In Part 1, Chapter 3, London uses paradox to express how people become the most aware that they are alive when they are on the verge of death. After his companion Bill and many of their sled dogs have been eaten by the pack of hungry wolves following them through the wilderness, Henry fends them off with the light of his campfire (which symbolically represents civilization) and watches them grow bolder with each passing night, creeping closer to his safe haven near the fire. As the wolves inch closer, Henry grows certain that it’s only a matter of time before they eat him, and he starts to become keenly aware of his own physical body:
As he piled wood on the fire he discovered an appreciation for his own body which he had never felt before. He watched his moving muscles and was interested in the cunning mechanism of his fingers […] It fascinated him, and he grew suddenly fond of this subtle flesh of his that worked so beautifully and smoothly and delicately […] like a blow the realization would strike him that this wonderful body of his, this living flesh, was no more than so much meat, a quest for ravenous animals, to be torn and slashed by their hungry fangs.
The paradox here lies in the fact that Henry only fully appreciates the capability of his own body—the wonder that he is alive and able to think and feel—when he is surrounded by death. The Northland is represented as dead, still, and hostile to life; it is described as “lone,” “cold,” and aiming to “destroy movement.” The wolves are part of the wilderness, aiming to consume Henry’s life in order to preserve their own. In this frozen, still, and oppressively silent landscape, any sign of life stands out in stark contrast: bright sparks of life and movement against a blank and endless expanse of death.
This paradoxical emphasis on Henry feeling fully alive only when he is at the edge of death reflects London’s own interest in danger and adventure, and his respect for humankind’s tenacious will to survive at all costs. Although White Fang eventually ends up settling down into a life of domestication, comfort, and safety, it is at the expense of this constant sense of sharp awareness and being keenly alive that he experienced while living in the wilderness, where death is a constant threat and living creatures must struggle to survive.
