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White Fang is one of Jack London’s famous works. First serialized in Outing magazine, it was published in 1906. The story takes place in Yukon Territory, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. It describes in detail about White Fang's journey to domestication. Similar with most of his works, “natural” and the “struggle for existence” are the most important index keywords.
Much of White Fang is written from the viewpoint of the titular canine character, enabling London to explore how animals view their world and how they view humans. The story ends with White Fang relaxing in the sun with the puppies and the sheep-dog Collie. It expresses the theme of the regression and the rebuilding of humanity, particularly in the situation that they are faced with harsh circumstances. It also means a return to the civilization.
1.2 A Brief Introduction about the Environmental Effect
Generally speaking, environment is the surrounding. This includes living and non-living things around people. Also, it refers to the culture that an inpidual lives in, and the people and institutions that they interact with. The view of environmental effect is that the physical environment sets limits on human social development. It holds that human behavior is similar to the growth of plants and animals, which is influenced by the environment.
From Madame de Stael, she believes that different climatic conditions, races and geographical environment lead the different kinds of literature styles: the Southern literature and the northern literature. People living in the southern may enjoy their life fully, because the climate is milder and the terrain is more accommodating to people and livestock. While the north is cold or ice covered. People have to face the threat from environment, so they become physically stronger and spiritually more aggressive. That may be one of important reasons why they develop the completely different character traits.
Also, Hippolyte Adolphe Taine, who puts forwards the famous “Three Factors” theory, holds that the creation and development of the literary art depend on race, environment and epoch. The environment has been regarded as one of important factors to the formation of people’s personality:
“For man is not alone in the world；nature surrounds him，and his fellow-men surround him；Accidental and secondary tendencies overlay his primitive tendencies，and physical or social circumstances disturb or confirm the character committed to their charge. Sometimes the climate has had its effect .” (Taine, 1908: 19)
Taine takes the environment as one of most important external powers, because it moulds human matter and by which the external acts on the internal. Thus environment plays a very important role in the formation of the character, whether animals or human beings. This thesis analyzes the major characters’ different personalities to show the importance of the environmental effect.