White Fang Death Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph) Shmoop has numbered the chapters continuously, but the book renumbers them in each Part.

Quote #7

The basic life of him dominated him again, and his intelligence fled before the will of his flesh to live. Round and round and back again, stumbling and falling and rising, even uprearing at times on his hind-legs and lifting his foe clear of the earth, he struggled vainly to shake off the clinging death. (18.19)

Notice that London doesn't call Cherokee by his name here. He calls him "the clinging death," which is what he represents to White Fang of course. Subtle, ain't he, that London?

Quote #8

Now look here, Mr. Scott, give the poor devil a fightin' chance. He ain't had no chance yet. He's just come through hell, an' this is the first time he's ben loose. Give 'm a fair chance, an' if he don't deliver the goods, I'll kill 'm myself. There! (19.42)

This might be a note about how death works in civilization. It's still there, but there are rules; it's not random or arbitrary. Death comes only for the perceived common good, and then only when "a fair chance" has been deployed.

Quote #9

But it was the multiplicity of laws that befuddled White Fang and often brought him into disgrace. (23.32)

This quote seems to be suggesting that it's not that we don't kill people when we're civilized. It's that we choose when and where it's okay to kill. White Fang has a hard time picking up on that ("It's okay to kill wild rabbits, but not the cat? Okay, let me write that down…"), and London uses that to make a cute point about how arbitrary civilization can be sometimes.