On Jack London’s Ecological Consciousness In The Call Of The Wild And White Fang

As one of the most famous writers in the first years of twentieth century inAmerica, Jack London occupies an important place within the circle of the world’sliterature. He is a prolific writer of novels and short stories, among which the animalnovels are popular with generations of readers, and The Call of the Wild and WhiteFang are his masterpieces, which are also considered to be the classic works of worldliterature. The two animal novels have stimulated researches by many critics fromdifferent perspectives to explore the mysterious values buried in them, leading todifferent opinions on them. With the deterioration of the environment and theemergence of ecocrisis, ecocriticism is brought into being in literary circle and itsmain aim is to study the relationship between literature and environment. The risingand development of ecocriticism make it possible for readers and critics to interpretand appreciate literary works with a new sight into them. As a writer with profoundthoughts, Jack London is the product of his time, but ahead of his time, because someof his works contain some kind of ecological thoughts that many people of his timewere not aware of. With time passing by, Jack London’s deep pondering over a seriesof ecological problems such as nature, society, human’s existence and developmenthas drawn more and more attention of people. In the literary circle, some critics havefocused on the ecological thoughts of Jack London’s animal novels; however, theecological consciousness of London has not been subjected to intensive studies. Thisthesis intends to make a deeper analysis of Jack London’s ecological consciousnesscontained in the Call of the Wild and White Fang from the perspective of ecocriticismon the basis of the text–analysis to awaken the ecological consciousness of humanbeings and make it a mission of all human beings to stop, and eventually reverse thedestruction of nature for a better planet where people and nature live in harmony.This thesis is composed of six parts. Introduction contains a brief introduction ofJack London and his two famous animal novels—the Call of the Wild and White Fang, as well as literary review of this novel. Chapter one mainly deals withecocriticism. This chapter first gives a general definition of ecocriticism, and thenexplains the reasons for its emergence and development. The principles ofecocriticism and ecological consciousness are also touched and explored in detail inthis chapter, which the author of this thesis will apply to the study. This chapter laysthe theoretical foundation for the following part. Chapter two analyzes JackLondon’s ecological consciousness of concern hidden in the two animal novels: he isdeeply concerned about nature and human’s spiritual world. Through the depictionof the severe intrusion of human into nature, causing the paradise lost of all thereminiscence that nature and human are in harmony with each other, it can be seenthat London is concerned about the nature. At the same time, Jack London’s anxietyover the spiritual crisis of human and the alienation of humanity also reflects hisconsciousness of ecological concern. Chapter three mainly deals with Jack London’secological consciousness of criticism, that is, his criticism on the industrializedcivilization and anthropocentricism. By analyzing the characters of Hal’s family, thetypical representative of the civilized society, the evil side of this civilization can beexposed, and what London writes is just a penetrating criticism of the industrializedcivilization in which he live. In this chapter, the maltreatment of human on dogs isdiscussed in detail, which is a typical embodiment of anthropocentricism. However,in London’s eyes, dogs have their inner value and good qualities on which he placegreat emphasis. In this way, he criticizes anthropocentricism and expresses his beliefin anti-anthropocentricism. Chapter four is London’s ecological consciousness ofredemption implicated in the two novels, which illustrates that he is always makinggreat efforts and trying to seek for solutions to solve the problem of ecological crisis:he advocates returning to nature, rebuilding an ecological Utopia to restore theintegrity of humanity; he suggests that by showing respect for nature and life, humancan reconcile with nature. London also appeals to people to resume theirresponsibility for nature and have universal love for all. Conclusion gives a generalsummary of this thesis, including the intention of giving the above illustrations tosupport the thesis. To sum up, London’s alert to the eco-crisis existing in human society and his deep thought for a better relationship between nature and humanhave profound effects on people in modern society.