Literary Analysis On Jack London

Literary Analysis of stories by Jack London

For my author project on Jack London I read three of his books. I read The Sea Wolf, which is about the hardships of being out at sea. The Call of the Wild, Which is about a dog that is sent into the wild. White Fang, which is the opposite the call of the wild where a “wolf” becomes tame. They are all interesting books all by one well-known author. For the first book I read I chose The Sea Wolf. The book is about a guy named Humphrey "Hump" Van Weyden. He is on a ferry that has a collision and he swept away at sea. He is picked up by a passing ship and the captain refuses to take him to shore. The cruel captain Wolf Larson counts Humphrey as one of his own. As the book goes on Hump begins to
like the captain and they get along. That’s the book in a nutshell. Jack London really is great at making characters he does an excellent job of it in this book.
Humphrey is the narrator and the main protagonist in this book. He is in his mid-thirties and is a nerd. He spends most for his time reading and is not very physically active giving him the nickname “sissy”. Hump has never had to work a day in his life until he is aboard the ship which is what makes is such an interesting story. The setting of this book never really changes he is mainly just aboard the ship. The name of the ship is “The Ghost”. It is a seal ship out on the Pacific Ocean. The setting does change though. At the beginning he is on a ferry but still in the Pacific.
The conflicts of the story are really all about Hump adapting to a new environment. Hump is not used to working and when Larson makes him the cabin boy he has to work. Another conflict is when they recue a female poet who both Larson and Hump like. Then later Larson’s brother bribes his crew and they are set adrift without a crew. That is all for The Sea Wolf.
The next book I read is White Fang. White Fang is about a half-wolf half-dog that is wild. Then the dog is tamed by the men named Matt and Scott. White Fang grows fond of Scott and goes back to California with him. The first half of the book has no dialogue and is just White Fang growing
up.
The main character of course is White Fang. White Fang is half-wolf half-dog growing up in the Yukon. White Fang is bigger and stronger than most dogs so the first few humans she runs into try to get her to fight other dogs but she doesn’t want to. Then she meets Scott who is the first human to show her kindness. This really shows White Fang going from primitive to tame.

One of the themes of White Fang is survival of the fittest. This means that only the strongest, brightest, and most adaptable will survive. This is shown in the beginning White Fang being the strongest cub is the only one to survive a famine. When White Fang is defending Scott and is hit by three bullets and is able to survive this really shows just how tough this dog is. The third and final book I read was The Call of the Wild. The Call of the Wild is probably Jack London’s best known book. It is about a dog called Buck. Buck is used to a nice easy life where he lives. Then one day the gardener sells him for gambling money. He then is transported to the Yukon. On the way there a guy beats him with a club. This is where he realizes thing are not going to be as easy as he’s use to. Then he goes from owner to owner and as things go on he keeps becoming more primitive. Buck is an interesting character. He starts off as this tame dog that is treated with a lot of respect to an animal that fights its way to survive. Buck doesn’t know what is happening when he is sold and just goes with it. When he gets hit by the club it really shocks him because a human has never hurt him before. When he first gets to the Yukon he is sold again to a guy and he feeds all the dogs and buck was taking his time and another dog took his food. Buck was not use to stuff like this. As the book goes on but slowly keeps turning into a primitive animal. A theme from The Call of the Wild is the power for primitive instincts. This is shown throughout the book. Buck has repetitive dreams of living long ago were he sees a primitive man alongside him. Buck uses his primitive instincts many times like when the stray dogs come and try to take their food. Buck has to use these primitive instincts in order to survive. Without them he probably would die. The Call of the Wild connects the other two books in a way. The Sea Wolf and The Call of the Wild are both about something going from a easy life to a hard more primitive one. The Call of the Wild and White Fang both take place in the Yukon but are opposite. The Call of the Wild is about a dog or dog like animal going from easy life to hard life, while White Fang is a wolf-dog going from a primitive life to a civilized one. In conclusion we can learn a lot about adaptability and the will to survive from Jack London’s books White Fang and The Call of the Wild. The themes of these books reflect the way life is – eat or get eaten. This fact is true in all these books in a way. That’s all for the books I chose on Jack London.