White Fang

The first chapters of White Fang introduce a world in which humans struggle to dominate nature; in the Yukon Territory, this is certainly a losing battle. The setting of the Yukon is characterized by stark danger, brutal cold, and a lack of human society. The few humans struggling to survive their journeys through the Yukon are physically and psychologically isolated, which puts strain on their psyches. The landscape is unforgiving, with the sub-zero cold killing nearly all living things. Human strength is meager by comparison; no one can combat nature’s superiority. The dogs are no match for the wolves, neither are many of the humans in the Yukon. If the cold, hunger, and lack of resources don’t kill the humans, then the wolves will. This is the cycle of life; the wolves are as hungry as the starving men and are therefore in their own battle for survival. Neither has the upper hand in a landscape that is inhospitable to life.

Ultimately, human ingenuity saves Henry because he uses fire to protect himself from the wolves, but any slip could mean the end of Henry’s life. In a world in which every living being is competing to survive, there are necessarily winners and losers. London’s narrative is concerned with this battle between living beings in the context of an undefeatable natural world. While human ingenuity may have saved Henry once, he is still limited by his fragile psyche. The isolation alone creates mental stress: “It crushed them into the remotest recesses of their minds, […] until they perceived themselves finite and small, specks and motes, moving with weak cunning and little wisdom amidst the play and interplay of the great blind elements and forces” (5-6). Henry’s drive for survival is tied to his mental struggle with the knowledge that each moment could be his last. He can imagine the wolves tearing apart his body, and he is constantly on edge because the threat of his impending death is literally skulking around him. Henry’s human consciousness can be a detriment because a compromised psyche will negatively impact his survival odds.

London’s imagery of nature evokes the sublime. The sublime is a narrative technique and concept often found in Victorian literature and American literature of the early 20th century that uses evocative language to depict both natural and supernatural realms beyond human comprehension. Such descriptions are marked by superlatives to depict the smallness of humans against the grand scheme of the unknowable and all-powerful universe. London portrays the vastness of the Yukon as incomprehensible, and therefore, deadly: “It crushed them with the weight of unending vastness and unalterable decree” (5). Landscapes such as the Yukon remind humans of their relative smallness and insignificance. The sublime evokes themes of identity crisis and existential horror, but also appreciation for the beauty and ephemeral nature of life.

London uses drama and tension to propel the plot. The presence of the wolves threatens Henry during his waking and sleeping hours; they pursue him during the day and in his nightmares. London shows Henry’s group slowly dwindling—the slow, inevitable decline in resources foreshadows tragedy; little by little, Henry runs out of ammunition, food is scarce, oil for the fire is low, and the dogs he depends on for transportation die one by one. This constant narrative tension engages the reader in the first three chapters in a fast-paced and tragic sequence.

The loss of the dogs reflects London’s themes about the cruelty of the natural world. Henry’s dogs are domesticated; they are trained to be with their human masters and to pull the sled. They are functional animals whose instincts are compromised by domesticity. In comparison, the wolves that destroy them are purely wild. Some, like the she-wolf, are wolfdogs, but they all rely on pack mentality and their natural instincts. They have no humans they can rely on and are therefore more cutthroat than the domesticated dogs pulling Henry’s sled. There is an emotional connection between man and dog, but there is also a functionality to the dogs that makes their deaths a direct threat to Henry’s wellbeing. This conflict is demonstrated by Bill’s willingness to face a pack of wolves in order to save one of the dogs. Bill’s gun is no match for a pack of hungry, capable wolves. He dies trying (and failing) to save one of their dogs, highlighting the human ability to sacrifice themselves for something or someone they care about, a theme that return when White Fang defends Judge Scott’s family at the end of the novel.