White Fang facts for kids
First edition cover
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| Author | Jack London |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Jack London |
| Genre | Adventure |
| Set in | Santa Clara Valley and the Yukon, c. 1896–99 |
| Publisher | Macmillan |
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Publication date
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May 1906 |
| Media type | Print (serial, hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 298 pp (2001 Scholastic paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-1-85813-740-7 |
| 813.52 | |
| LC Class | PS3523 .O46 |
| Preceded by | The Call of the Wild |
| Text | White Fang at Wikisource |
White Fang is a novel by American author Jack London (1876–1916) — and the name of the book's eponymous character, a wild wolfdog. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906. The story details White Fang's journey to domestication in Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It is a companion novel (and a thematic mirror) to London's best-known work, The Call of the Wild (1903), which is about a kidnapped, domesticated dog embracing his wild ancestry to survive and thrive in the wild.
Much of White Fang is written from the viewpoint of the titular canine character, enabling London to explore how animals view their world and how they view humans. White Fang examines the world of wild animals and the world of humans. The book also explores complex themes including morality and redemption.
As early as 1925, the story was adapted to film, and it has since seen several more cinematic adaptations, including a 1991 film starring Ethan Hawke and a 2018 original film for Netflix.
Plot summary
The story begins before the wolf-dog hybrid is born, with two men and their sled dog team on a journey to deliver the coffin of Lord Alfred to a remote town named Fort McGurry in the higher area of the Yukon Territory. The men, Bill and Henry, are stalked by a large pack of starving wolves over the course of several days. Finally, after all of their dogs and Bill have been eaten, more teams find Henry escaping from the wolves; the wolf pack scatters when they hear the large group of people coming.
The story then follows the pack, which has been robbed of its last prey. When the pack finally brings down a moose, the famine is ended; they eventually split up, and the story now follows a she-wolf and her mate, One Eye. One Eye claimed her after defeating and killing a younger rival. The she-wolf gives birth to a litter of five cubs by the Mackenzie River, and all but one die from hunger. One Eye is killed by a lynx while trying to rob her den for food for the she-wolf and her cub; his mate later discovers his remains near the lynx's den. The surviving cub and the she-wolf are left to fend for themselves. Shortly afterward, the she-wolf kills all the lynx's kittens to feed her cub, prompting the lynx to track her down, and a vicious fight breaks out. The she-wolf eventually kills the lynx but suffers severe injury; the lynx carcass is devoured over a period of seven days as the she-wolf recovers from her injuries.
One day, the cub comes across five indigenous people, and the she-wolf comes to his rescue. One man, Grey Beaver, recognizes the she-wolf as his brother's wolfdog, Kiche, who left during a famine. Grey Beaver's brother is dead, and so he takes Kiche and her cub and christens the cub "White Fang". White Fang has a harsh life in the native camp; the current puppy pack, seeing him as a wolf, immediately attacks him. The Indians save him, but the pups never accept him, and the leader, Lip-Lip, singles him out for persecution. White Fang grows to become a savage, callous, morose, solitary, and deadly fighter, "the enemy of his kind".
It is at this time that White Fang is separated from his mother, who is sold off to another Indian camp by Three Eagles. He realizes how hard life in the wild is when he runs away from camp, and earns the respect of Grey Beaver when he saves his son Mit-Sah from a group of boys seeking revenge. When a famine occurs, he runs away into the woods and encounters his mother Kiche, only for her to chase him away, for she has a new litter of cubs and has forgotten him. He also encounters Lip-Lip, whom he fights and kills before returning to the camp.
When White Fang is five years old, he is taken to Fort Yukon, so that Grey Beaver can trade with the gold-hunters. There, when Grey Beaver is drunk, White Fang is bought by an evil dog-fighter named "Beauty" Smith. White Fang defeats all opponents pitted against him, including several wolves and a lynx, until a bulldog called Cherokee is brought in to fight him. Cherokee has the upper hand in the fight when he grips the skin and fur of White Fang's neck and begins to throttle him. White Fang nearly suffocates, but is rescued when a rich, young gold hunter, Weedon Scott, stops the fight, and forcefully buys White Fang from Beauty Smith.
Scott attempts to tame White Fang, and after a long, patient effort, he succeeds. When Scott attempts to return to California alone, White Fang pursues him, and Scott decides to take the dog with him back home. In Sierra Vista, White Fang must adjust to the laws of the estate. At the end of the book, an escaped convict, Jim Hall, tries to kill Scott's father, Judge Scott, for sentencing him to prison for a crime he did not commit, not knowing that Hall was "railroaded". White Fang kills Hall and is nearly killed himself, but survives. As a result, the women of Scott's estate name him "The Blessed Wolf". The story ends with White Fang relaxing in the sun with the puppies he has fathered with the sheep-dog Collie.
Main characters
Major animal characters:
- White Fang, the novel's protagonist; a wolfdog who was born wild but becomes more dog-like after Gray Beaver domesticates him. He gets bullied by Lip-lip and was forced to become a fighting dog when he was bought by Beauty Smith. However, his life changed when a loving master named Weedon Scott buys him and takes him to his home in Santa Clara Valley in California. He eventually becomes a part of the family after saving Judge Scott from Jim Hall.
- Kiche, White Fang's mother, a sled dog owned by Gray Beaver, known at the beginning of the novel as the "she-wolf". Possibly named for the Algonquian deity Gitche Manitou.
- Lip-lip, a canine pup who also lives in the Native American village and bullies White Fang.
- One-Eye, White Fang's father, a true wolf, who was killed by the lynx.
- Cherokee, a bulldog who was the only dog to defeat White Fang.
- Collie, a sheepdog, mother of White Fang's whelps.
- The Lynx, an aggressive Canada lynx who was responsible for killing One-Eye, but later gets killed by Kiche in retaliation.
Major human characters:
- Gray Beaver, a Native American chief who is White Fang's first master. He is a neutral master, neither as cruel as Beauty Smith, nor as kind as Weedon Scott.
- Beauty Smith, the main antagonist of the novel and White Fang's second master; a dogfighter.
- Weedon Scott, a wealthy gold hunter who is White Fang's third master and the first one to truly show affection towards him.
- Matt, Weedon Scott's assistant who helps tame White Fang.
- Judge Scott, Weedon Scott's father who accepts White Fang as a member of the family after he saves him from Jim Hall.
- Jim Hall, a violent fugitive who tries to get revenge on Judge Scott, but gets killed by White Fang.
- Henry, a character appearing in the introduction of the novel, carrying the coffin of Lord Alfred with Bill.
- Bill, a character appearing in the introduction of the novel alongside Henry and was killed by the wolves led by Kiche.
- Three Eagles, an Indian who buys Kiche from Gray Beaver.
Background
The novel is partly an autobiographical allegory based on London's conversion from teenage hoodlum to married, middle-class writer. In writing it, he was influenced by the ideas of Herbert Spencer, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Nietzsche. Conditions in the US also influenced the story.
Adaptations
The novel has been adapted into numerous pictures and sequels, animated specials, as well as an audiobook format. A television series, White Fang, was filmed in Arrowtown, New Zealand, in 1993.
Films
- White Fang (1925)
- White Fang (1936)
- White Fang (1946)
- White Fang (1973)
- Challenge to White Fang (1974)
- White Fang to the Rescue (1974)
- Zanna Bianca e il grande Kid (1977)
- The Story of White Fang (1982), Shiroi Kiba Monogatari, Japanese anime film produced by Studio DEEN
- White Fang (1991)
- White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf (1994)
- White Fang (1997)
- White Fang (2018)
Television series
- The Legend of White Fang (1992)
- White Fang (1993)
See also
In Spanish: Colmillo Blanco para niños
