Definitely, one of the most descriptive and touching scrutinies of a dog’s life, actually a mongrel‘s life I’ve come across, ‘White Fang’ is a tale about an animal that emphasizes the values of pathos, cruelty, love, discipline, hatred, loyalty and time.And it will achieve the not so easy task of the reader actually empathizing with the animal for what it is.
MAIN CHARACTERS
White Fang ... an animal of mixed ancestry being offspring to a mother of mixed breed and a wolf. The main protagonist of the story.
Kishe ... White Fang’s mother, a model of a savior, the sagacious hunter, a true martinet indeed!
Smith ... Better known as Pinhead in his childhood days for his ugly demeanor, a cruel coward to the core who will do anything for money and entertainment.
Grey Beaver ... A Red Indian, this individual is very much White Fang’s mentor in the human world outside of the urban world.
Wheedon Scott ... He’s the first human who gives him a glimpse of true love, long after he’d forgotten anything such as it existed.
What does the story deal with?
It’d be fair to say it is a documentary on White Fang and I’d split it up for you in brief for you to get a concise overview.
THE WAY OF THE WOLVES, WHITE FANG IN THE WILD
This is the initial stage of the story, where we get to know the cunning nature of one of the fiercest hunters in the Arctic – the wolves. In order to survive a famine they go to any lengths to kill whatever comes their way, even humans with weapons and dogs with their brains intact cannot outwit them eventually falling prey to them.
It basically deals with the nature of wolves in the wild, where mercy is a virtue unknown to such creatures. It gives us an insight to the character Kishe, a cunning mixed breed of a dog and a wolf who helps to hold the pack together even in troubled times.She fears none, not even humans and is a responsible mother . It also deals with White Fang’s birth and life as he saw it in the wild. His phobias, his comforts , how he widens his vista of the world when curiosity gets the better of him, White Fang’s life as an adept hunter and how he was a loner from the start, having lost all his siblings to the famine.
LIFE WITH THE RED INDIANS
This is when he accidentally stumbles upon a set of Red Indians by chance and how he acknowledges the superiority of such beings. He is despised by all dogs and others of his kind alike and how he learns to be an adroit fighter under trying circumstances and a life of discipline and courage under his master Grey Beaver, who treats him as a respectable asset but an animal all the same. He learns to be independent enduring several famines and rounds it all up with revenge over childhood foe , a vicious mixed breed by the name of LipLip. We also get glimpses of his heroics in saving his masters and his chicanery in attaining food when it was scarce and his rise as a leader of a sled driving team.
LIFE WITH A HATEFUL BEAST
The beast being talked about is a certain Smith who after bribing Beaver with alcohol buys White Fang from him and dishes out what he does best- hatred in all forms , beating , kicks whippings, bondage forever in chains. His purpose? To turn him into a beast who knows only hatred in order to be part of dogfights and win him pots of money.
LIFE WITH HIS SAVIOUR , HIS TRUE LOVE
During one rare occasion , when he has a his back against the wall with a relentless bulldog , he finds deliverance at the hands of a certain Scott who buys him from Smith forcefully. Scott only has love to offer and Fang is alien to the very concept being victim to hatred most of his life. But they say “Love wins them all.” And it wins Fang as well. In this tryst he learns about loyalty, friendship and feels true love for his master for the first time both at the mines and in California when Scott eventually returns home. There Fang faces animosity at first both by dogs and humans but gradually earns his respect with his courage and discipline to be known as ‘The Blessed Wolf’.
FEATURES OF THE BOOK
1.I must say, I’ve never come across any other better form of storytelling about wolfs/dogs. One can see Jack London’s complete understanding of these species with emotions intact. It serves to educate us extensively about lives of wolves in the wild and in domestication.
2.The beauty of the story is not in what it gorges but in the way London tells it. He literally speaks as if he were a part of White Fang’s own soul which gives this story a different direction from the usual, a new pleasing and intriguing path for readers to venture into. You can see that he actually thinks of White Fang as the protagonist and doesn’t feign so.
3. It is mostly in the form of a narrative. Given that try and imagine how skilfully the author must have portrayed to keep readers absorbed in the story sans dialogues and the uncommon subject it deals with.
4.Significantly enough this classic gives us an insight to the emotional aspects of a wolf’s life in a way I’ve never seen before, irrespective of if it’s London’s vision of the creatures or facts it is entirely believable which according to me is a feat in itself.
5.He shows us how the life a puppy is in no way different from that of a human infant , the same fears, the same conclusions, the same expansion of horizons, the same discoveries and same lessons when translated from the animal kingdom to ours. Makes for fascinating reading!
6.The story also gives us a good look into the life of wolves as terrifying, cunning predators and with what slickness and mercilessness they go about killing their prey. London says it in a way that you will unconditionally tremble at their merciless marauding.
7.London gives a very good view of human beings from Fang’s point of view. He constantly refers to them as god as must have seemed to Fang and elucidates the reasons for conjuring up this superiority, never basing anything on assumption. And all his logic is strongly edible.
8.It also shows us how loyalty is a natural propensity in the canine world but it is not unconditionally to one purpose like we mostly believe. Possible since we primarily notice their loyalty to us. Who sees what’s cooking underneath?
9. It may all well be fiction but the way London has dexterously combined his visions with facts about the species is what makes this riveting tale really potent. I being an animal lover enjoyed it most because it never swayed from facts about the species but at the same time added believable unexplored, absorbing elements.
10. If you are one who sees dogs/wolves only as animals and nothing more and don’t rely too heavily on imagination for your entertainment you may not be able to appreciate this work for its actual greatness.
A real joy ride from commencement to end. Read it without further protraction.
Fave Line:Fear!—that legacy of the Wild which no animal may escape nor exchange for pottage.