Ambience
Jack London more about surviving and primal instincts.
Jack London was a realist author from the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. London was a known naturalist, a sub-genre of realism, and believed in Darwinism and survival of the fittest both in and out of his novels (Norton, London). London was very focused on the connection between man versus wild in his works and looked at how the wild could bring out the brutal, animalistic natures inside humans, or “the human beast” (Norton, London). London’s short story, “The Law of Life” shows how expressive London can be about the man versus wild mechanic that he explores so often.
In “The Law of Life,” London writes of an old man who has been doomed to die and left to the wolfs as his tribe moves to the next food source without him. As the old man prepares to hunker down for the rest of his short life, he begins to sort through his memories and think back to those who had passed before him. This piece is laden with extended metaphor between the narrator and a moose that the narrator remembers since both characters have been left to the wolves to die.
“The Law of Life” is a significant piece because of the parts of Jack London that it exposes. London had zero sentiment for his narrator as he left him to the wolves and left him to submit and he asks the question of why we cling to life as much as we do. London’s piece is like the existential voice one has at the back of their head asking what’s the point, and that’s exactly what the piece contributes to the American voice, a sense of simplicity in that it’s all about life or death anyway.