White Fang by Jack London

Part One of the novel shows two men, Henry and Bill, struggling to bring the corpse of Lord Alfred back to civilization. It is a time of famine, and they are low on food; also, they have little ammunition. Thus, they are in a desperate situation because they are being pursued by a pack of famished wolves. As the novel begins, they have six sled dogs, but one night, they notice that there are seven dogs to be fed. Strangely, the next morning, there are only five dogs to be fed. As a result, they become suspicious, and finally they notice a she-wolf who comes to the camp at night and lures the dogs away.

When the men have only two dogs left, Bill decides to shoot the she-wolf, but he is killed himself by the famished wolf pack. Thus Henry is left alone—with only two dogs and no ammunition—and after days of traveling, covering only a short distance each day, he is forced to build a fire to surround himself and protect himself from the wolves. When he awakens in the morning, he realizes immediately that his supply of wood is gone, and he cannot go out and search for some more. He resigns himself, therefore, to the inevitable, but he is finally rescued by a group of men who are also out in the wild.

Part Two of the novel shifts the narrative perspective to that of the she-wolf. After the famine is over, the wolf pack separates, and the she-wolf and three males travel together, until one of the wolves, “One Eye,” kills the other two. The she-wolf and One Eye travel together, then, until it is time for her to settle down to give birth to her cubs. Another famine comes upon the land when the cubs are still young, and all of the cubs die—except one: a gray wolf cub. This gray wolf is the strongest and the most adventuresome of all the litter. Yet early in his life, he learns how to snare food and along with this ability, he learns the lesson of the wilderness—that is, “eat or be eaten, kill or be killed.”

In Part Three, the cub and its mother wander into an Indian camp, where the mother is recognized by an Indian named Gray Beaver; she answers immediately to the call of “Kiche,” and the little gray cub is promptly named White Fang.