Reading Log #6

Title: White Fang

Author: Jack London

Text Type: Novel

Date Finished: 20/09/17

The story White Fang written by Jack London is a story about a half wolf, half dog called White Fang. He was one of 5 cubs his mother gave birth to. His father had died when he was very little because a wild cat had attacked him. So he was left to help his mum survive with the rest of his siblings, as he was the tough one out of the 5 cubs. One day while White Fang and his mother went out into the woods to look for food to feed him and his siblings and their mother; they came across a wild cat. Whenever White Fang came across another animal he thought of them as the enemy. White Fang was also the type who loved to fight, kill and eat dead animals and they did exactly that to the wild cat they came across. One day White Fang was found by a group of Native Americans who took him in and looked after him until he was passed onto the chief to be looked after by. When he was passed onto Beauty Smith, one of the chiefs, he used White Fang to fight all the dogs that were put in front of him. People in the village loved to watch dogs fight and loved watching White Fang kill other dogs within minutes. One day White Fang had to go up against a tiny but heavy dog called Cherokee. Unlike other fights White Fang fought, this fight lasted longer. During this fight two men spotted what was going on and ran over to stop the two dogs and tried to pull them apart; while everyone else was cheering on the dogs. One man called Scott asked the other man called Matt how much a sled dog cost and they discussed the prices and everything. Once they had finished Scott turned to Beauty Smith and said he would give him $150 for White Fang but Beauty Smith refused it and said White Fang wasn’t up for sale. But Scott didn’t take that as answer and still handed Beauty Smith the money and left with his partner Matt and White Fang. Months on in and Scott slowly taught White Fang how to love and that everything that happens doesn’t need to be solved by killing everything.

An important lesson to learn from this is that people do change. But in this case it’s animals. An example of this was in the beginning of the book White Fang was a vicious and dangerous dog/wolf. But towards the end of the book he learnt to become a caring and loving dog/wolf. I reckon this was because throughout the book whenever White Fang did something wrong he was always punished for it. So when Scott spotted White Fang killing all the chickens in the barn, Scott punished him lightly by hitting him with the whip. Then having Scott explain to him that he wasn't allowed to kill the chickens and that he should never do it again. As White Fang grew up being brutally beaten up by whichever master that took care of him at the time, he grew up knowing that violence was the answer to everything. But further on down the road when someone came White Fang’s way and taught him how to be caring and subtle; I think White Fang realized that there was better ways of dealing with things other than using violence. This can relate to some people who may have grown up with no one there to love and care for them but when being surrounded by the right people and being taught a few things you start to see that they do change. It just takes someone to take them under their wing and they will eventually learn how to love and care towards others.

So I think that people do change it just takes the right people to show them what love and care is. Instead of using violence as the answer for everything. It may take longer for some to get their heads around the fact that everything doesn’t need to be solved by starting a fight but they will eventually come around and they will learn from their mistakes. We just need to learn not to punish them and yell things at them as no one really learns from that. If you’re wanting them to do things differently then it’s important to talk to them nice and calmly and they will understand.