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 #1

It is not the way of the Wild to like movement. Life is an offence to it, for life is movement; and the Wild aims always to destroy movement. (1.3)

Death and the wild are pretty clearly linked here, which means that fighting against the wild is the same as fighting against death. Also, check out how effective London's language is. He cuts right to the point, and he doesn't explain why, but you really feel how harsh and nasty and relentless death in the wild can be.

Quote #2

And this was the epitaph of a dead dog on the Northland trail—less scant than the epitaph of many another dog, of many a man. (1.75)

London wants us to know that death can come without a lot of fanfare. It can be sudden and casual, and where it goes down, you might not even have anyone to say good-bye to you. Harsh, isn't it?

Quote #3

The suffocation he experienced was like the pang of death. To him it signified death. He had no conscious knowledge of death, but like every animal of the Wild, he possessed the instinct of death. (7.27)

By fighting against death—fighting to stay alive—White Fang becomes an instrument of death. It's ironic, but it also explains how the natural world works. You're either killing something or getting killed yourself.