preview

Analysis Of George Orwell 's ' War, And The Wisdom Of The Trail '

Good Essays

London not only uses the wild nature of dogs but also uses human’s wild instinct. In his stories of “War,” and “To the Wisdom of the Trail,” London uses the brutalness of natural intuition to show survival of the fittest. In the story “War,” a scout lets an enemy scout live, just to be killed by that same scout. This is ironic, and London uses this irony to show that humans are willing to kill when their own life is in peril. The need to survive is a very crucial piece of this story, and the narrator lets his emotions get in the way of his instinct. Nature also plays a key role. In this case, nature is a foil to the theme. London draws a stark contrast between the tranquility of nature, and the brutality that is human nature. This highlights how brutal the human intuition, a part of nature, in the beautiful landscape of the forest. Jeanne Reesman writes, “While nature shows her fecundity with images of great forests and the golden pollen that hangs in the air, men kill each other as strangers” (Reesman. “War” ). Nature in this story is seen in the instinct of the living scout, as well as in the emotion of the narrator. The narrator is killed leaving the reader to think that the beauty of nature is inferior to natural instinct. Nature and the narrator are very similar in this story, both are calm and worry free. The Scout who lives is brutal, and wild, like the nature that is traditionally described in London’s work. The prevailing scout goes to his natural instinct

Get Access