22 pages • 44 minutes read
Jack LondonThe Law of Life
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1901A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Struggle to Survive and the Inevitability of Death
Over the course of the story, it becomes clear that death is the “law of life” referenced in the work’s title. Although the story centers on one death—Koskoosh’s—in particular, even Koskoosh himself acknowledges that his fate is not in any way unique; mortality is “the law of all flesh” (Paragraph 11). As such, it is everywhere in the story—not just in Koskoosh’s references to falling leaves and dying animals but also in the work’s very setting. The extreme environment in which Koskoosh’s people live ensures that death (particularly from cold or hunger) is a constant and very real possibility even for the young and healthy; Koskoosh, for instance, remembers a famine so severe that “not one in ten of the tribe lived to meet the sun when it came back in the spring” (Paragraph 13). The story at times hints that death is not simply inevitable but necessary, in the sense that one creature’s demise so often means another’s survival. This is part of what makes the wolves an effective symbol of death; as predators, they live by killing and consuming other animals.
Given how inescapable reminders of death are in the Yukon, it isn’t surprising that Koskoosh and his tribe’s general attitude towards mortality is one of practicality and resignation. Although Koskoosh’s son remains behind to say goodbye to his father, their exchange is formal and largely unsentimental; to the extent that they do address the moment’s emotional undercurrents, their focus is on acceptance rather than grief. Koskoosh’s private thoughts are similarly stoic: “His head would fall forward upon his knees, and he would rest. It was easy. All men must die” (Paragraph 10). Koskoosh maintains his composure and resignation even as his death becomes imminent, choosing not to fight back against the wolves that have surrounded him, and instead dropping his final line of defense—a lit torch—into the snow.
Nevertheless, there are hints throughout the story that this acceptance of mortality is not so complete as it might appear. Koskoosh, for instance, at one point finds himself wistfully hoping that his son will return for him after all. Perhaps even more tellingly, his body language often betrays a desire to survive even as his conscious mind works to rationalize his death. In particular, he repeatedly—and apparently automatically—reaches out to touch the pile of firewood, as if to reassure himself that he still has time left; as he listens to the tribe preparing to leave, Koskoosh’s “stretche[s] forth a palsied hand which wander[s] tremblingly over the small heap of dry wood beside him” (Paragraph 2). This instinctive drive to live is also evident in Koskoosh’s memories of the bull moose, which continues to struggle with its attackers despite the futility of its efforts and despite having, in evolutionary terms, no reason to do so: “Twice had he been dragged down, as the snow attested, and twice had he shaken his assailants clear and gained footing once more. He had done his task long since, but none the less was life dear to him” (Paragraph 17). Given the many parallels London establishes between the bull moose and Koskoosh, the fact that this episode features so prominently in Koskoosh’s recollections implies that he too is perhaps not fully reconciled to his fate.
The Needs of the Individual Versus the Needs of the Group
In “The Law of Life,” the struggle for survival occurs on both the individual and group level; a famine like the one that killed Koskoosh’s mother is a threat as much to the existence of the tribe as a whole as it is to the existence of any given member. The needs of the individual don’t always align with those of the group, and may even come into conflict with them. This is the premise of the story’s plot; the rationale for leaving Koskoosh behind is that he would slow the tribe down as they travel to new hunting grounds, and perhaps even that—if resources should prove scarce—it wouldn’t be worth feeding a man likely to die soon anyway. Koskoosh himself says as much when contemplating the fate of the “maiden” he imagines: “But a little while, on the first pinch of famine or the first long trail, and she would be left, even as he had been left, in the snow, with a little pile of wood. Such was the law” (Paragraph 11).
Setting to one side the question of whether this sort of abandonment is culturally and historically accurate, it serves a clear thematic purpose in London’s story. The need to secure the survival of the tribe is analogous to the evolutionary imperative to ensure the continuation of the species. As Koskoosh puts it, “[Nature] had no concern for that concrete thing called the individual. Her interest lay in the species, the race” (Paragraph 11). Looked at from this perspective, all that matters is that an individual live long enough to reproduce, and thus help safeguard the long-term success of the species. Given London’s interest in eugenics, it’s even possible to read the inclusion of a figure like Koo-tee as a statement about what is preferable from an evolutionary standpoint—namely, that a sickly child not live long enough to pass on their ill health.
For a modern reader, this worldview is likely troubling. It’s therefore worth noting that the story is at times ambivalent as to whether this prioritization of the group over the individual is right. Sit-cum-to-ha, for instance, comes across as callous in descriptions like the following: “[S]he was too busy to waste a thought upon her broken grandfather, sitting alone there in the snow, forlorn and helpless” (Paragraph 1). In other words, while both Koskoosh and the story will conclude that Sit-cum-to-ha’s preoccupation with “the duties of life” is inevitable and necessary (Paragraph 1), there is perhaps an unspoken wish that she and the rest of the tribe could act more mercifully.
Life Close to Nature
London’s depiction of Koskoosh and his people emphasizes their close relationship to the natural world. The tribe’s primary modes of subsistence—hunting and fishing—rely on the existence of wild game, and are therefore subject to the seasonal variations in that game’s availability. As a result, the life and movements of the tribe are structured around the rhythms of the natural world; they spend the summers catching salmon in the thawed rivers, and their winters hunting caribou, following the herds as they migrate.
London implies that living in tandem with nature in this way gives rise to a more accurate understanding of humanity’s place in the world, at least when compared to the views held by much of Western society. In “The Law of Life,” the figure of the missionary serves as a stand-in for the latter, embodying the traditional Christian view of human beings as distinct from and superior to other animals. The shortcomings of this ideology quickly prove clear, as the missionary doesn’t seem to understand or respect the principles governing the tribe’s use of resources, and dies as a direct result of encountering nature in a way he wasn’t prepared for, “chill[ing] his lungs on the divide by the Mayo” (Paragraph 12).
By contrast, the tribe’s dependency on their environment is so immediate and obvious that it’s difficult to maintain a clear separation between humanity and the rest of the natural world. The fact that nature’s patterns so often bear a resemblance to the course of a human life adds a further, symbolic layer to this sense of interconnectivity. Koskoosh, for instance, notes that the cycle of the seasons offers a yearly parallel to the human experiences of birth, maturation, and death: “The rise of the sap, the bursting greenness of the willow bud, the fall of the yellow leaf—in this alone was told the whole history” (Paragraph 114).
The fact that Koskoosh draws these figurative connections is a reminder that humanity does stand apart from nature in its ability to consciously reflect on it. This is what makes Koskoosh’s death different from that of the moose and (at least as London portrays it) more deserving of admiration; although humans are subject to the same forces that govern the rest of nature, London suggests that we alone can choose how we think about and respond to our own mortality.
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