inf . 33. 112) that form and clamp about the faces of these sinners offer an attractive source for the â€Å"crystal beard† or â€Å"muzzle of ice† that torments the countenance of London†™s antihero. Just as the tears around the faces of Dante’s sinners solidify and accumulate to form visors or veils, so the tobacco spit in the beard of London’s protagonist encrusts, clusters, and builds to form an icemuzzle.London’s ice-muzzle that shatters, â€Å"like glass, into brittle fragments† (1303), also seems to recall Dante’s frozen Lake Cocytus, which has the durability â€Å"of glass [di vetro]† (Inf . 32. 24). In his depiction of the Yukon London gestures further to Dante’s sinners, who are embedded in Lake Cocytus. Just as Dante’s Lake Cocytus is one solid block of ice, so the creek that surrounds the man â€Å"was frozen clear to the bottom, — no creek could contain water in that arctic winter† (1304).Equally, just as Dante’s sinners are trapped in the ice, so various ice pools, covered with â€Å"a snow-hidden ice-skin† (1305), present â€Å"traps† (1304) that are concealed around the surface of the creek. It is through the ice-skin of one of these same traps that the man falls and, like Dante’s â€Å"wretches of the cold crust [tristi de la fredda crosta]† (Inf . 33. 109), the man â€Å"wet[s] himself halfway to the knees before he ? oundered out to the ?rm crust† (1307). 176 ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and ReviewsLondon’s allusion to Dante is all the more pertinent when we consider the nature of the sin for which Dante’s transgressors in Ptolomea are being punished. The inhabitants of Ptolomea are those offenders who have transgressed against their guests, hosts, or companions. London’s critics have acknowledged the man’s hubris as â€Å"an overweening con? dence in the ef? cacy of his own rational faculties and a corresponding blindness to the dark, nonrational powers of nature, chance, and fate† (Labor 63–64). Yet, as with Dante’s sinners con? ed in Ptolome a, the fatal ? aw of London’s antihero is as much his inability to understand the value of companionship or community. In this way the nameless man’s husky acts as a foil to its master. London characterizes the relationship between the man and his dog as that existing between a â€Å"? re-provider† (1309) and a â€Å"toil-slave† (1306), and, as such, he reveals that their union is based upon a ruthless pact of convenience and functionality rather than an accord of mutual love, respect, and sympathy.The â€Å"menacing throat-sounds† (1307) of the man are, to the perceptions of the dog, as â€Å"the sound of whip-lashes† (1307), and the narrative con? rms the dog’s apprehensions in his master’s futile, last ditch effort to destroy man’s best friend and use its very lifeblood and vital warmth in order to save his own skin. London’s account of his protagonist’s failure to be companionate with his dog is a cruci al index to the man’s inability to â€Å"meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man’s frailty in general† (1302).His cruel treatment of his dog furnishes yet another example of his refusal to perceive his fellow human beings and the natural world surrounding him as more than â€Å"things† stripped bare of their â€Å"signi? cances† (1302). His aversion to companionability, which is equivalent to Dante’s sin of Ptolomea, is further re? ected in his refusal to heed the old-timer’s advice to foster human community and trust to a â€Å"trail-mate† (1309). London’s allusion to both the frozen wastes of Dante’s Ptolomea and the crystal beards of the sinners who reside in that nhospitable climate provides a convincing literary analogue for London’s haunting and gloomy depiction of the Klondike; the intertext also serves to highlight the nature of the tragic ? aw of London’s protago nist in placing his trust in a misguided individualism where â€Å"any man who was a man could travel alone† (1308). It may be the case that in the parallels between Jack London’s severe experience of being buried in the Klondike and Dante’s unforgettable vision of his cardinal sinners, buried in Lake Cocytus, London found a subject that he could not resist treating imaginatively, irrespective of his religious and political standpoint.However, if, as I believe, London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† can be read as a moral fable of transgression and punishment that is heavily invested in the stuff of spiritual allegory and, in particular, relies upon the design of Dante’s Commedia, then our tidy, traditional understanding of London as a long-standing, dedicated Socialist who was condescending toward, if not scornful of, spiritual and religious matters becomes problematic or, at the very least, open to reassessment. Jack London’s â€Å"T o Build a Fire (II)† 177So that there can be no mistaking the tale’s literary debt to the Florentine master, London’s coda to his narrative contains a strong, though unsettling, allusion to the close of each of Dante’s three canticles. The allusion unsettles, because it bears London’s signature pessimism regarding an unresponsive universe. As, in turn, each canticle ends, Dante the pilgrim gains an increasingly clari? ed and luminous perspective upon the starry universe that proclaims God’s abundant love and His concern for Creation: in Inferno, while emerging from Hell’s pit onto the surface of the Earth, Dante is able to contemplate the ? mament and â€Å"see again the stars [riveder le stelle]† (Inf . 34. 139); in Purgatorio, from the peak of Mount Purgatory Dante is â€Å"pure and ready to rise to the stars [puro e disposto a salire a le stelle]† (Purg. 33. 145); and, in Paradiso, Dante is at long last granted a beati ? c vision of his Maker and is ? lled with wonder â€Å"by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars [l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle]† (Parad. 33. 145).In contrast, London’s powerful closing image of the husky, now masterless and â€Å"howling under the stars that leaped and danced and shone brightly in the cold sky† (1315), indicates a more indifferent and uncaring naturalistic universe than the ordered Dantean cosmos where God’s embosoming love moves the sun and the other stars. Perhaps, then, in London’s closing reversion to the bright, dancing stars and the cold sky of an unfeeling universe, James McClintock is correct in his critical judgment that, ultimately, London never truly abandoned his essentially pessimistic worldview in â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)†.Notes I wish to thank my freshman class from the fall semester of 2009 for being a receptive audience to the ideas presented in this paper. Above all, I am grateful to Marek Ignatowicz, a poet and a true man of letters. Without his facility for illuminating discussion on all things literary, and without our memorable conversation on the subject of beards in fact and in ? ction, it is highly probable that the topic of this paper would never have occurred to me. 1 Milton’s Paradise Lost, and in particular the character of Milton’s Satan, is an inspiration to Wolf Larsen in The Sea-Wolf .Larsen remarks of Milton’s fallen archangel: â€Å"But Lucifer was a free spirit. To serve was to suffocate. He preferred suffering in freedom to all the happiness of a comfortable servility. He did not care to serve God. He cared to serve nothing. He was no ? gurehead. He stood on his own legs. He was an individual† (249). Works Cited Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy: Inferno. Trans. Charles S. Singleton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970. Print. ———. The Divine Comedy: Paradiso. Trans. Cha rles S. Singleton.Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975. Print. 178 ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews ———. The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio. Trans. Charles S. Singleton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973. Print. Labor, Earle. Jack London. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1974. Print. London, Jack. The Complete Short Stories of Jack London. Ed. Earle Labor, Robert C. Leitz, III, and I. Milo Shepard. 3 vols. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. Print. ———. The Sea-Wolf . New York: MacMillan, 1967. Print. McClintock, James I.White Logic: Jack London’s Short Stories. Cedar Springs: Wolf House Books, 1976. Print. Milton, John. The Poetical Works of John Milton. Ed. Helen Darbishire. London: Oxford University Press,1958. Print. Mitchell, Lee Clark. â€Å"‘Keeping His Head’: Repetition and Responsibility in London’s ‘To Build a Fire. †Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Journal of Modern Lite rature 13. 1 (1986): 76–96. Print. Sinclair, Andrew. Jack: A Biography of Jack London. London: Harper and Row, 1977. Print. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Jack London ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews, Vol. 23, No. 3, 172–178, 2010 Copyright  © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0895-769X DOI: 10. 1080/08957691003712363 R USSELL M. H ILLIER Providence College Crystal Beards and Dantean In? uence in Jack London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† James I. McClintock has described Jack London’s classic short story â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† as the â€Å"most mature expression of his pessimism† (116).In what follows, I wish to explore the possibility that there is a substantial element of spiritual allegory operative in London’s narrative. London originally conceived his tale as a moral fable and a cautionary narrative to American youth never to travel alone. To this end, London published the story in Youth’s Companion. In its ? nal version, though, the tale assumed decidedly darker and more sinister tones.In capturing the menace of the inclement northland, London was dr awing upon his own travels in the Klondike, but I would argue that his narrative was also inspired by a fusion of his experience of the harsh and bleak environment of Dawson City with his encounter with the literature he read while he was sheltering in a winter cabin beside the Stewart River, in circumstances London’s biographer Andrew Sinclair characterizes as â€Å"a trap of cold and boredom, short rations and scurvy† (48). Sinclair describes the modest library with which London weathered that cramped and piercingly cold spell of ? e months and writes how, â€Å"In the tedious con? nes of the winter cabins, [London] settled down to absorb the books that became the bedrock of his thought and writing, underlying even the socialism which was his faith. These were the works of Darwin, Huxley, Herbert Spencer, and Kipling, Milton’s Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno† (48). The last two works Sinclair accounts for are of particular consequence. Between the pages of Milton and Dante’s epics London would have encountered fallen angels and unrepentant sinners who had been immured in Hell for committing crimes of hubris.Indeed, London transferred his fascination for the hubris of Milton’s Satan to his antihero Wolf Larsen in the novel The Sea-Wolf . 1 Most importantly, though, London would have discovered, at the outer reaches of Milton’s Hell, â€Å"a frozen Continent [ . . . ] dark and wilde, beat with perpetual storms / Of Whirlwind 172 Jack London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† 173 and dire Hail, [ . . . ] all else deep snow and ice† (PL 2. 587–89, 591); and, within the innermost circle of Dante’s pit of Hell, he would have found a frozen subterranean lake blasted by biting winds.Neither infernal vision would have been so very far removed from London’s own experience of the subzero temperatures and appalling conditions of the Klondike. Indeed, the inhuman cold that defe ats London’s protagonist was as much an attribute of the traditional medieval idea of Hell as its notorious qualities of ? re and brimstone. The landscape of London’s revised tale is conspicuously preternatural— â€Å"the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the strangeness and weirdness of it all† (1302).Where Milton’s Hell is characterized by the paradoxical quality of â€Å"darkness visible† (PL 1. 63), London’s comfortless northern world has â€Å"an intangible pall over the face of things, a subtle gloom that made the day dark† (1301). London’s protagonist is an anonymous â€Å"man,† a gold prospector who not only lacks the imagination to survive in the Yukon wasteland, but who is also oblivious to any metaphysical possibilities and unmindful of â€Å"the conjectural ? eld of immortality and man’s place in the universe† (1302).Incapa ble of companionability, the man always travels alone, except for his husky, an animal he treats with contempt and even with hostility. His disdain for the wise counsel that â€Å"the old-timer on Sulphur Creek† (1309) gives him to travel into the northland with a partner is a recurrent reminder to London’s reader of the man’s improvidence, unsociability, and willful self-alienation. London’s own brutal ordeal in the Klondike had taught him the importance of having a trail-mate: when wintering by the Stewart River, London and Fred Thompson, journeying for supplies through the wilderness, had â€Å"backpacked all the way or they pulled heir own sled, for they owned no team of huskies† (Sinclair 48). In the case of the man in London’s narrative, the idea of working alongside or depending upon other creatures means no more to him than the enjoyment of the commodities he associates with them: â€Å"the boys† at the camp, for example, whom the man always keeps in mind throughout the tale, are, to the man, indistinguishable from the material comforts he hopes to gain from â€Å"a ? re† and â€Å"a hot supper† (1302).The marked in? uence of Dante in London’s narrative, a crucial factor in one’s appreciation of the tale which, to the best of my knowledge, has hitherto escaped critical attention, helps to con? rm London’s infernal rendering of the unforgiving Yukon wasteland. In structural terms the story has a repetitive, nightmarish quality as â€Å"the man† makes three desperate ventures to build a ? re that are each time frustrated—? rst, by having the ? e â€Å"blotted out† by an â€Å"avalanche† of snow (1309); second, by having his book of sulphur matches extinguished in one fell swoop (1310–11); and, third, by having â€Å"the nucleus of the little ? re† snuffed out by a â€Å"large piece of green moss† (1311). Lee Clark Mitchell has drawn attention 174 ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews to the ominous, reiterative quality of the tale and to how â€Å"events [ . . . ] repeat themselves into an eerie signi? cance, as the man attempts over and over to enact the story’s titular in? nitive† (78).The man’s predicament recalls the unrelenting fates of transgressors in the classical underworld—of Sisyphus, who pushes a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll down the hill’s other side, or of Tantalus, who fruitlessly reaches out to eat from a branch that is always eluding his grasp. But the man’s thwarted actions also mimic the commitment of Dante’s sinners to both the unending nature of the punishment they must suffer and the experience of their particular sin’s interminable round in each of the nine vicious circles built into the funnel of Dante’s Hell.London underlines the infernal atmosphere of his tale. He is careful, for instance, to identify the old-timer on Sulphur Creek, who warns the man that a traveler should never venture alone into the Klondike in treacherous weather, with that essential feature of Hell, namely Hell’s sulphurate fumes. London further emphasizes this theme by having his antihero build a ? re with â€Å"his bunch of sulphur matches† (1310) that, when lit, emits an evil smell of â€Å"burning brimstone† (1311). On bungling his second desperate attempt to build a ? re, the man not only blunders and sets a? me all of his remaining seventy matches, he also sets alight his own hand, so that the burning of his ? esh by ? re becomes associated with the freezing cold that burns into the core of his being at the story’s climax. The freezing cold that literally chills the man to the bone is as apt a fate as a case of Dantean contrapasso, where the punishment of the sinner is appropriate to the nature of their sin. The man’s ethical insentience, his lac k of a moral and metaphysical compass to direct his choices and regulate his attitude toward others and toward the universe of which he is a part, is re? cted in the deadening numbness that torments and ultimately destroys him. London includes in his narrative one small but revealing detail from Dante’s Inferno that gives the reader a key to unlock the moral of his fable. Because of the intense cold, the beard of London’s nameless protagonist, like the coat of the husky that reluctantly accompanies the man, sports an icy â€Å"appendage† (1303): The frozen moisture of [the husky’s] breathing had settled on its fur in a ? ne powder of frost, and especially were its jowls, muzzle, and eyelashes whitened by its crystalled breath.The man’s red beard and mustache were likewise frosted, but more solidly, the deposit taking the form of ice and increasing with every warm, moist breath he exhaled. Also, the man was chewing tobacco, and the muzzle of ice hel d his lips so rigidly that he was unable to clear his chin when he expelled the juice. The result was that a crystal beard of the color and solidity of amber was increasing its length on his chin. If he fell down Jack London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† 175 it would shatter itself, like glass, into brittle fragments. But he did not mind the appendage. 1303) This curious â€Å"ice-muzzle on his mouth† (1304) elongates as the man progresses on his journey, so that â€Å"he continued monotonously to chew tobacco and to increase the length of his amber beard† (1304); later still, the â€Å"ice-muzzle† (1306) obstructs his mouth when he attempts to eat his meal. The â€Å"amber beard,† a vivid if admittedly bizarre feature of London’s tale, gathers in signi? cance if we recollect events in the ninth and ? nal circle of Dante’s Inferno. When Dante the pilgrim arrives at Hell’s bottom, he discovers a frozen Lake Cocytus that i s swept by bitter, freezing winds.As Dante ventures toward the heart of Lake Cocytus, where the ? gure of Lucifer weeps, gnashes his teeth, and beats his wings, he eventually arrives at the region of Ptolomea (Inf. 33. 124). In this place he ? nds wretched sinners buried up to their waists in ice: We went farther on, where the frost roughly swathes another people, not bent downwards, but with faces all upturned. The very weeping there prevents their weeping, and the grief, which ? nds a barrier upon their eyes, turns inward to increase the agony, for the ? rst tears form a knot and, like a crystal visor, ? l all the cup beneath the eyebrow. (Inf . 33. 91–99) The â€Å"crystal visor [visiere di cristallo]† (Inf . 33. 98) or â€Å"the hard veils [i duri veli]† (Inf . 33. 112) that form and clamp about the faces of these sinners offer an attractive source for the â€Å"crystal beard† or â€Å"muzzle of ice† that torments the countenance of London†™s antihero. Just as the tears around the faces of Dante’s sinners solidify and accumulate to form visors or veils, so the tobacco spit in the beard of London’s protagonist encrusts, clusters, and builds to form an icemuzzle.London’s ice-muzzle that shatters, â€Å"like glass, into brittle fragments† (1303), also seems to recall Dante’s frozen Lake Cocytus, which has the durability â€Å"of glass [di vetro]† (Inf . 32. 24). In his depiction of the Yukon London gestures further to Dante’s sinners, who are embedded in Lake Cocytus. Just as Dante’s Lake Cocytus is one solid block of ice, so the creek that surrounds the man â€Å"was frozen clear to the bottom, — no creek could contain water in that arctic winter† (1304).Equally, just as Dante’s sinners are trapped in the ice, so various ice pools, covered with â€Å"a snow-hidden ice-skin† (1305), present â€Å"traps† (1304) that are concealed around the surface of the creek. It is through the ice-skin of one of these same traps that the man falls and, like Dante’s â€Å"wretches of the cold crust [tristi de la fredda crosta]† (Inf . 33. 109), the man â€Å"wet[s] himself halfway to the knees before he ? oundered out to the ?rm crust† (1307). 176 ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and ReviewsLondon’s allusion to Dante is all the more pertinent when we consider the nature of the sin for which Dante’s transgressors in Ptolomea are being punished. The inhabitants of Ptolomea are those offenders who have transgressed against their guests, hosts, or companions. London’s critics have acknowledged the man’s hubris as â€Å"an overweening con? dence in the ef? cacy of his own rational faculties and a corresponding blindness to the dark, nonrational powers of nature, chance, and fate† (Labor 63–64). Yet, as with Dante’s sinners con? ed in Ptolome a, the fatal ? aw of London’s antihero is as much his inability to understand the value of companionship or community. In this way the nameless man’s husky acts as a foil to its master. London characterizes the relationship between the man and his dog as that existing between a â€Å"? re-provider† (1309) and a â€Å"toil-slave† (1306), and, as such, he reveals that their union is based upon a ruthless pact of convenience and functionality rather than an accord of mutual love, respect, and sympathy.The â€Å"menacing throat-sounds† (1307) of the man are, to the perceptions of the dog, as â€Å"the sound of whip-lashes† (1307), and the narrative con? rms the dog’s apprehensions in his master’s futile, last ditch effort to destroy man’s best friend and use its very lifeblood and vital warmth in order to save his own skin. London’s account of his protagonist’s failure to be companionate with his dog is a cruci al index to the man’s inability to â€Å"meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon man’s frailty in general† (1302).His cruel treatment of his dog furnishes yet another example of his refusal to perceive his fellow human beings and the natural world surrounding him as more than â€Å"things† stripped bare of their â€Å"signi? cances† (1302). His aversion to companionability, which is equivalent to Dante’s sin of Ptolomea, is further re? ected in his refusal to heed the old-timer’s advice to foster human community and trust to a â€Å"trail-mate† (1309). London’s allusion to both the frozen wastes of Dante’s Ptolomea and the crystal beards of the sinners who reside in that nhospitable climate provides a convincing literary analogue for London’s haunting and gloomy depiction of the Klondike; the intertext also serves to highlight the nature of the tragic ? aw of London’s protago nist in placing his trust in a misguided individualism where â€Å"any man who was a man could travel alone† (1308). It may be the case that in the parallels between Jack London’s severe experience of being buried in the Klondike and Dante’s unforgettable vision of his cardinal sinners, buried in Lake Cocytus, London found a subject that he could not resist treating imaginatively, irrespective of his religious and political standpoint.However, if, as I believe, London’s â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)† can be read as a moral fable of transgression and punishment that is heavily invested in the stuff of spiritual allegory and, in particular, relies upon the design of Dante’s Commedia, then our tidy, traditional understanding of London as a long-standing, dedicated Socialist who was condescending toward, if not scornful of, spiritual and religious matters becomes problematic or, at the very least, open to reassessment. Jack London’s â€Å"T o Build a Fire (II)† 177So that there can be no mistaking the tale’s literary debt to the Florentine master, London’s coda to his narrative contains a strong, though unsettling, allusion to the close of each of Dante’s three canticles. The allusion unsettles, because it bears London’s signature pessimism regarding an unresponsive universe. As, in turn, each canticle ends, Dante the pilgrim gains an increasingly clari? ed and luminous perspective upon the starry universe that proclaims God’s abundant love and His concern for Creation: in Inferno, while emerging from Hell’s pit onto the surface of the Earth, Dante is able to contemplate the ? mament and â€Å"see again the stars [riveder le stelle]† (Inf . 34. 139); in Purgatorio, from the peak of Mount Purgatory Dante is â€Å"pure and ready to rise to the stars [puro e disposto a salire a le stelle]† (Purg. 33. 145); and, in Paradiso, Dante is at long last granted a beati ? c vision of his Maker and is ? lled with wonder â€Å"by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars [l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle]† (Parad. 33. 145).In contrast, London’s powerful closing image of the husky, now masterless and â€Å"howling under the stars that leaped and danced and shone brightly in the cold sky† (1315), indicates a more indifferent and uncaring naturalistic universe than the ordered Dantean cosmos where God’s embosoming love moves the sun and the other stars. Perhaps, then, in London’s closing reversion to the bright, dancing stars and the cold sky of an unfeeling universe, James McClintock is correct in his critical judgment that, ultimately, London never truly abandoned his essentially pessimistic worldview in â€Å"To Build a Fire (II)†.Notes I wish to thank my freshman class from the fall semester of 2009 for being a receptive audience to the ideas presented in this paper. Above all, I am grateful to Marek Ignatowicz, a poet and a true man of letters. Without his facility for illuminating discussion on all things literary, and without our memorable conversation on the subject of beards in fact and in ? ction, it is highly probable that the topic of this paper would never have occurred to me. 1 Milton’s Paradise Lost, and in particular the character of Milton’s Satan, is an inspiration to Wolf Larsen in The Sea-Wolf .Larsen remarks of Milton’s fallen archangel: â€Å"But Lucifer was a free spirit. To serve was to suffocate. He preferred suffering in freedom to all the happiness of a comfortable servility. He did not care to serve God. He cared to serve nothing. He was no ? gurehead. He stood on his own legs. He was an individual† (249). Works Cited Dante Alighieri. The Divine Comedy: Inferno. Trans. Charles S. Singleton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970. Print. ———. The Divine Comedy: Paradiso. Trans. Cha rles S. Singleton.Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975. Print. 178 ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews ———. The Divine Comedy: Purgatorio. Trans. Charles S. Singleton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973. Print. Labor, Earle. Jack London. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1974. Print. London, Jack. The Complete Short Stories of Jack London. Ed. Earle Labor, Robert C. Leitz, III, and I. Milo Shepard. 3 vols. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993. Print. ———. The Sea-Wolf . New York: MacMillan, 1967. Print. McClintock, James I.White Logic: Jack London’s Short Stories. Cedar Springs: Wolf House Books, 1976. Print. Milton, John. The Poetical Works of John Milton. Ed. Helen Darbishire. London: Oxford University Press,1958. Print. Mitchell, Lee Clark. â€Å"‘Keeping His Head’: Repetition and Responsibility in London’s ‘To Build a Fire. †Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Journal of Modern Lite rature 13. 1 (1986): 76–96. Print. Sinclair, Andrew. Jack: A Biography of Jack London. London: Harper and Row, 1977. Print. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Escape from the Western Diet Essay

In Michael Pollan’s essay â€Å"Escape from the Western Diet,† he informs Americans about the western diet and believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as â€Å"western diseases† (Pollan, 434). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionism, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads. In turn he provides his own rules for escaping the western diet as well as the idea of nutritionism set forth by scientists. Pollan explains that scientific theories of nutritionism focus on individual nutrients rather than foods as a whole (Pollan, 434). He further goes on to refute this claim mentioning that these scientific theories contradict with one another. Pollan explains â€Å"the scientists who blame our health problems on deficiencies of [micronutrients] are not the same scientists who see a sugar soaked diet leading to metabolic syndrome and from there to diabetes, heart disease†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Pollan, 435). On one hand there are scientists who blame health problems on a lack of nutrients, and on the other hand there are scientists who blame those health problems on a sugar soaked diet. By stating these theories, Pollan tries to get his point across that they all have the same thing in common; these theories are mere explanations to western diseases. In Pollan’s view, â€Å"scientists can argue all they want about the mechanisms behind this phenomenon, but whichever it is, the solution w ould appear to remain very much the same: Stop eating a Western diet† (Pollan, 435). In other words, no matter what reason scientists have for the causes of western diseases, the common factor among them is the western diet, and that should be the basis for solution. In addition to bringing to light these contradicting scientific theories, Pollan goes further to include how these theories benefit the food industry as well as the health industry. Pollan observes â€Å"for the medical community too scientific theories about diet nourish business†¦ new theories beget new  drugs†¦ and new diets organized around each new theory’s elevation of one class of nutrient and demotion of another† (Pollan, 436). Basically, Pollan is informing that the health industry wants to profit off the theories declared by making drugs in regards to the nutrients cut down on. Similarly, Pollan notes the food industry comes out with a new line of products to match with the new theories made for the western diet. He reminds the reader to escape the western diet even though it will be hard because these industries only seek to profit rather than change the way people eat for the better (Pollan, 436). To address what distinguishes the food of a western diet, Pollan compares whole foods and processed foods. He quotes Gyorgy Scrinis and concludes to himself â€Å"instead of worrying about nutrients, we should simply avoid any food that has been processed to such an extent that it is more the product of industry than nature (Pollan, 438). Pollan agrees with Scrinis for avoiding processed foods, but he complicates it by mentioning that all whole foods are taken over by industrial processes. Again Pollan reminds the reader that escaping the western diet will not be simple, yet he convinced it is possible and he offers his developed solutions for it (Pollan, 438). Pollan encourages Americans â€Å"eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants† (Pollan, 440). His three rules emphasize eating food that is in fact real food, eating in a manner that presents a positive culture, and eating plants which Pollan considers the best types of food a person can eat. As Pollan argues against the scientific theories of nutritionism, he exposes what he considers their contradictions as well as the cycle of new theories creating new products creating new medicine. He informs the reader that these theories exist for these companies to make a profit rather than change the way people eat for the better (Pollan, 436). So again, Pollan reminds the reader to escape the western diet because it is the cause of western diseases. He offers his solutions on how to eat a better, more traditional diet.

The Harlem Riot in Harlem Runs Wild by Claude McKay Essay

The Harlem Riot in Harlem Runs Wild by Claude McKay In Harlem Runs Wild, Claude McKay depicts the Harlem Riot of 1935 as merely #8230;a gesture of despair of a bewildered, baffled, and disillusioned people. (McKay 224) The Harlem Riot of 1935 was spontaneous and unpremeditated. It was not a race riot in the sense of physical conflict between white and non-white groups as there was little direct violence to white persons. McKay states, The mass riot in Harlem was not a race riot. (McKay 221) Its distinguishing feature was the persons attack upon property rather than persons, and resentment against whites that, while exploiting Negroes, denied them an opportunity to work. Communists did not instigate the riot, though they†¦show more content†¦Housing was the most serious community problem in Harlem. The Negros labor dollar was further taken by the steep rental characteristic of the segregated areas where most Negroes lived. Ellison makes this quite clear to the audience as Scofield and Dupre steal coal oil and buckets from the hardware store and set them on fire in the apartment building where they live. They make sure to get everyone to safety before they burn the building down, shouting, You didnt think Id do it but there it is. You wouldnt fix it up. Now see how you like it. (Ellison 548). African Americans were also treated unfairly in their living quarters. There are more examples of this mistreatment in the book when The Invisible Man awakens to the sound of tenants beating on the pipes, due to no heat, at Marys apartment building and also the eviction of the elderly couple, the Provos. McKay describes one of the agitators of the Harlem riots, Sufi Hamid and the organization, the Negro Industrial and Clerical Alliance. This organization began the fight for African Americans rights to jobs on 125th street by picketing the merchants. After many influential persons joined the picket lines