The Sea Wolf - Estimated Read Time = 6 hours
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Recommended Cocktail | The Whiskey Sour
Jack London led an interesting life.
Born into poverty, he dropped out of school at 14 to work in a cannery. At 15, he left that job to become an oyster pirate in the San Francisco Bay. At 16, he joined a sealing schooner bound for Japan, much like the Ghost in The Sea Wolf. He wrote much of the novel from that firsthand experience.
At 19, he studied in public libraries, cramming an entire high school education into one year, so he could gain entrance into the University of California. He only stayed one year, however, leaving for the Klondike gold rush shortly after.
Upon his return, he settled into his literary pursuits, eventually rising to prominence and becoming the highest-paid author in the U.S.
In 1903, The Call of the Wild was released to massive popular acclaim, ushering in the pinnacle of his career. A year later, he published The Sea Wolf. In this novel, he was attempting to write something grander than what he’d created before—a true work of art. A Great American Novel.
There’s disagreement over whether he accomplished that. I’ll leave you to decide, but I will say this. The novel offers a brilliant depiction of a fully-orbed human and charts a course for attaining just that.
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Story Recap . Spoiler Alert!
The Sea Wolf is told from a first-person perspective, the narrator and hero being Humphrey Van Weyden.
“Hump” is introduced as a literary gentleman, in the classic meaning of the term. He’s an adult who receives an allowance and has always lived without the burden of financially supporting himself. So, he’s intelligent but has no aptitude for labor whatsoever.
One foggy day, he’s riding a ferry across the San Francisco Bay, when his boat collides with another. The ferry ship is ripped in half and sinks.
Hump is floating in the foggy waters when the Ghost sails by and pulls him aboard. The captain, Wolf Larsen, refuses to return him to shore and instead assigns him a job.
Following this, Hump learns several things.
First, a callous brutality defines his new environment.
Second, there’s more than meets the eye with the captain, Wolf Larsen, who is brutish but also highly intelligent and well-read.
Third, if he hopes to survive, he must adapt.
Wolf Larsen expresses his materialism to Hump, which is a defining theme of the work. Their relationship develops, while Hump also adapts to the brutality of his new environment. This growth is displayed in his victory over Thomas Mugridge, the ship’s steward (cook).
Following Hump’s success, the tensions scale between Wolf Larsen and two sailors, Johnson and Leach. Eventually, Johnson and Leach attempt to escape in one of the ship’s boats. A storm appears, threatening their lives. Wolf Larsen has the opportunity to extend mercy and save them from the sea.
Instead, he lets them drown.
As the strands of this conflict are coming to a close, the schooner happens upon a boat of stranded passengers. Picking them up, they discover a woman among them. Later, it’s revealed that she’s Maud Brewster, a well-respected author.
Her entrance complicates the story because both Wolf Larson and Hump become infatuated with her. She seems attracted to Van Weyden and terrified of Wolf. Her fears are justified, because one night, Wolf tries to force himself upon her. Hump attacks him, trying to save her. He has no chance against Wolf’s brute strength but thankfully, a painful migraine sets in which debilitates him.
Hump and Maud use this opportunity to escape the ship in a boat. Eventually, they land on a deserted island.
They name it “Endeavor Island.” Here, they build a shelter, club and kill seals, and learn to survive together. Everything goes reasonably well until one morning they wake to see the Ghost sitting in the harbor.
Hump boards and finds Wolf dejected and alone. His brother, who captains another sealing ship, has stolen his crew and ransacked him.
Wolf’s migraines worsen through this period. Hump detects that Wolf’s vision has left him. Slowly, he loses control over his physical faculties, though his mind is still intact. In the end, he’s completely paralyzed.
Hump restores the Ghost to sailing condition, and he and Maud set sail as Wolf finally dies. They bury him at sea and then spot a ship at sea that signals their salvation. As the novel closes, they embrace one another.
An Interpretation . The Ideal Life
The novel achieves its purpose in two stages.
Learning to Stand
Early on, Wolf accuses Hump of never having “stood on his own two feet” because he’d always been provided for financially. Wolf forces Hump into a role aboard the ship to teach him this lesson.
This theme drives the first stage of the novel, and Hump succeeds in learning this lesson well.
First, he injures his knee and learns to endure physical suffering.
Second, he earns his wages through his role in the kitchen.
Third, and perhaps most significant, he triumphs over Thomas Mugridge, the foul cook.
Wolf shows some favor to Hump because he enjoys their intellectual discussions. This offends Mugridge and wounds his pride. As he nurses this grudge, he begins sharpening a knife and casting dark looks at Hump, indicating his violent intentions.
At first, Hump is terrified and begs Wolf for help. Wolf offers none. So, he gets a knife too, and begins practicing his own routine of casting dark looks and sharpening. Eventually, Mugridge is overcome by his terror that an actual conflict might ensue. He gives in, and Hump wins.
In all this, Hump learns to stand on his own two feet. Wolf Larsen even acknowledges this.
Then, a complication arises—the arrival of Maud Brewster. This opens the second stage of Hump’s development of the ideal life.
Learning to Support Another
This stage depicts an ideal relationship. One that only becomes possible for Hump after he’s learned to stand on his own two feet.
This second stage shows him learning to stand for another as well, forming a special kind of relationship with her as he does.
Shortly after Maud is rescued, Hump discovers her identity as a well-known and well-respected author. She recognizes him too as Humphrey Van Weyden, the literary critic who’s written such positive reviews of her work.
From their first conversation, an affectionate fondness sparks between them.
Then, the worst happens—a romantic warmth arises within Wolf toward Maud. She and Hump become terrified at what he might do.
One night, these fears are realized when Wolf tries to force himself upon Maud. Hump attacks him, attempting to rescue her. Thankfully, a migraine sets in, debilitating Wolf. The other two take this opportunity and escape from the ship aboard one of its boats.
Through unfortunate weather, they land aboard a deserted island that they dub, “Endeavor Island.” I could be wrong on this, but the name seems significant. Because contained within the word “Endeavor” is every letter needed to spell “Eden.”
It’s a biblical echo that names the intention of this stage—to offer a depiction of the ideal human relationship.
In other words, becoming the ideal human involves cultivating the ideal human relationship. To describe this relationship, London leans into the biblical record of Adam and Eve.
In Genesis 2, God creates Adam, the first human, and places him inside a garden in Eden. God gives him the responsibility of tending this garden and cultivating its flourishing.
Then, the animals are brought before Adam and he names them. Within this process of naming, he ascertains that none of the animals are suitable “mates.” There is nothing else like him.
In response, the first woman is created—Eve.
Here’s the account:
20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
25 Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
-Genesis 2:22–25 (NIV)
Notice the phrase, “suitable helper.” This can be rendered “help mate,” as well. This is the very language Hump uses in describing his feelings for Maud—“my woman, my mate.”
Upon the island, the two work together, depending upon and supporting each other. It’s here they achieve the ideal life, as they cultivate the ideal human relationship together.
One of the criticized aspects of London’s novel is the suppression of romance that marks Maud and Hump on the island. It fails to feel realistic. The concerns of publishers may have influenced this PG portrayal. Yet, I also think London was stressing something. That the less-romantic elements of their relationship were not less important.
Their “mate woman” and “mate man” relationship wasn’t defined by romance and eros, though that was part of it. Their interdependence defined them. An interdependence that you can only cultivate after learning to stand on your own two feet.
So, London depicts the ideal life as being found through these pursuits:
Learning to stand on your own two feet.
Cultivating this kind of "mate relationship."
In doing so, Humphrey Van Weyden surpasses Wolf Larsen, who fails in the second stage of this process. You could say Wolf dies because he never moves beyond himself. Whereas Maud and Hump survive because they develop these very capacities.
For these reasons, the book is an invitation to pursue London’s depiction of the ideal life.
Closing Thoughts. On Yeast & Death
By many, Wolf Larson is considered the most fascinating feature of the novel.
Self-educated and brilliant, yet bitter, harsh, and brutal. A poor, uneducated child who rose to the rank of captain. A man who is quietly well-read while also famous for the tragedies that befoul his ships.
Intellectually, he is defined by his “yeasty materialism,” which he explains to Hump early on.
“What do you believe, then?” I countered.
“I believe that life is a mess,” he answered promptly. “It is like yeast, a ferment, a thing that moves and may move for a minute, an hour, a year, or a hundred years, but that in the end will cease to move. The big eat the little that they may continue to move, the strong eat the weak that they may retain their strength. The lucky eat the most and move the longest, that is all.”
Later on, he doubles down, denying the existence of such things and good and evil.
“Ah,” he remarked, with a wry pucker of his mouth, “I see you still believe in such things as right and wrong.”
“But don’t you?—at all?” I demanded.
“Not the least bit. Might is right, and that is all there is to it. Weakness is wrong. Which is a very poor way of saying that it is good for oneself to be strong, and evil for oneself to be weak—or better yet, it is pleasurable to be strong, because of the profits; painful to be weak, because of the penalties.”
In expounding his philosophy, he lays significant charges against Hump’s idealism. He challenges his beliefs in the good, the right, and even the eternal soul.
Wolf claims that Hump may express a belief in the eternal soul, but his actions show otherwise. When faced with the potential of immediate death, people cling to this life with a fervor that questions the strength of this conviction. Hump is no exception.
The gospel introduces a fascinating intersection into Wolf Larsen’s philosophy.
Within the gospel, there is a creator—the one Triune God who created all things, who brought all life into being out of nothing, including humanity. Including this brawling, brutal, devouring yeasty ferment that is the human race.
Yet, the gospel tells the story of that Creator entering into the yeast, taking its very nature upon himself, to redeem it.
If this was so, one with the power and might of deity would be able to devour the entire thing. Yet, according to the gospel, Jesus came for a different purpose.
In Philippians 2, Paul explains it like this.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!
-Philippians 2:5-8
The passage says that Jesus operated in a manner fundamentally opposed to Wolf’s yeasty materialism.
Notice the repetition of the phrase “very nature.” He held the very nature of God (meaning full deity, Jesus being the second person of the Trinity). Yet, he chose to receive our “very nature."
Not so that he could triumph over and devour us, but so that he could die. So that he could allow himself to be devoured by the ferment.
He did so to forever change our brutal, yeasty nature.
Because three days later, he rose again back to life within the same yeasty ferment. Yet, he rose to a new nature that is no longer defined by the desire to consume and not be consumed.
In the gospel, this new nature is exactly what he’s invited us into.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
-2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
For this reason, surviving the brutality of this life isn’t about clinging to certain ideals, like good and evil, or right and wrong. Or forsaking them either, because it seems favorable to do so.
It’s about whether or not we can trust Jesus.
If we can trust that he did live. If we can trust that he died. And if we can trust that he also rose again, then our lives no longer need to be oriented around the pursuit of devouring and not being devoured.
If the evidence shows that these things are true, then we can trust him. Which gives us something far more concrete to cling to amidst the struggles of this life than mere unanchored ideals.
Instead, we can allow him to lead us as we live, as we die, and even as we rise again someday, to a new life and nature, just like him.