White Fang · Chapter
II: The Mad God explained
White Fang is sold to the cruel and twisted Beauty Smith, who uses whisky to manipulate Grey Beaver into giving up the dog.
What happens
White Fang is sold to the cruel and twisted Beauty Smith, who uses whisky to manipulate Grey Beaver into giving up the dog. Despite brutal beatings and attempts to escape back to Grey Beaver, White Fang is ultimately chained and forced to submit to his new master, a man he senses as evil.
Themes in this chapter
Cruelty and Kindness
Beauty Smith's cowardly cruelty contrasts with White Fang's fidelity, highlighting the spectrum of human and animal behavior.
Mastery and Loyalty
White Fang's unwavering loyalty to Grey Beaver, despite betrayal, and his forced submission to Beauty Smith explore the dynamics of mastery and fidelity.
Survival and Adaptation
White Fang endures brutal beatings and uses his strength and patience to gnaw through a stick, demonstrating his fierce will to survive.
Characters to notice
- White Fang
Senses the evil in Beauty Smith and tries to avoid him, but is betrayed by Grey Beaver and sold for whisky. Endures severe beatings and attempts to escape, but is ultimately chained.
- Grey Beaver
Succumbs to the thirst for whisky, sells White Fang to Beauty Smith, and betrays the dog multiple times, watching passively as White Fang is beaten.
- Beauty Smith
A twisted and cruel man who desires White Fang for his ferocity. Uses whisky to manipulate Grey Beaver, and beats White Fang savagely to enforce submission.
Key passages
“White Fang’s feel of Beauty Smith was bad. From the man’s distorted body and twisted mind, in occult ways, like mists rising from malarial marshes, came emanations of the unhealth within.”
White Fang instinctively sensed that Beauty Smith was evil, as if the man's twisted body and mind gave off a harmful aura.
Highlights White Fang's primal perception of evil beyond rational understanding.
“He did not love Grey Beaver, yet, even in the face of his will and his anger, he was faithful to him. He could not help it. This faithfulness was a quality of the clay that composed him.”
Despite Grey Beaver's betrayal, White Fang remained loyal by instinct, as faithfulness was an inherent part of his nature.
Explores the theme of loyalty as an innate trait in dogs and wolves.