Wild And His White Fangs Home 3 example essay topic

During Jack London's life he has written many great novels, perhaps the greatest was White Fang. In 1906 he wrote the legendary novel about a stray wolf reverting to domestication. The majority of this book concerns White Fangs's t ruggles with savage nature, Indians, dogs and white men. However, we also see White Fang is tamed by love and turns from a savage wolf into a loving and domesticated dog. White Fang begins with two men traveling through the artic with a dog team and sled, followed by a pack of famished wolves who pick off the dogs, one by one at night and eventually gets one of the men. The point of view then shifts to wolves and stays with them for nearly the entire story.

"Over Jack London life he has wrote many books with Darwin's popular ideas in mind, particularly White Fang 1 ". 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, Weedon Scott's father, 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. In the novel White Fang by Jack London, the main character learns to adapt to its surroundings ultimately leading to his domestication. There are many ways that the wild has influenced White Fang throughout his life.

The beginning of this novel gives us one glimpse into the possible 'other life' for White Fang. London chooses to show us the development White Fang, from a scientific perspective. "He compares the puppies to plants, and shows how even without consciousness; they are drawn toward the light 2". He also shows us White Fangs exploration of the outside - he thinks that he could walk on water, but then learns that it moves and is wet, and learns that it's a stream. His descriptions show us the world as a wolf-pup. We understand what London means by the 'wall of light,' but London's description of it opens us to the perception of the pup.

White Fang is superior to the dogs in the puppy pack. He is an unusual animal, his mother is half-wolf and half-dog; his father is a full wolf. But his ferocious character is supernatural: 'White Fang became wickeder and more ferocious than it was his natural right to be. 1' Also, when White Fang does snarl, he can 'snarl more terribly than any dog. Into his snarl he incorporated all that was vicious, malignant, and horrible. 3' White Fang is 'more enduring, more cruel, more ferocious and more intelligent 3' because anything less would be his destruction by the puppy pack.

Early on in the novel White Fang starts to learn the laws of the wild. His lesson begins when his mother begins to leave the cub (White Fang) in the cave while she goes on hunts, he at first does not approach the entrance because he is afraid. He knows he must be obedient to his mother, and also fears the unknown. However, as he grows older, the urge to explore becomes stronger and stronger and he finally leaves the cave. He tumbles down a little slope, scared. Next he kills a chick and is attacked by the mother, nearly misses being swooped up by a hawk, and falls in a stream.

Finally he climbs out, only to be attacked by a weasel and just barely in time, is rescued by his mother, Kiche. She kills the weasel and they eat it. From this experience, White Fang learns that in order to survive in the wild you have to be the "biggest, strongest and quickest". It is here that London shows us the law of the wild "Eat or to be Eaten 1". Throughout White Fang Jack London incorporates the idea of "survival of the fittest". The early stages of White Fang best illustrates this idea, due to the savage nature of White Fang.

The first part of White Fang is a short story that gives an introduction to the laws of the Wild, which is a major theme. White Fang learns to adapt to the wild even though he is "hated by his kind and by mankind, indomitable, perpetually warred upon and himself waging perpetual war, his development was rapid an one sided". The beginning of the novel shows White Fang's struggle for survival in the wild. White Fangs mother Kiche (she-wolf) teaches White Fang to hunt and survive. "White Fang is fierce, yet playful. He has the natural instinct of fear, yet is also brave.

He is loving to his mother, and has promise to be a great wolf 3". The wild influenced White Fang in many different ways. When White Fang was a cub, coming out of the cave for the first time, "all the sounds and things that he couldn't understand brought about in him a strange feeling that he would never forget 3". Another way that the wild influenced White Fang was by calling him out and away from the fires and tents of the Indian Village.

'It was like something was calling him, urging him to run free through the meadows and play in the streams, this was the wild and his White Fangs home 3' (124). This feeling that White Fang was given when he was born, helps to lead him through life and teach him the dangers of the unknown. Throughout White Fangs life he has been tormented and beaten which led him to his wildness. When White Fangs meets Lip-Lip another wolf in the Indian village his wild side is revealed. Before long he develops a hatred for him, which causes him to spend most of his childhood alone and with no one to play with.

This plays a major factor in his wildness because of the hatred he builds up for Lip-Lip and others. White Fangs life is also influenced while Beauty Smith keeps him captive. Beauty Smith only purpose in this novel was to train White Fang to kill. All of Beauty's taunting, poking, beating, and laughing at White Fang brought out a hatred that was as pure as gold, which fueled his wild side. This hatred grew so terrible that it flashed out against every living thing. White Fang's hatred for Beauty was so grate that " the mere sight of him was sufficient to send him into transports of fury.

And when they came to close quarters, and he had been beaten back by the club, he went on growling and snarling and showing his fangs. The last growl could never be extracted from him. No matter how terribly he was beaten, he had always another growl; and when Beauty Smith gave up and with drew, the defiant growl followed after him, or White Fang sprang at the bars of the cage bellowing his hatred'3 (180). This illustrates how the wild played such an important part of White Fang's life because it made him abandon all his wisdom and sense and attack in pure rage.

White Fangs most dramatic example of the wild's influence on White Fang happened late in the book after Weedon Scott had met White Fang. White Fang was torn between his newfound feeling of love and the way of life in the wild that he had enjoyed and mastered throughout his life. White Fang is unable to trust anyone, even his soon to be master. This proves the strength that the wild has on the creatures that live in it. White Fang hatred for things changed his life forever. As the novel progresses White Fangs eventually learns to adapt to its surroundings, which leads to his domestication.

In the early stages of the book he is considered to be a ferocious beast. However when Weedon Scott comes along he teaches him what love is and shows him much attention. In the latter part of the novel White Fang learns to go against his own nature. This is the first time that White Fang has experienced love. This transformation he undergoes is amazing -- his nature is already set, but Weedon Scott finds a way to return to the roots of his nature. His first encounter with Weedon Scott is at a dogfight.

This fight is one of the turning points for White Fang that converted him from a wolf to a dog. For the first time in his life, he found a match that was going to kill him, not out of hatred, but just because that was the nature of the bulldog. White Fang was entirely unprepared for the fight with Cherokee-" the bulldog was too short and too thick for White Fang to understand. He uses his normal attacks against Cherokee, but nothing seems to work 3" (260). It is here where Scott saves White Fang from this dog, thus saving his life. Weedon Scott represents the finest attributes of civilization: intelligence decency, compassion.

With patient understanding he gradually wins White Fang's confidence and, finally, his absolute devotion, demonstrating that of all environmental forces love can be the most powerful: 'And love was the plummet dropped down into the deeps of him where like had never gone. And responsive, out of his deeps had come the new thing love. That which was given unto him was returned. This was a god indeed, a love-god, a warm and radiant god, in whose light White Fang's nature expanded as a flower expands under the sun". White Fang began to have confidence in this god.

He had a feeling of security that was belied by all his experience with men"3 (236). The wild is still in him up to this point and his love of Scott is the only thing that allows him not to revert back to the wild. For the first time, White Fang is not forced to develop in his environment, he can simply trust in his human. On White Fangs arrival to San Francisco he encounters the city life and "is appalled at the buildings and the rush of cars and horses and cable and electric cars 3 (266)".

When Scott arrives at his home he greets his mother with a hug, White Fang acts in the manner of a dog from the wild: barking and worried at this "aggressive" act. But Scott reassures White Fang and gradually begins to learn that this world is different and he must trust Scott. White Fang also learns to adapt to his surroundings when he encounters chickens. When he sees a chicken, he tears into it and eats it. But after he goes on a rampage and kills fifty chickens at once, earning both the ire and the admiration of his master, Weedon Scott.

He learns that chickens are off limits. "This was a law decreed by the god, and to please his 'love-master' he obeys his laws punctiliously". White Fang is not only very smart, he is extremely adaptable, and this is his strength. 'Life had a thousand faces, and White Fang found he must meet them all (200) 3".

In the novel White Fang, the main character learns to adapt to its surroundings leading to his domestication. White Fang is tamed by love and turns from a savage wolf into a loving and home-keeping dog. However through the incident in San Francisco we can see that White Fang can easily revert back to his old ways. During the ending of the novel an incident occurs when a convict, Jim Hall, breaks into Judge Scott's home to 'wreak vengeance' on the man who 'railroaded' him into prison. Judge Scott's life is saved by White Fang, who very nearly loses his own life before slashing the throat of the killer. Jim Hall is a mad dog that must be destroyed for the safety of respectable citizens.

In his encounter with the convict, White Fang has suffered several bullet wounds and is critically injured. But White Fang beats the odds and lives to be christened; the Scott family now calls him "The Blessed Wolf". He lives, because of his extraordinary natural toughness, and his legacy of the wild, thus this shows the great power that is his, the power that he relaxes into love and ease but still keeps ready in case there is need for it in the treacherous world. Most of this book concerns White Fang's struggles with savage nature, Indians, dogs, and white men.