Jack London

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Recommended: Features of the English novels of the 19th century

During the turn of the 19th century, a grandiose shift occurred in literature from realism to naturalism form of writing. One of the many authors involved in this movement included Jack London. London developed his short stories collection, Son of the Wolf, around this theme. In a Far Country is a short story in Son of the Wolf collection in which London talks about two lethargy men, Cater Weatherbee and Percy Cuthfert, who come from different realms of life. They are on a journey to the North near the Yukon River in Alaska searching for gold. On their way, they decide to abandon their team and live in a cabin during the Arctic winter. In the beginning, the two men cooperate by staying hygienic and conserving food. But over time they start experiencing a sense of insecurity with each other. They discontinue staying clean, saving food, and keeping order. Overtime they face physical and more importantly emotional breakdown. The disintegration between the two men eventually leads each of them into killing the other over sugar (par. 1-76). By elaborating on the physical and psychological struggle alongside nature’s indifference in the wilderness, London illustrates the superficial cooperation and contention between human beings in a civilization. By using literary tools like vivid imagery, London enhances the perception of the characters’ physical conditions to explain the cause of physical sickness. For example, London describes the situation by saying, “The cabin became a pigpen, and never once were the beds made or fresh pine boughs laid underneath” (par. 47). Weatherbee and Cuthfert have been careless ands have made the cabin into a dumpster. The two men fail to recognize the need to stay clean which results in them getting sic... ... middle of paper ... ...Short Stories. N.p.: Wolf, 1975. 206. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas Votteler. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990. 282-90. Print. 0 New Edit Copy Delete Parenthetical Reference Have a Question? Short Work in an Anthology "'To Build a Fire.'" Short Stories for Students. Ed. Ira Mark Milne. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. 335-41. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Mar. 2011. 0 New Edit Copy Delete Parenthetical Reference Have a Question? Book, Reprinted Material Watson, Charles N., Jr. "Jack London Up from Spiritualism." The Haunted Dusk: American Supernatural Fiction. Ed. Howard Kerr, John W. Crowley, and Charles L. Crow. N.p.: University og Georgia, 1983. 191-207. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Thomas Votteler. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990. 293-96. Print.

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