This also explicates Naturalistic writing in that Nature is depicted as a larger, more powerful entity than man. Furthermore, in following the Naturalistic approach, the man in this story is left nameless. This was done because in Naturalism names are inconsequential and he is just like every other animal on earth.
In a way London foreshadows the man's demise by showing his ignorance towards his place in the world:.
Fifty degrees below zero meant eight-odd degrees of frost. Such fact impressed him as being cold and uncomfortable, and that was all. It did not lead him to mediate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and upon mans frailty in general, able only to live within certain narrow limits of heat and cold; and from there on it did not lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and man's place in the universe. (London 487).
This illustrates Naturalism from a Darwinian perspective by man's sheer ignorance of how mortal they truly are, in that they cannot conquer every aspect of Nature. They do not see that they need to humble themselves to its power. The man seems to feel that he is superior to Natures all encompassing being. He appears to lack the inherited genetic means to understand his human limits.
As the story progresses London introduces the other main character of this story, a big native husky. This is done so that a comparison can be seen between the ignorance of man and the natural instincts of the animal. Where as the man ignores Natures warnings the dog shows superior intellect by:.
The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was not time for traveling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment. (London 487-88).
From a Darwinian perspective this shows the animal's inherent nature of understanding things greater than itself; where as the man seems to be in denial of his place in Nature. The dog is working off instincts from its ancestral genes, but the man is working only off his own judgment, which has been passed by no one from his ancestry.
