We have changed our privacy policy. In addition, we use cookies on our website for various purposes. By continuing on our website, you consent to our use of cookies. You can learn about our practices by reading our privacy policy.

White Fang Analysis

Literary Devices in White Fang

Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory

Setting

Most of the book takes place in the Yukon Territory, the section of Canada buttressed up against Alaska. It was a pretty wild area, sort of the last hurrah for the Western frontier where men were m...

Narrator Point of View

London falls back on the tried-and-true "I can see everything everywhere" point of view to tell his story. It's a smart call, since he has to show us things out in the wild involving animals that c...

Genre

With the Yukon Gold Rush as a back-drop, London is free to tell us a thrilling tale of action and adventure: complete with cute puppies, dead bunnies and a whole heck of a lot of fighting. There's...

Tone

Jack London's not one for putting on fancy pants. He likes to give you the facts, and let you make the call. Even when we're close to White Fang, it's not like we're swept up in a whirlwind of emot...

Writing Style

If you could use a sledgehammer as delicately as a scalpel, you might have some idea of how London writes. He doesn't go in for flowery language, complicated metaphors, or ten dollar words. "White...

What's Up With the Title?

The title's pretty much a no-brainer. We can almost see the marketing meeting now:"It's about a wolf named White Fang, so let's call it 'White Fang!'""Brilliant boss! No wonder they pay you the big...

What's Up With the Ending?

It's a happy one, as White Fang finally gets to "lay with half-shut patient eyes, drowsing in the sun" (25.45) after all the horrible things he goes through. It also comes on the heels of a big ol'...

Tough-o-Meter

London loves the lean, meaty prose. White Fang is full of sparse descriptions, without a lot of flowery phrases, that get right to the bloody point. He also enjoys lots of action and violence, whic...

Plot Analysis

London was nice enough to divide his story up into five parts, which perfectly match the five segments of classical plot analysis. (Somebody sure paid attention in English class.) Of course, it's n...

Trivia

Teddy Roosevelt seemed to have it in for Jack London; the noted animal lover (and frequent animal shooter) claimed that White Fang was absurd, especially the fight between Cherokee and White Fang....

Steaminess Rating

We're pretty much sex-free here, at least as far as the humans go. There are a couple of sequences of NatGeo-style wolf mating, but that's all a natural part of life and whatnot. Even in those scen...