White Fang door Jack London

About the author:

Jack London (born Jan. 12, 1876, died Nov. 22, 1916) is best known for his books The Call of the Wild, The Sea-Wolf, and White Fang. He was born in West Oakland to become the highest paid, most popular novelist writer of his day. In his days he was a celebrity, a colorful and controversial personality who was often in the news. He wrote stories with a high adventure-level, based on his own experiences at sea or in Alaska. Between 1900 and 1916 he
wrote all of his books, including both fiction and non-
fiction. He died of a kidney disease at age 40 but left over
fifty books of novels, stories, journalism and essays.

“His greatness will surge triumphantly above race and time,
“said his old friend George Sterling. His genius was “so
flaming, so passionate, and so sincere” that it would over-
whelm the limits of “prejudice and nationality.”

About the title:

The title of the book is White fang. This can be explained in chapter 9 (the makers of fire). When the Indians fist see White fang (first named: the cub) one of the Indians noticed his whit fangs. When Grey Beaver becomes his master, he said’’His fangs be white, and White Fang shall be his name.”

Short summary:

The story opens with two men who are on an expedition in the northlands. The men and the sled dogs are haunted by a pack of wolves. After a while, all the sled dogs are killed and eaten by the wolves, so is one of the men.
Now suddenly the story is told from the perspective of the she-wolf (the leader of the wolf pack, but a dog). Then she leaves the pack and meets a male-wolf of whom she gets pregnant.
When White Fang is born there’s a famine in the country. His father dies because of that and he learns to hunt himself.
After about a year White Fang walks into a group of Indians. The Indians take White Fang and his mother to their camp to help them with the sled. White Fang now belong to Gray Beaver. Gray Beaver is very severe, and shows no affection to White Fang. But White Fang knows Gray Beaver is his master and follows him were ever he may go, he is loyal. In the Indian camp every other dog and their masters hate Whit Fang because he is half wolf and wolfs fight a lot more than dogs. After a few years Beauty Smith appears. He’s very interested in White Fang because he’s a tamed wolf and very strong. Beauty smith buys White Fang to let him fight with other dogs. It appears that Beauty Smith has a twisted mind and cowardly rages. He brutally beats white Fang and doesn’t give him a lot to eat, so if there is a fight with an other dog, White Fang is outrages and immediately kills the other dog.
One day there is a fight with a bulldog. White Fang does not know how to handle a dog that keeps his teeth closed once he has closed them and White Fang nearly dies. Then Weedon Scott appears and saves White Fang by buying him.
Now White Fang has a new master again and soon enough he founds out that this master gives him love (something he didn’t knew before). One day Scott just disappeared, so White Fang is left alone with the father of Scott. White Fang misses his master and refuses to eat till his master comes back. Luckily Scott arrives at time and now takes White Fang with him to California. In California there is peace and soon White Fang learns to deal with al this human beings.
At the and of the story there is an convict who want to take revenge at Scott’s father for putting him away behind bars. White Fang knows that the father of Scott is very precious to Scott so he saves Scott’s father by killing the convict. In the struggle with the convict, White fang is badly hurt and almost dies afterward.
But of course there is a happy ending and White Fang lives happily ever after.

Personal opinion:

- I choose this book because I’ve heard a lot of good things about Jack London. White Fang was the book that came the closest to the 200 pages. While reading it I noticed I couldn’t stop anymore so I didn’t switch books anymore.
- This book even surpass my expectations because it’s kind of an old book I thought it wouldn’t be so exciting as a now a day book. But I was wrong, it was exciting and I was also surprised by the knowledge of Jack London about wolves and the northlands.
- When I started the book I find the English a little bit difficult but one hour later the words where rushing under my eyes and I didn’t had any further problems with the difficulty of the English. Looking back I would even say it was a bit easy to read (I mean the English).
- The theme of the book is not so difficult to pinpoint. Wolves are the theme of this book and nothing else.
- Of course my opinion about the theme changed while reading this book, does it not always? After reading the book, I now look at wolves much more in a human way. I now compare wolves with dogs and dogs with wolves. Jack London also gives you the idea that wolves think a little bit like human and they also have the same feelings than human.
- I never red a book about wolves before.

Something about:

- The genre of the book is fiction. Because this story never happened and Jack London could not look inside the head of White Fang to know what he was thinking. I also think it’s a novel because actually it’s the life-story of a wolf. You get to read all his pain and happiness.
- The point of view is sometimes from White Fang and sometimes from Jack London, so the storyteller. Jack London also did some resurge about wolves so that made him even better in telling the story from White Fang’s prospective. Because the story is told from Whit Fang’s prospective you have no trouble in transmitting yourself into a wolf, which is kind of funny, being inside a wolf’s head.
- The setting changes all the time but there are four big setting changes. The first setting is in the cave where White Fang is born and lives for his first life-year. The second setting is in the Indian camp with Gray Beaver. The third setting is with Beauty Smith. This not really one setting because they travel all over the northlands to fight for the money. The fourth setting is with Scott in the northlands and the last setting is with Scott in California.

Main characters:

- White Fang: he’s half wolf and half dog. He’s a real good fighter and doesn’t know love until he meets Scott.
White Fang hates his second master, Beauty Smith but he loves his third master Scott. White Fang comes from the wild so sometimes there are some problems about his killing instinct.
- She –wolf: she’s the mother of White Fang and always his trust person while the cave and Indian period. She protected White Fang with her life in the hated Indian camp.
- Gray Beaver: he’s the fist master of White Fang. He comes up for White Fang when necessary but the rest of the time he is very severe and he doesn’t show White Fang any love.
- Beauty Smith: he’s mentally sick and very aggressive. Beauty Smith is the second master of White fang. He slaps White Fang a lot to also make him aggressive and to let him fight better.
- Weedon Scott: he is the love-master of White fang. When they first met, Scott saves White Fang’s ass.
Scott treats White Fang right and at the end they love each other unconditionally.