Ryan Evans
Dear Jack London,
Your book, White Fang has had an incredible life influence upon me. I read this book two times, and both times it helped me understand White Fang's emotions and life's wonders. White Fang is the only book so far that has changed me and my perspective on life. I've never really enjoyed a book as much as this one, for many reasons. There were influences in this book that I never fully understood until later in my life, emotional and physical. Out of lots of books that I have read, this is the only one that's significantly made a difference in my life.
An example is how White Fang is abused by his masters, most of all Beauty Smith. Some of his masters were so mean, that I would sometimes skip the parts with the physical abuse. I love animals a lot, and it hurt to read sometimes. While reading, I often felt a pity for White Fang so deep that there was no chance reasoning could reach it. There would be no way to keep myself restrained. The only thing that helped to console me is how in the end, White Fang ends up living a happy rest of his life.
The abusive influence, I thought, was all that would become of the book. But, like in the end, it helped prove to me that abused animals can be saved. Later in my life, 7th grade to be exact, I had mostly forgotten about White Fang, after donating it to one of my teachers in a previous grade. However, the same influence that encouraged me to skip those grief-filled pages, acted on me once more. I ended up doing a report on Animal Abuse at the end of 7th grade. After that 1 understood to the full extent what was happening to innocent animals. I explored and researched about animal abuse and found many facts that just disgusted me.
After all this happened, I felt like I understood White Fang. He was having horrible physical and mental abuse that I couldn't read about without feeling pity. I realized what White Fang's masters did to him. I realized that they just kept pushing and pushing him until they broke his mental barrier, breached his emotions and enraged him beyond control. This doesn't just happen to animals, but sometimes people are tormented like so. This kind of thing is very harmful to both humans and especially animals like White Fang, because in the end he becomes a far different White Fang, one who is extremely vicious and tainted, he becomes so much so, that he even ends up killing other dogs. This mental and physical abuse shouldn't ever happen to anyone, because it is extremely harmful and can destroy creatures.
However, the end of the story introduced a new concept. When the exact opposite is done, wonderful things happen. The most obvious example is in the end of the book, when White Fang's savior and new master shows compassion and caring to him, he responds with the same. Scott is then able to tame White Fang and teach him to love his master and his owners. White Fang then becomes a loyal pet and has puppies with the master's other dog, Collie. This goes to show that if you put good in, you'll get good out, which also can be related to human society, like how teachers spend time teaching kids, and then the kids end up being successful and well educated. This book has totally changed my thought process, and I thank you very much for writing such an inspiring novel. If I have ever underestimated the value of life before, I definitely won't now because of your book.
Sincerely,
Ryan Evans
