Death is an ever-present factor that shapes the fate of the living. The emotional gravitas that accompanies death influences the decisions and actions of all living beings, with all instinctive behavior oriented around the preservation of life and the postponement of death. This instinctive significance of death is portrayed poignantly in Jack London’s 1906 novel, White Fang, wherein the constant shadow of death spurs White Fang´s character progression through three main stages: fear, courage, and aggression.
White Fang, the protagonist and namesake of the novel, is a hybridized wolfdog who is taken from the wilderness and introduced to human society. His character is modified with each consecutive master that controls him, and as he is exposed …show more content…
He is attacked by a weasel, who would have killed him had not his mother protected him by killing the rodent in turn. This stark imagery represents the overall system of life and death in the wilderness: kill or be killed. In this instance, White Fang learns that it is far more desirable to kill and reap the subsequent benefits, despite the fear that life and death situations create. “And, still in the air, the she-wolf’s jaws closed on the lean, yellow body, and the weasel knew death between the crunching teeth.” (32) Eventually, White Fang encounters humans and discovers that they can kill for him in the same way that his mother did. Humans have the power to inflict death upon him and other animals at any given time, and this deep-seated power instills both fear and awe beyond reconciliation in the wolfdog’s psyche. He regards men as gods, and therefore serves them diligently. “And so it was with White Fang. The man-animals were gods unmistakable and unescapable.” …show more content…
In doing this, White Fang overcomes the fear of being killed (at least by other dogs) and instead finds courage and begins to instill that fear in others. “He reveled in the vengeance he wreaked upon his kind. They were ordinary, unsuspecting dogs . . . they did not know him for what he was, a lightning-flash of slaughter.” (60)
Though White Fang eventually becomes, as Jack London says, a lightning-flash of slaughter, he is first an unsure puppy. The wolfdog’s mentality changes from one of timidity to one of bravery, and finally one of savagery. “White Fang was bitter and implacable. The clay of him was so molded.” (60) The origins of this new courage and aggression are rooted in fear and pitiful dependence.
This instinctive fear and subsequent dependence that drives White Fang’s early behaviors helps to preserve his life, as is the goal of all animalistic instincts. Even when White Fang has never left the cave where he was born, “[Fear] was in him. It had come down from a remote ancestry through a thousand thousand lives . . . Fear! – That legacy of the Wild, which no animal may escape nor exchange for pottage.” (27) This fearfulness, so abundant in White Fang’s psyche, leads him to seek protection from those stronger than he. The primary protector is initially his mother (who kills competing organisms to protect herself and her child) and later becomes Grey
White Fang, the protagonist and namesake of the novel, is a hybridized wolfdog who is taken from the wilderness and introduced to human society. His character is modified with each consecutive master that controls him, and as he is exposed …show more content…
He is attacked by a weasel, who would have killed him had not his mother protected him by killing the rodent in turn. This stark imagery represents the overall system of life and death in the wilderness: kill or be killed. In this instance, White Fang learns that it is far more desirable to kill and reap the subsequent benefits, despite the fear that life and death situations create. “And, still in the air, the she-wolf’s jaws closed on the lean, yellow body, and the weasel knew death between the crunching teeth.” (32) Eventually, White Fang encounters humans and discovers that they can kill for him in the same way that his mother did. Humans have the power to inflict death upon him and other animals at any given time, and this deep-seated power instills both fear and awe beyond reconciliation in the wolfdog’s psyche. He regards men as gods, and therefore serves them diligently. “And so it was with White Fang. The man-animals were gods unmistakable and unescapable.” …show more content…
In doing this, White Fang overcomes the fear of being killed (at least by other dogs) and instead finds courage and begins to instill that fear in others. “He reveled in the vengeance he wreaked upon his kind. They were ordinary, unsuspecting dogs . . . they did not know him for what he was, a lightning-flash of slaughter.” (60)
Though White Fang eventually becomes, as Jack London says, a lightning-flash of slaughter, he is first an unsure puppy. The wolfdog’s mentality changes from one of timidity to one of bravery, and finally one of savagery. “White Fang was bitter and implacable. The clay of him was so molded.” (60) The origins of this new courage and aggression are rooted in fear and pitiful dependence.
This instinctive fear and subsequent dependence that drives White Fang’s early behaviors helps to preserve his life, as is the goal of all animalistic instincts. Even when White Fang has never left the cave where he was born, “[Fear] was in him. It had come down from a remote ancestry through a thousand thousand lives . . . Fear! – That legacy of the Wild, which no animal may escape nor exchange for pottage.” (27) This fearfulness, so abundant in White Fang’s psyche, leads him to seek protection from those stronger than he. The primary protector is initially his mother (who kills competing organisms to protect herself and her child) and later becomes Grey