White Fang - Notes

v     This is the story of how a wolf-dog in Canada learns to be domesticated, from the wolf's point of view, showing how he views the world and people. The story explores ideas about survival and ethics, and the struggle between the two.

v     The story is considered realistic because the animal characters are not personified, the way you normally see in a Disney film, for example. They don't talk, there's no dialogue. They simply view the world and react to it the way a real animal does.

v     The story is also a kind of autobiographical allegory, with White Fang representing the author Jack London, and how he also tamed himself, from a poor, and dangerous tramp into a wealthy, landowning writer.

v     White Fang has been made into a film many times, most recently in 1991.

v     Critics, including President Theodore Roosevelt called Jack London a "nature faker" for this story and Call of the Wild, saying they present certain situations in the animal kingdom that could never happen in real life.

Characters:

White Fang - a wolf-dog and the main character of the book.

Kiche - White Fang's mother.

One Eye - White Fang's father.

Lip-lip - another pup who lives with the Indians. He bullies White Fang like crazy, until White Fang eventually kills him.

Grey Beaver - White Fang's first master. He's a bad master, but White Fang is loyal to him anyway.

Beauty Smith - White Fang's second master. He's much worse, he trains dogs to fight each other for gambling. He doesn't care that they kill each other.

Weedon Scott - a good man from the south who feels sorry for White Fang. He's the one who manages to tame the beast.

Judge Scott - Weedon's father.

The Plot:

1.      This story starts with a wolf pack stalking two men in the woods and their dog sled team. The wolves kill all but one man before he's rescued. The pack then kills a moose and splits up.

2.      One pair of wolves goes off and has a litter of pups. All but one die of starvation. The father, One Eye, is killed by a lynx. the she-wolf then kills this lynx and its kittens.

3.      The she-wolf and pup come across some Indians in the woods. They recognize the mother as Kiche, a wolf-dog that used to be a pet before a famine forced the tribe's dogs to desert them. He takes care of Kiche and names her pup White Fang.

4.      Unfortunately for White Fang, the other Indian dogs don't like him, he's too much a wolf for them. He learns to be a vicious, deadly fighter.

5.      White Fang grows up and is eventually sold to a dog fighter, for several bottles of whiskey. White Fang kills several dogs, wolves, and even a lynx before meeting his match with a nasty bull dog. At the last minute, one man stops the fight to buy him, feeling sorry for this champion.

6.      The man is Weedon Scott, a rich young gold hunter. He tames White Fang.

7.      When Scott decides to return home to California, he plans to go alone, but White Fang tracks him, and Scott then decides to take the dog with him.

 

8.   White Fang gets to live on a nice big estate in California, and even saves Scott's father from a murderous criminal. He lives happily ever after with a pretty collie mate, and has lots of puppies.