White Fang · Chapter
VI: The Famine explained
White Fang's character is shaped by heredity and environment, becoming more solitary and ferocious.
What happens
White Fang's character is shaped by heredity and environment, becoming more solitary and ferocious. During a great famine among the Mackenzie Indians, he survives by hunting small game and even killing a young wolf. He encounters his mother Kiche and later fights and kills Lip-lip. Returning to the village, he asserts dominance over the older dog Baseek, marking his growth in strength and confidence.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Adaptation
White Fang's survival during the famine showcases his adaptation through hunting small game, killing a young wolf, and outrunning a wolf pack.
Nature vs. Nurture
The chapter explicitly discusses how heredity (clay) and environment (molding) shape White Fang's character, making him a dog rather than a wolf.
Cruelty and Kindness
The famine forces cruelty: dogs eat each other, gods eat dogs, and White Fang kills without mercy, yet his actions are driven by necessity.
Characters to notice
- White Fang
Develops into a morose, solitary, and ferocious dog; survives the famine by hunting and killing; defeats Lip-lip and Baseek.
- Kiche
Fled the famine to her old lair; gives birth to a litter, only one cub survives; greets White Fang without affection.
- Lip-lip
Also took to the woods during the famine; encounters White Fang and is killed by him.
- Baseek
An older dog who once bullied White Fang; is defeated and injured by White Fang over a piece of meat.
- Grey Beaver
White Fang's master; suffers during the famine; White Fang robs his snare.
- Mit-sah
Unharnesses White Fang at the end of the long journey.
Key passages
“His heredity was a life-stuff that may be likened to clay. It possessed many possibilities, was capable of being moulded into many different forms. Environment served to model the clay, to give it a particular form.”
White Fang's genetic makeup is like clay, full of potential, shaped by his surroundings into a specific form.
Illustrates the nature vs. nurture theme.
“He could not stand being laughed at. The laughter of men was a hateful thing.”
White Fang cannot tolerate being laughed at; it enrages him.
Highlights a key weakness in White Fang's character.
“To such extremity were the gods driven that they ate the soft-tanned leather of their mocassins and mittens, while the dogs ate the harnesses off their backs and the very whip-lashes.”
The famine was so severe that humans ate their leather clothing and dogs ate their own harnesses and whips.
Shows the extreme desperation during the famine.
“White Fang, seeming to sum up strength in all his qualities, nevertheless suffered from one besetting weakness. He could not stand being laughed at.”
Despite his many strengths, White Fang's one weakness is his inability to endure laughter directed at him.
Reinforces White Fang's vulnerability to mockery.