White Fang
Jack London
White Fang
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"White Fang" by Jack London is a novel first serialized in 1906. It follows a wild wolfdog's transformation from the brutal wilderness of the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush to eventual domestication. Through the eyes of its canine protagonist, the story explores the violent worlds of both animals and humans, chronicling White Fang's journey through starvation, abuse, and savage dog-fighting before finding redemption. This companion novel to "The Call of the Wild" examines themes of survival, morality, and the possibility of transformation.
About the book
Published in 1906, White Fang follows a wolf-dog born in the wild of the Yukon Territory during the Klondike Gold Rush. He learns the harsh law of survival first from his mother and the wilderness, then from the people who own him, including a cruel master who makes him a fighting dog. Jack London told much of the story from the animal's own point of view, and wrote it as a companion to The Call of the Wild, reversing its direction: here a wild creature is gradually drawn towards domestic life. The novel is a study of how cruelty and kindness shape character, set against the vivid cold of the North.
Characters
White Fang — Wolf-dog
A wolf-dog born in the wild, shaped by hunger, hostility and the people who own him.
Kiche — White Fang’s mother
A she-wolf who is half dog, and once lived among humans.
Grey Beaver — First master
A Native man who claims White Fang and teaches him the law of club and fang.
Lip-lip — Puppy rival
A bullying pup in the camp who makes White Fang’s early life a misery.
Beauty Smith — Cruel master
An ugly, cowardly man who wants White Fang for dog fights.
Weedon Scott — Mining expert
A patient man who tries to win White Fang’s trust.
Matt — Dog-musher
Weedon Scott’s practical helper with the sled dogs.
About the author
Jack London (1876–1916) was an American novelist who left school at fourteen and worked as a cannery hand, an oyster pirate, a sealing hand in the Pacific and a tramp before he was twenty. He joined the Klondike gold rush in 1897, came home with no gold and a case of scurvy, and turned the year into the books that made him one of the first Americans to get rich by writing fiction. He was a committed socialist who wrote about the struggle for survival with an unsentimental eye, and he died at forty on the California ranch he had sunk his earnings into. His books include The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Martin Eden.