Out of the Wild: A Dialectical Analysis of Jack London's White Fang
Summary
Jack London’s name is usually associated with The Call of the Wild, the atavistic tale of a domesticated dog who gradually regains his wolfish instincts. Its companion novel and thematic mirror, White Fang, is often regarded as the less significant of the two, veiled under the well-loved tale of a wolf that must endure hardships to be able to devote himself to his loving master. Thus, there is a dialectic at work between the two novels; The Call of the Wild postulates a progression from civilisation towards wildness, which is opposed in White Fang. This dialectic is not limited to the relation of the companion novels but, I argue, is present within White Fang as well. Besides the novel’s traditional Bildungsroman reading advocating social cultivation, this meta-dialectic enables a counter interpretation that promotes a reconnection with wildness. To situate both readings, I explore Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s ideas of human cultivation through a Social Contract, along with Henry David Thoreau’s and Sigmund Freud’s views on the merits of a (partial) return to nature. After establishing these discourses, I apply my own analysis using a Hegelian thesis-antithesis-synthesis dialectic. I posit White Fang’s reading as a Bildungsroman as the normative thesis, opposed by an allegorical interpretation of social atavism as its antithesis. In the synthesis, I make a claim for both readings’ feasibility, their wider implications, and, finally, their temporary unification.