White Fang: Paradox 1 key example

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.

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