Category: White Fang

When I was in Grade 6, my teacher decided to embark on a classics reading campaign, and’White Fang was one of the choices on offer. Being your typical twelve-year-old, I gravitated straight towards the book with the dog on the cover, but was asked instead to read (a heavily abridged edition of) The Count of Monte Christo. Its only now, a good twelve or so years later (no giggling at that or so, please), that Ive finally got around to Jack London at last. Unfortunately, I think this is one of those novels that I might have appreciated more as a starry-eyed, anthropomorphism-loving pre-teen.

Perhaps the most famous of Londons considerable body of work, White Fang tells the story of the life-long belittlement and abuse of the part-wolf, part-dog animal of the same name before tracing the animals eventual redemption at the hand of a loving master. Its a surprisingly brutal tale in parts, with a pervasive sense of horror thats hard to shake, but this is contrasted with a series of almost mawkishly quixotic scenes involving White Fangs socialisation into a world of gentility and civilisation.

For me, the novel started off with immense promise, with an eerie account of two travellers in Alaska being incessantly stalked and preyed upon by a pack of desperate, slavering wolves. Its a chilling depiction of the forces of nature versus civilisation and of the consequences of forcing ourselves upon the natural world, and the sheer horror evoked by the situation is testament to Londons skill as a writer. Theres a sense of the inexorable tread of death about it (and having done my fair share of camping I must say that Im glad that the only large ‘predators in my country are made up). But the novel takes a bit of a hairpin turn from there, and despite myself I found my interest waning.

The second section of the book takes us through the circumstances surrounding the birth of White Fang, and his subsequent adoption by a group of Native Americans, an experienced characterised by constant punitive discipline, to which White Fang gradually becomes accustomed, learning to fear and respect the gods who are his masters. But all of this seems rosy in comparison with what awaits White Fang: a thoroughly awful stint as a fighting dog against whom just about every creature found in North America is pitted. The whole nature vs civilisation thing that has been a rather salient theme throughout White Fangs interaction with human society is highlighted when, though having achieved victory against all manner of wild animals, White Fang meets his match in a bulldog, an animal bred and socialised to ignore its natural instincts in favour of human norms.

However, although White Fang is destined for further socialisation, his experience is markedly different. The inscrutable Weedon Scott voices his objections to White Fangs mistreatment, and takes him under his wing. And to be honest, this is the part of the book that lost me. White Fang is adopted rather than being purchased, as he was by his previous owner, and thus becomes an individual rather than a mere thing or commodity. Moreover, his new situation allows him to eschew the crude trappings of his wild past in order to reap the benefits of being a civilised, socialised creature.’Not only is this a problematic notion, but this’moral is so explicitly, saccharinely rendered that its hard to swallow.’Somewhat creepily to my secular, egalitarian mind, Scott is positioned as a sort of force for good, and White Fang almost as his disciple, and not only do we end up with redemptive overtones, but those of racial/social assimilation.

On a simply mechanical level, White Fang at this point in the book becomewell, effectively, a hairy human. ‘Were given a rather thorough analysis of White Fang, his mental state, and his actions, and it all feels a little oddly appended. I think I could have stomached this had the novel been less pointedly positioned as an allegory, or had the allegorial elements been there but not the strained anthropomorphism, but as it is its hard to read this without returning time and time again to the moral being expounded.

While as a novel’White Fang doesnt quite work for me, Im curious to read Londons The Call of the Wild, which Ive heard described at the opposite of White Fangperhaps the two when read side by side offer the reader something a little more balanced and satisfying.

In the book White Fang by Jack London, White Fang is a wolf-dog hybrid that is the main character and quester of the story. White Fang begins his life well, living in the wild with his mother, but as they are adopted by humans, his life begins it way downhill. He is segregated and bullied by the dog pups and eventually his mother is sold to another human and forgets him. As he is taken in by a cruel master called Beauty Smith, he only grows a hatred for his life under humanity and their ways. Smith forces him to participate in dog fights, leaving him bloody at the end of each battle. After a while, he begins to win the dog fights, and he starts to kill the dogs not just to survive, but to use as an outlet for his frustration at humans. All of these obstacles only strengthen his starting goal of staying alive and eventually escaping human civilization, returning back to the wild. But as he faces the worst of human treatment, White Fang is adopted by another master, a kinder one named Weedon Scott, who brings him to his home and treats him like a family member. Unlike all the other masters before him, he is gentle and loving to White Fang. White Fang’s views of humanity were negative because ever since he encountered humans, they beat him and mistreated him, but Scott helps White Fang find the true reason of his journey, which is to find forgiveness and understanding. He realises that humans can be both evil and caring. White Fang, at the end of his life, is finally content and at peace.

Jack London was an American author who wrote quite a few books. The main focus of this paper will be on White Fang one of his more popular books. Jack London’s White Fang exhibits his naturalist way of thinking, when discussing how the environment and natural world around him is able to raise society and exhibit the deeper truths. Throughout the book there are many references to naturalism with the use of symbols and metaphors. He also uses survival of the fittest and romanticism as major themes.

Jack London wrote many books with Darwin’s popular ideas in mind, particularly White Fang and The Call of the Wild. The process of “natural selection” means that only the strongest, brightest, and most adaptable elements of a species will survive. This idea is embodied by the character, White Fang. From the onset, he is the strongest wolf-cub, the only one of the litter to survive the famine. His strength and intelligence make him the most feared dog in the Indian camp. While defending Judge Scott, White Fang takes three bullets but is miraculously able to survive. One element of the book one might overlook is White Fang’s ability to adapt to any new circumstances and somehow survive. He learns how to fight the other dogs, he learns to obey new masters, he learns to fight under the evil guidance of Beauty and, finally, he learns to love and be tamed by Weedon Scott.

White Fang was written during the courtship and marriage of London to Charmian Kittredge and a romantic theme is part of the novel. Part V reflects how love can tame natural behavior and instincts. As White Fang learns to love Weedon Scott, this love produces a desire in the dog to do anything to please his “love master.” This includes having Weedon’s children climb and play with him, and learning to leave chickens alone, although the taste was extremely pleasing to him. Just as White Fang was tamed by love, Jack London was tamed by love as he began staying away from the whorehouses in San Francisco and trying to overcome a severe drug habit.

The Wild is a dominant symbol for the perilous nature of life. The Wild symbolizes life as a struggle: for example, the Wild is a place in which the sun makes a “futile effort” to appear. White Fang himself is a symbol of the Wild. The Wild is, for White Fang as a pup, the “unknown” – and he, in turn, becomes the embodiment of the “unknown” for others. And yet the Wild is not a wholly negative metaphor in this story, for the Wild gives White Fang much of his strength. For example, in the final chapter, as he is struggling for life, White Fang is able to survive when other animals may not have, for White Fang, we are reminded, “had come straight from the Wild, where the weak perish early and shelter is vouchsafed to none. A constitution of iron and the vitality of the Wild were White Fang’s inheritance”. The Wild is thus a multivalent metaphor in White Fang, but tending to express the power of life to survive and even thrive. Like the Wild, the life force cannot be completely tamed.

Light is a common symbol for life in the world’s literature, because light is, of course, a physical necessity for life. Light’s symbolic function in White Fang proves no exception. In II.3, for instance, we read that as the young pups starve, “the life that was in them flickered and died down,” and that White Fang’s sister’s “flame flickered lower and lower and at last went out.” In that same chapter, however, the “wall of light”-the entrance to the wolves’ lair-is a symbol for living in the larger world. Life is as precarious as a flickering flame, yes, but it is also persistent: “The light drew as if they were plants; the chemistry of the life that composed them demanded the light as a necessity of being.” Similarly, the light and warmth of Gray Beaver’s fire attracts White Fang. Readers will note other examples of light serving a symbolic function, because light is equated with life, and the persistence of a life is a dominant theme of the book.

Clay is a metaphor employed several times in the book to describe the “raw material” of a person or animal’s makeup. It is the metaphor London chooses to use to address the perpetual debate about the relative importance of “nature” and “nurture” in determining identity. London offers three clear examples of characters whose clay has been harshly molded through harsh experiences (which can only be called “nurture” for the terms of the argument): Beauty Smith, Jim Hall, and White Fang. Interestingly, Smith and Hall seem beyond “redemption”: Smith runs away into the night after White Fang attacks him, and Hall is killed by White Fang. Only White Fang is “redeemed,” and that occurs through a nurture that is worthy of the name: Weedon Scott’s love of the animal. The key passage, perhaps, occurs in IV.6, when we are told explicitly about the two very different “thumbs of circumstance” that have worked their way on the clay of White Fang’s character-first, an oppressive thumb that turned him into a vicious and savage fighter; last, the loving thumb of Weedon Scott that helped him transform into “Blessed Wolf”.

One central theme with which London seems preoccupied in White Fang is the theme of the nature of life. The theme was much on the minds of 19th-century readers and thinkers. In 1859, Charles Darwin advanced ideas that came to be popularly understood as “survival of the fittest”-that life was a struggle, and that only the powerful and strong survived. About a half-century later, London publishes this novel, which may be read as a “taking to task” of such “social Darwinism.” London’s story seems to posit that life is more than a “bleak and materialistic” struggle where only power matters. The “redemption” that White Fang undergoes at Weedon Scott’s instigation suggests that the greatest power in life is the power of love.

This theme connects quite naturally, then, with another key theme. If London’s novel explores the meaning of life, it also quite clearly explores the meaning of civilization. One way in which it does so is through the character of Beauty Smith. Beauty Smith stands as an argument against the misrepresentations of Darwinism noted above-i.e., the justification of the weak and powerless’ exploitation at the hands of the strong and powerful; and an attempt to free individuals from the responsibility to exercise their own volition by an appeal to a pre-determined destiny. We are told that Smith is the product of harsh experiences. Like White Fang, his clay has been roughly molded. Even so, Smith has had and presumably still has choice about how to respond to his environment-a choice, for instance, whether or not to “vindicate” his existence by tormenting men and beasts less powerful than he. White Fang, in order to survive, does not. This marks the sharpest contrast between the two characters. It also heightens the novel’s overarching reflections on the struggle of life, however, for even as Smith is wrongly exercising his power, White Fang is rightly exercising his to continue to live: “He had too great vitality. His clutch on life was too strong” to continue to resist Smith. Ironically, he demonstrates power through submission. Thus, if Smith truly were a civilized man, he would know to treat White Fang better.

London has raised this question earlier in his novel, of course. By laying bare the often brutal dynamics of life in the Wild, London is holding a mirror up to us, giving us the opportunity to see those dynamics at work in us, for good or for ill. Do we recognize “the law of meat” – “eat or be eaten”- when we see it, and do we adhere to it ourselves, or strive to adhere to a higher law, a law that requires us to curb our instincts for a greater good?

White Fang opens with a beautifully detailed picture of the Yukon. Two men, Bill and Henry, with a team of six dogs pulling a sled on which is strapped a coffin, are fleeing down a frozen waterway, a wolf pack in pursuit. At night, the dogs are individually lured to their deaths by a she-wolf. London paints quite a portrait of the two men sitting around the campfire, seeing only the eyes of the wolves reflecting the light from the fire. Scared and frustrated, Bill decides one morning to go out with his rifle and three remaining cartridges. Henry hears three shots, but Bill does not return. Henry is left alone and night after night he feels the wolves coming closer and closer. Finally, one night, the wolves become so brazen that they come right up to the fire to collect their dinner. Henry literally climbs into the fire and begins hurling brands from the fire at the encircling wolves. At the last moment he is rescued as a search party looking for the dead body Henry and Bill were transporting. And that is the abrupt end of Part I. Henry drops out of the novel, and the scene shifts to the wolf pack and the birth of White Fang. It is difficult to understand why Jack London wrote the novel this way. The opening scene is masterfully written, but does not quite fit.

Part II of the novel is a complete break from Part I, as the story is now told from the perspective of the she-wolf. The famine is now over and the wolf pack begins to separate, little by little. She-wolf begins to travel with three males who are all vying for her attention, but she has now interest in any of them. ‘One-Eye,’ an older, more experienced wolf eventually kills the other two males and the she-wolf’s attitude towards him softens. They travel the forest together, but the she-wolf is restless, looking for something she does not quite understand. She finds this something, a cave where she can give birth to her cubs.

Shortly after the birth of the she-wolf’s cubs, another the Northland experiences another famine and all of the little wolves die except the gray wolf cub. This gray cub is much stronger and more active than the other cubs, adhering to the theme of the ‘survival of the fittest.’ London’s treatment of White Fang’s puppyhood is accurately and amusingly written. White Fang, who is three-quarters wolf and one-quarter husky, enters the story in the first month of his life, and London describes his step-by-step development as he emerges from the lair and learns how to hunt. It is apparent that London had done his research.

Before he is a year old, White Fang is captured by an Indian, Gray Beaver, who trains him as a sled dog. White Fang’s life in the Indian village is anything but pleasant as he is targeted for abuse by an older dog, Lip-Lip. His only protection is his mother, but shortly she is traded by Gray Beaver to pay a debt. When the gray wolf tries to follow his mother downstream, he is recaptured by the Indian and brutally beaten, learning that these men-gods are to be obeyed. Responding to constant attacks from other dogs in the village, White Fang gains a reputation for a savage ability to kill other dogs.

This reputation eventually proves to be a liability. While on an excursion to Fort Yukon, Gray Beaver is tricked into selling his dog to a man named Beauty Smith. Beauty Smith, who is so ugly that his name was an antithesis, is particularly impressed with the dog. Beauty does the cooking, the dishwashing, and the drudgery for the other men in the fort, where he is known for his ‘cowardly rages’ and his ‘distorted body and mind.’

Under Beauty Smith’s tutelage White Fang becomes a ‘fiend,’ earning a reputation as ‘The Fighting Wolf,’ living a public life in a cage. He is taunted and tortured not only by Beauty Smith, but also most onlookers. As the sourdoughs crowd around to place their bets, he beats all comers. But he eventually meets his match with a bulldog, who gets a grip on him that White Fang cannot shake. Just as he is about to die, the wolf is saved by Weedon Scott, who slugs Beauty Smith and manages to free White Fang from the bulldog. Scott, a mining engineer, buys the wolf-dog and takes him back to his cabin. It is here that White Fang first learns about love and becomes civilized. With great patience and great care, Scott teaches the dog to trust someone for the first time in his life. When Scott packs to leave the Yukon, White Fang senses what is coming, escapes from the house, and earns a trip to the Southland.

Weedon Scott’s father is Judge Scott, and it is to his estate, Sierra Vista, in the Santa Clara Valley in California that White Fang is taken. Although mostly wolf by nature, White Fang allows himself to become domesticated, and even allows Weedon’s two small children to caress him. But he does this only out of love for his master, and his wild instincts never leave him, as witnessed by the fifty or so chickens he kills in the yard. But all is soon forgiven when White Fang rescues Weedon Scott after an accident on a horse. The gray wolf even develops a love-interest with a sheep-dog named Collie.

One night when an escaped convict named Jim Hall breaks into the house to get the Judge for ‘railroading’ him to prison, White Fang, despite taking three bullets from Hall’s revolver, leaps on him and slashes his throat. White Fang is near death but is able to survive injuries that would have left other dogs dead, once again supporting the theme of the ‘survival of the fittest.’ The end of the novel comes quite abruptly when White Fang ventures from the house on his first excursion after his accident only to be greeted by his litter of puppies. White Fang lives on to play with his puppies in the California and earns the undying love of the Scott family through his courage and intelligence. The family, from that night on, refers to him as ‘the Blessed Wolf,’ but he remains what he his – three-quarters wolf – and can never by fully domesticated.