White Fang

“There was a hint in it of laughter, but of a laughter more terrible than any sadness—a laughter that was mirthless as the smile of the sphinx, a laughter cold as the frost and partaking of the grimness of infallibility. It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life. It was the Wild, the savage, frozen-hearted Northland Wild.”

This passage introduces the theme of man versus nature. Here, this tension is expressed by a cold humor. London makes it clear that human life is insignificant in the grand scheme of the natural world. While men and dogs die throughout this chapter, the natural world maintains its supremacy.

“It crushed them into the remotest recesses of their own minds, pressing out of them, like juices from the grape, all the false ardours and exaltations and undue self-values of the human soul, until they perceived themselves finite and small, specks and motes, moving with weak cunning and little wisdom amidst the play and inter-play of the great blind elements and forces.”

The task of surviving in the wilderness places intense stress on the human psyche. As humans become aware of their smallness and their weaknesses, they struggle psychologically because this realization is in conflict with everything humans believe about their place at the top of the natural hierarchy. Isolated from the things that give them strength, people surviving in the wilderness are caught up in their own minds, the depths of which can become dark as more stress is added to the human psyche.

“He tried to sniff noses with her, but she retreated playfully and coyly. Every advance on his part was accompanied by a corresponding retreat on her part. Step by step she was luring him away from the security of his human companionship. Once, as though a warning had in vague ways flitted through his intelligence, he turned his head and looked back at the overturned sled, at his team-mates, and at the two men who were calling to him.”

This moment is one of intense tension, as it is the calm before the storm of this dog’s death. London describes how the sharply intelligent wolves are able to lure the domesticated dogs into danger. Here, the frightening and powerful she-wolf is calculating and deceptive, exploiting her canine connection with the dog she will kill and eat. This passage emphasizes the danger of trusting others in the wilderness.