I opened my ancient copy of this book with the excitement of reading an old friend. I know I originally read it when I was about 12 or 14. I would not recommend it to anyone under 14 now, and definitely not to anyone with the slightest tendency towards cruelty or bullying. On this reading I was alternately horrified by the beatings meted out to White Fang and other animals (and their justification), and discomforted by the discourse Jack London creates about the intentions, understandings and intelligences of the three-parts wolf named White Fang.This is the story of White Fang and how he came to accept the life of an Indian camp over freedom in the wilds of Alaska and the Yukon. It tells how that life was taken away from him, and how, through trickery of white man to indian, he was turned into a ferocious fighting animal, used as a gambling medium. And it tells how he was rescued from that life and eventually rehabilitated.I know when I first read this book, life, our culture, was different. Citizen science and social participation were in their infancy, life was full of strict rules of behaviour and it was difficult to imagine anything outside a very humdrum life. The 1960s started the change in all that. So reading Jack London now is a very different experience from reading him in the sixties. My 21st century sensibilities recoil at the ill-treatment of animals, even in the harsh world of the Alaskan tundra forest. I see so many reports of ill-treatment of animals now, that I fear whatever literature exists to support such actions should not be widely mentioned. Bullying appears to be rife, and this book is full of bullying – of animals. So much contemporary Middle Grade literature seems to deal with bullying from the perspective of the bullied standing up and overcoming the effects. What White Fang seems to do is glorify it again. Or, if not glorify it, to place it as a natural order of things, since Jack London writes interminably about the law of gods and men, and how animals must take their place in that natural law. I remember doing a course in Environmental Ethics and thinking of how the approach of man to his environment changes according to the fashion at the time, utilisation, mastery, stewardship, harmony, sustainable development. This is back in the mastery era.Yes, the book finishes [spoiler alert]with White Fang being freed from cruelty and rehabilitated through kindness and care from liberal-minded but tough travellers. I skipped through the part where he went to California, as I seem to remember I always did in the past. The key events during that time are well-told, and in some ways, White Fang’s rehabilitation is a blueprint for others who seek to retrain ill-treated animals.[/spoiler alert] It ends on a somewhat maudlin note.It is a superbly written book, but I nearly put it down about two-thirds through. I had forgotten the sheer brutality of it. In some ways I can’t believe I have kept this book with me all this time. I wonder whether I mixed the story up with Call of the Wild. I certainly haven’t read it for years. I doubt whether I ever will again.I don’t recommend you read this book. If you want a good MG wolf story read Nashoga by Rebecca Weinstein.Nashoga
For such a simple story, this book gives me some pretty complex reactions.On one level, this is an adventure story, and a rousing good one. It's the kind of thing that ten-year-olds adore, with an animal hero whose fierceness (and eventually, whose noble spirit) saves the day. It's lively and uncomplicated, with a wealth of detail but relatively straightforward language. It's just plain fun. On another level, this a blatant bit of imperialism as jingoistic as anything Kipling ever wrote. (Another one for rousing adventure and dubious world views, Kipling.) London clearly sets up a continuum of being. There are prey animals, which are vital but somewhat silly. There are predator animals, which, while simple compared to people, still have their own motivations and internal life. There are non-white people, who are more powerful and cunning than predators, but lack some of their simple, savage nobility. There are trashy whites, who are more powerful and cunning than non-white people, but lack their simple, savage nobility. At the top are the Good White Men, who are gods. Brilliant, benevolent, merciless when necessary but otherwise magnanimously compassionate, and above all, Right. It's...shall we say, problematic. But it's possibly even more complex than that, and that's where I start losing track of what the author intended and what is inadvertent. Spoiler alert, although the climax pretty much comes up out of nowhere and is resolved in a chapter.White Fang had the potential to be noble, but was mistreated through most of his life and is only redeemed through the trust and love of the Good White Man. At the climax of the story, a convict escapes who was mistreated through his life. The description of his sorry story uses language almost identical to that of White Fang. He tries to kill White Fang's master, White Fang kills him. Here's my dilemma. The way the two are described begs for the reader to draw a comparison. White Fang is redeemed and enobled by loving, fair, trusting treatment. Is London calling into question all of society's institutions, from how we treat the poor to how we educate people to the entire criminal justice system? Because if love could redeem White Fang, surely it would be able to redeem with even greater results a White Man? But there's absolutely no move towards redeeming the convict in the text. He shows up, he's murderous, he's dead, without even really getting to say something. Everything about his background is superfluous--he exists in the plot only to allow White Fang to prove himself. So...what does that represent? Should we not bother to reclaim criminals? Is it a waste of time to try? Is this a tragedy that he was unable to be reclaimed? Or am I reading far too much in this, and the ending exists only to give White Fang a suitable final opponent?
Do You like book White Fang (2001)?
One of my all time favorite books. Hard at times, bloody, but if you love the outdoors, and dogs, try it.****The above was my original "minimalist" review of this book.****Actually the book doesn't require much of a review beyond, "great book". However as a friend here noted she's just reading it my mind was drawn back to it. As noted below I grew up on a small farm and didn't have access to a lot of novels. I had 4 my parents had given me as gifts over time and our school had a small library. There wasn't a public library nearby. I found this (and Call of the Wild) in the school library. I would have been about 11 I think.I love dogs. I'd lost a couple of dogs by that time (country living was still more of a dose of reality then). White Fang is the story of a young half wolf from his birth on. (view spoiler)[ In many ways Call of the Wild and White Fang are the opposite of each other one the story of a dog becoming a wolf in the wild the other a story of a half wolf coming to love a man. (hide spoiler)]
—Mike (the Paladin)
White Fang is half dog and half wolf. Growing up in the Yukon territory of Canada during the Klondike Gold Rush, he learned the law of the Wild at an early age: kill, or be killed, eat, or be eaten. Separated from his mother and traded from master to master, White Fang never grasped the concept of love, and violence was all that he knew. Having no teacher, he learned the rules of survival by experience. Then, a cruel man buys White Fang and turns him into a pit dog forced to fight for money. With beautifully realistic details of the harsh realities of life in the Yukon, White Fang is a grippingly original tale about morality and redemption that still stands as an American classic.I first bought my copy of White Fang in 2007 shortly after I had graduated from middle school. We had read Jack London’s other book, The Call of the Wild, in English class and I got it into my head that I should read the “other book” as well (for fun because I am that much of a nerd). The book gathered dust on my bookshelf for six years until a week ago when I finally decided to read it. I honestly did not expect to enjoy White Fang as much as I did and even viewed reading it with trepidation. London, however, captivated me with White Fang’s point of view: it was refreshing to see a different perspective of humans from an unlikely character that I couldn’t help rooting for, despite his propensity for violence. I was shocked to read how easily White Fang, a true product of the Wild, succumbed to the superior human “gods” and how mistreated he was, bringing to light the violence and cruelty against animals. This story is NOT Bambi, so none of the animals talked; instead, London used both circumstance and action to establish relationships and individual characters. If the summer is to hot for you, enjoy reading White Fang one afternoon and take a trip to the Yukon to run in the snow with the wolves.
—Neha
The book White Fang was about a wolf dog. It is broken into sections. It’s starts off with the unborn dog’s family and their pursuit of two men transporting a body across the Great North West. The two character where short lived and unimportant in the rest of the story. The next section was about White Fang growing up during a famine (famines occurred many time in this books). Then White Fang’s mother is reunited with her old Indian owner’s brother. White Fang is now left with his mom in a Indian camp until they both get traded on separate occasions. White Fang however, is sold at the price not in bills but bottles. He is then used as a fighting dog and very successful until his last fight with an English bulldog that leaves his close to dead. In this moment of near death the fight is broken up White Fang’s new owner. Here White Fang falls in love with his new owner (not at first though). Then he is taken to California where he lives the rest of his day’s in peace, well oh most. Scott’s (his owner) father is a judge and is saved from a criminal he put away. tThis book uses adventure and ignorance to it advantage. Like any good fiction book it makes it’s readers believe every last word. I’m just realizing the un-likeliness of this book. A dog going from the wild to, to an Indian camp, to a fighting arena, and finally to a loving home. A wolf has never been able to be domesticated over the age of 13 days, let alone go to a sub-urban home after years of wilderness and fighting. The fact that Scott was a successful gold miner in the Klondike Gold Rush which was known to kill many more people then make rich. But Mr. London does such a nice job making the reader over look these facts.tJack London’s White Fang is a book that is nothing short of marvelous. This was a mandatory read for me when I was in the 6th grade. This was a refreshing book to read. I didn’t expect much out of this book when I read the back of the book. It seemed to me to be a desperate grab for attention from one of Oakland’s homeless (Jack London). It’s idea seemed to be one of a Disney movie. I recall making jokes about the book and purposely skipping the first few chapters. However, for some reason I picked up the book and read. It was nothing like Disney movie. I found it extremely easy to visualize as I read the book. This was one of the greatest book I have read. I would recommended it to any who is sick of a cheesy non-realistic book or any one who has lost faith in reading.
—Liam
