Major Themes
Critics have identified many underlying themes in the novel. Tom Feller describes the story as “an allegory of humanity’s progression from nature to civilization." He also expresses that “the implication is that the metamorphosis of both the individual and society will require violence at some point." Paul Deane states that “ society demands a conformity that undermines individualism." Jack London himself took influence from Herbert Spencer’s words: “survival of the fittest”, as well as Friedrich Nietzsche’s idea of a “superman” (or “superdog”, in this instance) and of “the worship of power."
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Famous quotes containing the words major and/or themes:
“Self-centeredness is a natural outgrowth of one of the toddler’s major concerns: What is me and what is mine...? This is why most toddlers are incapable of sharing ... to a toddler, what’s his is what he can get his hands on.... When something is taken away from him, he feels as though a piece of him—an integral piece—is being torn from him.”
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“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
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