How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph) Shmoop has numbered the chapters continuously, but the book renumbers them in each Part.
Quote #4
He did not want to bite the hand, and he endured the peril of it until his instinct surged up in him, mastering him with its insatiable yearning for life. (19.47)
White Fang's instincts are in a cage match to the death with what he's learned. It's kind of like the grown-up wolf—with all the bitter experience—is struggling with the puppy—who has only instinct to go on—over how to handle the whole "hand of man" question.
Quote #5
The effect of all this was to rob White Fang of much of his puppyhood and to make him in his comportment older than his age. Denied the outlet, through play, of his energies, he recoiled upon himself and developed his mental processes. He became cunning. (10.9)
Wow, no childhood to be had here. Well, his dad was a deadbeat, so what did he expect? In all seriousness, though, London's talking about a coming-of-age that takes place way too soon, which probably messes up wolves just as much as it messes up people.
Quote #6
Out of this pack-persecution he learned two important things: how to take care of himself in a mass-fight against him - and how, on a single dog, to inflict the greatest amount of damage in the briefest space of time. (11.3)
London ties the coming-of-age stuff with his other themes: completion and nature. White Fang comes of age because he has to. Anything else would mean being the main course for the other dogs. Ironically, by avoiding that, he makes other dogs suffer. Definitely kill-or-be-killed territory here.