Jack London and Nature

Born Jon Griffiths Chaney in San Francisco in 1876, he was abandoned shortly after birth by his father. Therefore, London took the name of his stepfather, John London. Forced to leave school at the age of fourteen and find work because of his family's poor financial situation, he joined the Klondike gold rush of 1898, returning to San Francisco broke, but with an abundance of memories and ideas. During his travels to the Klondike regions, Jack London pondered the importance of humanity. He realized, as important as humans thing they are, the human race is not at all significant. During the late eighteenth century and the early nineteenth century, Jack London struggled with leaving behind traditional attitudes in an effort to find a new philosophy of life. The world was changing in more ways then ever before and traditional unquestioned beliefs had fallen. Jack London would produce stories that would contemplate the significance and superiority of nature to mankind through his use of characterization and plot. One of jack London's early works, "The Law of Life" is about a blind and lame man named Old Koskoosh. He is left behind by the rest of the tribe because he cannot keep up, as is the way of the tribe. When lying in the snow he remembers seeing a moose that could not keep up with the herd and was killed by wolves. In the story, Jack London was portraying Herbert Spencer's and Charles Darwin's idea of survival of the fittest"…during his stay in the Klondike in 1897 and 1898. Darwin had his greatest influence on London through the writings of Herbert Spencer…in On the Origin of Species, [Darwin] wrote…the ‘Survival of the Fittest'…" (Stasz 5). This idea would stick with London and eventually seep into his writing. However, Jack London, a naturalist himself, modified this idea, believing that all life must dies, whether man or animal, but the creature more suited to the environment would survive longer with its own resources. "…his hand crept out in haste to the

Cited: Puopard, Dennis. Ed. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 9. Detroit: Gale Research. 1983. 252-285 Poupard, Dennis. Ed. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol 15 Detroit: Gale Research. 1985. 253-282 Sciambra, Joseph. "The Philosophy of Jack London." The Jack London Online Collection. 25 Dec. 2004. Sonoma State University. 26 Mar. 2006. <http://london.sonoma.edu/Essaysphilosophy.html> Sonoma State University. "Jack London." 15 Feb. 2006 <http://london.sonoma.edu/> 16 Mar. 2006