White Fang

For some reason, I do not know why, I picked up a couple of books at Barnes and Nobles that I wouldn’t have expected. One was The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London. These are books I was probably supposed to have read in Junior High or High School and did not.

Although London has a Darwinistic take on life, I found the books intriguing and I am going to share a thought I had about a quote in White Fang.

White Fang is a wolf. He was born to his half domestic/half wolf mother. She was skilled, intelligent, powerful and wise in all things related to the wild. Her cub, White Fang, was born with all of her tenacity and intellectual capabilities. (London had a great way of writing anthropomorphically in his stories)

As the only cub born to the she-wolf, the little cub was often left alone in the cave in which he was born while his mother hunted food. She had taught him through severe punishment not to venture out into the white light of the outside. But, like most little cubs it would just be a matter of time before curiosity led him to his destiny.

That day comes when mom is out on a hunt. White Fang accidentally stumbles out of the darkness of the cave and into the wild world. His clumsiness is shortly overcome by his keen instinct as he begins to explore life around him

A turning point in his young life is unfolding on the pages. He eventually stumbles upon the nest of a ptarmigan. Instantly he knows he has found food. It is his first prey. The taste of the ptarmigan chick is pure satisfaction that brings him an unmitigated sense of accomplishment. The moment is shattered when the chick’s mother returns. She berates the young cub with her wings to which White Fang responds by snatching her in his teeth. A short struggle ensues, but White Fang is a born hunter. He wins the first battle for existence.

Here London writes, “All the fighting blood of his breed was up in him and surging through him. This was living, though he did not know it. He was realizing his own meaning in the world; he was doing that for which he was made—killing meat and battling to kill it. He was justifying his existence, than which life can do no greater; for life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do.” (Page 150)

Stay Tuned for Part 2