THE NORTHERN TALES

It is possible to name a dozen of Jack London's northern short stories every one of which is a masterpiece in itself, created by the hand of a true expert. In spite of everything that unites them, these stories were very different from each other. Nevertheless each story can be read with growing interest, and each revealed new sides of the author's talent. Reread the story about death of the gold-miner Mason in "The White Silence," or "Love of Life," or The Call of the Wild, for example.

London recreated the fatal dangers that awaited explorers of the North. The victory over nature did not come easily. A person attempting to fight nature alone may perish, as did a character in the story "To Build a Fire." The Northland did not pity those who violated its laws. (For example, Sitka Charley unmercifully punished his fellow Indians for secretly eating flour and refusing to help a sick person). The laws of ethics promote honesty among people. Creators and executors of the laws of the North are people of high moral qualities. These are people like Sitka Charley and Malamute Kid, about whom the author wrote that a snarling wolf experienced trust for him and wintry hearts opened to him as spontaneously as flowers open to the sun.

The heroes of Jack London were gold-miners and Yukon natives, and the conditions in which they lived were very new and unusual. In the story "An Odyssey of the North," which was very characteristic of his early period of writing, the native Naass went to the world's edge in search of his beloved and a white man who kidnapped her. He traveled to the shores of Siberia, to England, and finally, after visiting a couple other countries, came to Alaska. He caught up with the rival and took his revenge. However the person for whom he endured so much suffering and loss refused to come back to him and died with her husband, leaving Naass in great torment and making his life meaningless.

There was a lot of romance and exotica in this story. In each character were strong and timeless feelings. It was easier for them to depart from this life rather than betray those feelings. This made the story sublime, inspiring, even lofty. Oftentimes the writer turned to the lives of those failures that he met in the wild Northland. He was one of those who knew from personal experience that the gold fever brought wealth to just a select few, while inflicting death and suffering on thousands more. That is why his novels were full of tragic endings. That is why the fallen tree broke Mason's spine in "White Silence," and a lonely traveler died of severe frost in "To Build a Fire." The theme of money and human greed, a theme widely apparent in American literature, received its most impressive treatment in the works of London. Gold with all of its importance to a human being did not constitute the meaning of life. For Jack, a man with his courage and endurance, his spirit of companionship, his honesty and nobleness, was far more important.

Messner, a character of the story "A Day's Lodging," threw the gold given to him by a lover of his ex-wife into an ice hole: human dignity and decency are above money. The writer ridiculed a dexterous profiteer David Rasmussen, who tried to make money off the re-sale of eggs in "A Thousand Dozen." The character's suicide, caused by the failure of his shady enterprise, was devoid of tragedy. Instead London presented it as a fair retribution for speculation. In "The Man with the Gash," Jacob Kent, stricken with a passion for gold, became a victim of his own greed. His gun, in which he hid gold nuggets, exploded and killed him.

London felt great compassion towards Indians and the Eskimos. In his stories, they appeared as positive characters, not any less human than white people. With much respect, he described their archaic way of life full of gloomy traditions, the sincerity and ingenuity of the natives' feelings and their naive mentality. "A Hyperborean Brew" is a tale about a white man who skillfully fooled a group of native people. There was a lot of sad truth in this story that told about natives growing accustomed to drinking and about robberies of Indian tribes by white people — smart businessmen and cunning adventurers. The best of London's stories rank among the few works that border on literary perfection. Short stories such as these were valued not only for their content and handling of subject, which was portrayed with such certainty, but also for the astonishing stylistic skill of a talented writer.

There were quite a few heroes in London's narratives, people of all types of character. London made quick sketches of each of them. These heroes were memorable not by themselves but in their relationship with the protagonist of the story, as with the dog Buck in The Call of the Wild. Through interaction, readers remember Judge Miller, with whom Buck led the life of a well-fed aristocrat, and the gardener's helper Manuel, who kidnapped him, and the courier of the Canadian government Perrault, with his helper Francois. And of course, readers remember the unlucky gold-seekers Charles, Hal and Mercedes — all three mad, strangers to the North, and therefore doomed to failure. And most of all, the readers remember John Thornton.

All of the plots, artistic images and pictures serve to better the portrayal of Buck's courageous and intelligent personality. The narration about different people and animals with which Buck had contact foreshadowed those traits of his personality that developed at the end of the story with such sudden integrity. After the death of Thornton, to whom Buck became strongly attached, he ran away into the woods, obedient to the wild instincts and the call of the wild that is within him. He joined the wolf pack. In a fatal struggle with rivals, he earned the right to become the leader of the pack. However the love for his master, a kind and just man, drew Buck back to the place of Thornton's death. The grieving animal frequently left his brothers in the woods and went to the valley. Then the sorrowful howl of the lonely wolf filled the air; it sounded a requiem for the forever-gone friend, a symbol of endless loyalty. The story broke off on the most intense note, the reader left alone in the tragic moment. The concluding pages delight, but also hurt painfully. Such is the skill of Jack London, a true artist. Telling about Buck's life, the writer focused on the laws that rule the animal kingdom, where the mentality of kill to survive or be killed and eaten prevails. Another powerful law of animal life, in London's opinion, was the law of adaptability: those species survive which are able to adapt to the changing conditions better than others. These laws seemed to London accordant with his epoch. The protagonist's struggle for survival symbolized the struggle of a person in the bourgeois world. American literary scholars quickly picked up on this feature of his story.

Struggling for life as a puppy, Buck, like an individual in the capitalist society, was forced to face the cruel laws of life. The conclusion he came to, having acquired earthly wisdom: "So that was the way. No fair play. Once down, that was the end of you. Well, he would see to it that he never went down." The story was a success in composition. Everything in it was balanced: the transition from description to the dialogue, from the dialogue to the word portrait and transitions from one scene to the next came naturally, one flowing out from the other. The central character, the dog Buck, had been portrayed as all-around truthful. Inspired by the success of The Call of the Wild, London began another book about animals with the novel White Fang, which became another great event in his growing literary biography. The novel about a wolf, White Fang, demonstrated London's ability to observe animals and reflected his incredible knowledge of animal mentality and habits. London truthfully described the process of a wolf cub's acquaintance with life, the acquisition of experience and the development of "elementary thinking." The reader involuntarily finds himself believing the author entirely and sympathizing with the main character.

White Fang had a happy ending: the reader experiences a feeling of relief. The wise and courageous wolf, invented by the creative imagination of the talented artist, left a mark on our memory for a long time. London organized the novel around the protagonist, which made the work compositionally ordered. He led White Fang through four stages of development. He led him through the animal world of Indians, the cruel world of Beauty Smith and, finally, he brought the wolf through the world of reason (intellect) and love, represented in the image of his last master, Weedon Scott. The wolf cub was able to survive, only due to his natural strength and health and his ability to adapt, which, in London's opinion, was almost equaled by the understanding of the outside world.

Fate brought the little wolf together with an Indian named Gray Beaver. At that point, White Fang, brought up with the laws of fierce fangs and blood, learned about the existence of the unwritten laws of justice and kindness. It was among people that he discovered the significance of these concepts.

The theme of man being a master of the living world runs through the entire novel. London showed that it is intelligent, just, humane laws which distinguish a human being, putting him above others in the animal world. According to London, it was not an individualist who would lead the living world, but one person in cooperation with other people -- the people who help out in difficult times. A human being is mute in the grand world of nature. This world is scary and bloodthirsty. In the struggle with a hungry wolf pack, a lone-person would have been immediately torn to pieces. However several people came to his rescue, the animals cowardly ran off the battlefield just at the sound of his friends' footsteps.

Many years later, London's theme of friendship, coupled with the idea that "one person cannot survive alone," was repeated in a different aspect and in different material by American writer Ernest Hemingway in his novel The Old Man and the Sea. London led White Fang through the angry world of Beauty Smith, who fueled in him fierce animosity toward every living thing. Later in the story, London showed the taming of the little wolf, thus emphasizing the victory of omnipotent love and care. Kind attention quickly changed the wolf, giving him a different outlook on the outside world. White Fang fell in love with his new master. It was this love that inspired him and made him fearless.

Jack London juxtaposed the healing force of kindness against the cruelty and strength of Beauty Smith. In London's view, high humanity and human intellect, and not violence were able to work miracles, to conquer even a wolf. A person like Smith, uninspired by love, loses the ability to be human. Such a human being becomes more like a beast, but even more disgusting.

At the end of his creative journey, in his last novel about a dog, Michael, Brother of Jerry, London returned to the theme of the miraculous power of kindness and gentleness in dealing with animals. The concept of the power of love ran through the entire literary career of Jack London. In the tale "The Hobo and the Fairy," he showed how a little girl's trust and attentiveness strongly and wholesomely influenced an inveterate criminal, bringing a change to his soul and even in his life. The humane attitude, in the author's opinion, was a powerful influence, for it invoked kind human feelings and generated new life. London's way of revealing malicious and cruel things in everyday reality helped him to revolt with even greater determination against inhumanity in the world.