What lesson can we learn from the challenges that nature presents and what we learn from them?

Throughout White Fang, Jack London uses the theme of naturalism. Generally, naturalism refers to those who viewed life strictly from a scientific approach; in this case that translates to the view that man and other creatures were victims of their heredity and environment. The environmental theme is signaled at the onset of White Fang as London vividly describes the landscape, paradoxically combining a foreboding animism with a sinister desolation. With the environmental theme in mind, this novel is written with biological and social determinism, and London insists that although Beauty Smith was "a monstrosityŠthe blame of it lay elsewhere. He was not responsible." Jim Hall is also portrayed as a victim of his environment, not responsible for his actions. White Fang's heredity is carefully defined, "one-fourth dog, three-fourths wolf," leading up to the struggle within him between his civilized impulses and his wild ones. London is also particularly careful to adhere to established facts of a wolf's life cycle in White Fang's early years.