The World: As Jack London Sees It

The World: As London Sees It

The world as a conscious being stupefies some, as it is an awesome thought that many people ponder. The thought of the universe as a thing that picks and chooses who lives and dies terrifies some, while some welcome the idea and coexist with it. Jack London, the author of such books as The Call of the Wild, and The Sea Wolf, is one such man who lives with the idea. London views the world as a Darwinist, or with the theory of natural selection. He sees the world with a sense of cold reality, where the strongest must fight and thrive to keep a place in the world.

Jack London uses simile and metaphor to describe the cold reality that the world is a harsh place to live in. London conveys how he feels about the world by connecting to people through the use of his literature, in The Sea Wolf London says, “Life is a piggish existence”(81). London uses pigs as a metaphor for life because life is dirty, and in some instances must eradicated in order for one organism to progress its own existence. These pigs also connect with the sluggishness that life carries with it. Life transforms beings into what they need to be to survive, otherwise they cannot progress existence out of stagnancy. London allies this situation in The Call of the Wild when Francois says, “ Dat Buck he’m fight lak the devil”(19). Buck fights the way he needs to fight, and he fights a product of nature. The universe transforms buck into what he became. This simile shows that London feels that organisms are born of nature, not nurture. London uses different literary tools other than simile and metaphor, like syntax symbols and, to show life as cold and selective. Though London uses the devices in his own way, because he is “A writer untouched by bookishness”(Edward W. Pritcher). London not only uses a wide selection of words, but also arranges them in syntactic perfection. London says, “The world is run by the law of club and fang.”(14). The way London puts this natural law of the world reverberates through the soul and shows how good a writer he is as well as the natural order of the world. This law is in one simple phrase, sums up how London feels the world is run. This law revels the true psychology of a genius. This law is the meaning of evolution. The club beats the fang so the fang must not try to overcome, until the fang can become strong enough to do so, but fate does not care if the club beats the fang, or vise versa. Either way fate continues unimpeded. In The Sea Wolf, Humphrey Van Weydon feels some of this neglect when he reminisces on his knee injury, “ I had injured my knee and yet the I gained no sympathy from the hunters.” (57). The hunters in the text symbolize the cold uncaring world that people inhabit, because hey live their own lives and go the way they need to go. The hunters live with out many of the modern conveniences of the day, symbolizing the simplicity of life and the absolute basic needs: food and sleep. The hunters live their lives separate of all things, the other crewmembers as well as each other. Even though life lives independently of all other things it still manages to inadvertently throw things at people to interrupt life. When that happens though one must fight to bring life back to equilibrium. Humphrey, of The Sea Wolf laments about the one thing that truly challenges his life, “For the first time in my life I truly wanted to kill a man”(123). Thomas Mugridge is the only thing that defies Van Weydon’s right to live. London uses the cook, Thomas Mugridge to show what one must do when an outside force tries to impede one’s progression of them self. Survival must be the ultimate concern of some thing, because that is the only thing that an organism has in the world its own existence. One must be able to do things to ensure its survival, which includes interpreting the natural laws of the Earth in a special ways. Buck from Call of The Wild has to break these rules in order to maintain his own dominance in his world, “ Buck flew into a rage slashing at the necks of the Indians.”(90). Buck sees that the Indians conquer the life of his one true love John Thornton, and they look to conquer his own life. Buck cannot let any other person or thing do that so he must do his own to interpretation that law of club and fang, London’s description of the world. Buck kills the ultimate form of life: man, in order to preserve himself. These literary devices that London utilizes are all apart of the overall image of the world that he describes.

To London there exist some exceptions to the rules established by nature. Women, to London, exemplify that not every organism has to be the strongest or most fit to compete or survive. Women prove that one can live symbiotically off another, as London feels that they cannot live without the help and assurance of men. Women in his work often show some form of inferior life form that need to live dependently I order to survive. By doing this, London perpetuates all the stereotypes about women in that hold true in his era. One of these stereotypes that he describes is that all women are dependant on men. When Humphrey and Maud get stuck on Endeavor Island Maud says to Humphrey, “Oh Humphrey how will we ever get off this island.”(212). Maud is completely lost and totally dependant on her man, and it does not matter that it is Humphrey she calls on, were it any man on the island she would have asked the same question with a different name. Women are not strong individuals, and they need to be constantly protected, from London’s view. Maud symbolizes all women, as she is the picture perfect woman, delicate, beautiful, and graceful. Maud and all other women are the sole exception to the law of club and fang. Theses women come off as stubborn individuals who thrive because men thrive. The perfect description comes from The Call of the Wild when Hal and Charles try to throw the unnecessary things that Mercedes packed on the voyage, “She sat down in the snow and would not move until the men came back for her.” (68). Mercedes is London’s depiction of the childish behavior that helps to characterize women, in a generalization. She acts as a child acts and lives the way a child lives, by surviving off of another life form greater than her. Another stereotype that London continues is that women, in some instances like a child, are ignorant of the context of a situation. In call of the wild John Thornton warns Mercedes by saying, “You won’t be able to cross the lake this time of year”(77). John Thornton tries to warn the women, and her actions cause the deaths