# Before Adam explained — Before Adam

> Chapter companion for Before Adam by Jack London.

## What happens

The narrator describes his terrifying dreams and introduces the theory of racial memory, recounting his ancestral memories of a primitive existence, including being treed by wild pigs with his mother and the disappearance of his father.

## Themes in this chapter

### Racial Memory and Atavism

The chapter introduces the concept of racial memory, where the narrator experiences ancestral dreams.

### Fear and Survival

The narrator recounts primal fears and survival instincts from his ancestral past.

## Character check-ins

### Lop-Ear

Introduced as a companion in the narrator's racial memories.

### Broken-Tooth

Mentioned as joining the pair of Lop-Ear and the narrator.

### Red-Eye

Referenced as a violent figure in the primitive horde.

### Big-Tooth

Appears in the narrative as a member of the horde.

## Key lines

> These are the memories of my other life, the life before Adam, the life of the cave-man, the life of the tree-man, the life of the man who was not yet man.

The narrator explains that his dreams are ancestral memories from a time before modern humans.

_Introduces the central concept of racial memory._

> I was treed by wild pigs with my mother, and I remember the terror of that moment.

The narrator recalls a childhood memory of being chased up a tree by wild pigs alongside his mother.

_Illustrates a specific ancestral memory of danger and fear._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/before_adam_se/chapters/before-adam
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/before_adam_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/before_adam_se/chapters