White Fang

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1906

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Fire

Fire is a symbol of power in this novel. In Part 1, Henry uses fire to protect himself against the wolf pack. He first sets branches on fire as a way of fending the wolves off, but eventually they outsmart him. He ultimately saves his life by creating a circle of fire around his body, preventing the wolves from entering his space and killing him. The ability to use fire is one of the things that sets humans apart from other animals. For Henry, fire is his one defense against wolves that are more powerful in every other way. Fire symbolizes humans’ power in Grey Beaver’s camp, where White Fang experiences fire for the first time. He approaches the fire and licks at it, then burns himself. This is a formative experience for White Fang because of the pain of both the fire and the mockery he receives from the humans.

Nature Versus Nurture

A motif in this novel is nature versus nurture. White Fang’s character development follows this motif because he must adapt to so many different settings and situations. In the nature versus nurture debate, “nature” is considered the genetic qualities an individual possesses without the intervention of a socializing force, while “nurture” is considered any behavior learned in a family, social, or institutional setting. The debate remains controversial because the two competing influences are difficult to separate: Both humans and animals are born into some kind of family or social environment, and learning begins immediately. Therefore, one’s genetic traits are always developing within a social framework.

White Fang is not born a full-fledged hunter; his mother must teach him to develop his wolf instincts. Her nurturing enhances White Fang’s nature as a wolf. When White Fang is among humans, they nurture or acculturate him in a different way. Grey Beaver, Beauty, and Scott train White Fang for different purposes. As a pack leader and a fighting dog, White Fang emphasizes this natural ferociousness and ability to dominate other dogs. Scott hones White Fang’s behavior so that White Fang understands to only use those qualities on rare occasions—such as attacking an intruder—rather than all the time. Scott nurtures White Fang’s capacity for love. At first, the feeling is foreign to White Fang, and he fights it. Eventually, he learns to give and receive love. London’s overarching message is that nature and nurture can work hand-in-hand. By the end of the novel, White Fang learns that love was always part of his nature, not in conflict with it; he just needed the right teacher.

Captivity

In White Fang, when a person or animal is captured, their spirit changes, sometimes to the point that they are unrecognizable. Therefore, captivity is not only physical; it has the potential to change a person or animal’s fundamental nature.

When Grey Beaver’s group recaptures Kiche, she becomes submissive in ways that shock White Fang. Until that point, he had only known his mother as a powerful force of nature. In the wild, Kiche was free to act and live in accordance with her survival needs. In human society, Kiche loses that freedom and therefore loses a part of herself. White Fang also sacrifices freedom in order to gain security among humans. Living in human society means that White Fang doesn’t have to worry about food or protection, but it also comes at the cost of his freedom to roam, hunt, and live as he wishes. The changes he makes threaten to change his character, and his growth arc is his struggle to remain true to himself while finding a way to live peacefully among humans and other animals.

Hall is an example of what happens to a human in captivity in the novel. He lost his freedom to an unfair justice system, and in the process of seeking revenge, he becomes a criminal and is killed. Being unfairly imprisoned changed Hall to the point where he no longer believed in justice and therefore took the law into his own hands. White Fang does not understand abstract concepts like fairness or law; he acts according to the needs of the moment. When Hall entered the Scott household, to White Fang, he was an intruder, not an unfairly incarcerated man. The misfortune of Hall’s wrongful imprisonment determined his fate. London’s comparison between the effects of captivity on animals and humans invites the reader to question if an individual in captivity is still capable of choice, and if so, what the extent of that choice is.