Abstract：Jack London’s well-known “Northland Tales” took the snowy and icy wilderness in Alaska or Klondike as their setting. “The Law of Life”, “To Build a Fire” and “Love of Life” are three representative short stories of “Northland Tales”. They all describe the scene that the protagonists fight with nature and death in an extremely cold and harsh environment, showing the greatness of life and strong spiritual power.

The author of this thesis find some important things in common in the three short stories, and then extract three themes from them. The three themes are “survival of the fittest in natural selection”, “eulogy of the greatness of life” and “reflection on industrial civilization”, and each of them will be analyzed in the three corresponding chapters. By study on the theme of “Northland Tales”, this thesis aims at exploring London’s thought about nature, life and civilization under the background of “Northland”, analyzing London’s outlook on life and values, and enriching the interpretation of London’s early works.

Key Words：Jack London     Northland Tales     short story     theme

摘要：杰克·伦敦是20世纪初美国的一位重要作家，以短篇小说开始了自己的文学生涯。其早期创作的短篇小说大都是以阿拉斯加和克朗代克荒原为背景，与同样以北疆荒原为背景的长篇小说《雪的女儿》和《野性的呼唤》，共同构成了著名的“北疆故事”创作系列。《生命的法则》、《生火》和《热爱生命》是“北疆故事”中具有代表性的3个短篇，都以“北疆”为背景，描绘了主人公在极其严寒残酷的环境里，与自然和死亡进行斗争的过程，展现出强大的生命和精神力量。

本论文以上述三部作品为例，结合伦敦的个人经历和时代背景，从“适者生存”，“生命礼赞”，“对工业文明的反思”三个方面研究“北疆故事”的主题，并分别在三个章节中予以阐释分析。本文力图通过对“北疆故事”主题的研究，探讨作者在“北疆”这一大背景下对自然、生命和人类文明的思考，剖析作者的人生观和价值观，丰富对杰克·伦敦早期创作的解读。

关键词：杰克·伦敦     北疆故事     《生命的法则》     《生火》 《热爱生命》

Contents

Abstracti

摘要ii

Contentsiii

Introduction.1

Chapter One Survival of the Fittest in Natural Selection..4

  1.1 The Old Chief and the Moose in “The Law of Life”..4

  1.2 The Man and the Dog in “To Build a Fire”..5

  1.3 The Nameless Prospector and His Companion in “Love of Life”7

Chapter Two Eulogy of the Greatness of Life.7

  2.1 Conquering Nature and Showing the Greatness of Life.8

  2.2 Koskoosh’s meeting death with dignity..9

  2.3 The Traveler’s embracing death with detachment.10

Chapter Three Reflection on Industrial Civilization.11

  3.1 Anxiety over Urbanization and Industrialization11

  3.2 Jack London’s reflection in “Northland Tales”13

Conclusion..14

Works Cited16

On the Theme of Jack London’s Northland Tales

—As Presented in “The Law of Life”,“To Build a Fire”,and“Love of Life”

Introduction

Jack London(1876-1916) is one of the most influential and significant American writers in the world. His name was the synonym of romantic adventure and striving for fame at the beginning of the 20th century. London’s life experiences and works made him a controversial figure in American literature. Some people admired him while some others despised him. He is considered as a business writer writing for dollars, or a popular writer who is good at writing adventurous stories, or a radical writer blindly following various fashionable philosophies, or an important naturalism and realism writer in the history of American literature.