Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sea-Wolf, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Self-Reliance and Maturation
Materialism vs. Idealism
Survival of the Fittest
Love, Duty, and Choice
Summary
Analysis
Van Weyden and Maud Brewster spend two weeks on Endeavour Island trying to build a hut. If they want seal skin for the roof of the hut, Van Weyden will have to club seals, since shooting damages the pelts. As he goes to club a big bull seal, however, he hesitates, and the powerful seal comes after him; Van Weyden runs away.
Separated from society—even the society of the Ghost—Van Weyden and Brewster are forced to rebuild a civilization from scratch. Though Van Weyden used to condemn the clubbing of seals, being at sea has changed his stance: now, he sees the seal pelts as a key survival resource, not a luxury.
Themes
Maud doesn’t want to continue clubbing the seals, but Van Weyden continues, this time going for a smaller female seal. But again, the big bull male comes after him. Maud overcomes some of her initial hesitation and helps Van Weyden strategize for the next attempt.
This passage shows the difficulty of surviving in nature. Even though Van Weyden has put aside his distaste for violence, he must still use all his strength and ingenuity to overcome the seals.
Themes
Van Weyden and Maud Brewster herd some younger male seals without mates away from their companions and begin clubbing them. Maud even joins in, leaving some of the weak-looking seals but clubbing the stronger ones that try to escape. She finds it exciting and feels very far away from the world of books. Van Weyden almost calls Maud “my woman, my mate” but chickens out and compliments her ability to endure hardship instead.
That Van Weyden has managed to kill the seals shows how much he’s grown as a character, but it also shows how this growth comes with consequences. By killing the seals, Van Weyden and Brewster lose some of their innocence and sensitivity. Though Van Weyden still disagrees with many of Wolf Larsen's survivalist philosophies, killing the seals shows him firsthand what survival of the fittest looks like and, perhaps, helps him to better understand Larsen’s viewpoint.
Themes
