Jack Londons Attitude Towards Life in the Short Story, The Law of Life

Jack Londons Attitude Towards Life in the on the spur of the moment Story, The Law of Life Jack London, real name John Griffith Chaney, is intumesce known American novelist and short tier writer, born in atomic number 20 (Merriam Websters Encyclopedia of Literature 629). Londons short tale The Law of Life was stolon published in Mc Clures Magazine in 1901. It was one of his first off stories written around the time at which London had just discover that this way of writing made the biggest impression on the reader.(Tenant 1) genius of the approximately effective elements is that the main character of the story is an old Indian, named Koskoosh. He is leftover by his tribe and his relatives, with nothing but a fire and roughly wood to keep it burning for few hours. He was sitting by the fire and thinking about his youth, remembering certain moments of his invigoration. In this story one may name London?s pose towards emotional state as a phenomenon which must be unde rgone by every vitality being in this world. London calls it ?the law of life? (London 956). And the law of life is aging and death. First thing which can be treated as a kind of the law of life is a round of drinks of life. The circle of life begins when a man is born and ends with his/her death. Koskoosh thinks of the leaves turning in decline from green to brown, of young girls that grow more and more attractive until they attain a man, raise children and slowly grow ugly by season and labor. Koskoosh gives an example of a young muliebrity, whom he calls ? beginning(a)? ?A maiden was a good creature to look upon, full-breasted and strong, with spring to her step and illumine in her eyes. But her designate was yet before her.? (London 958). The picture of this woman is being portrayed at her youth when she is still nice, strong and with ? perch in her eyes? (London 958). She would grow up and she would take a husband. ?And with the overture of her offspring her looks le ft her. Her limbs dragged and shuffled, her eyes dimmed and bleared, and only the little children found joy against the withered cheek of the old squaw by the fire.? (London 958) She is not an exception. This woman gets older until she reaches such age when she becomes uninteresting and expendable for other people.And finally, ?her task was done? (London 958). Koskoosh equates her end of life with his current condition ?she would be left, steady as he had been left, in the snow, with a little pile o... ...d by every living being in the world. This author?s attitude is clearly seen from the very beginning of the story when old Koskoosh felt that he was already ?very close to death? (London 956), until the last sentence of the story ?Was it not the law of life?? (London 961). Of course one should not deflect that London writes about the far north, and as he points out himself in many stories, the rules in the far north are very distinguishable from those of any other region. The I ndian custom of letting the old man die alone is not criticized by London, because this custom was a unavoidableness for the surviving of the tribe. London only emphasizes that ?the law of life? is one and irrevocable. One may call it the circle of life or the eternal campaign for living, but the end of our life, that is death, is the same for everyone.Works CitedLondon, Jack. ?The Law of Life?. Eds. Ronald I. Gottesman, et al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Vol 2. New York WW Norton and Company, 1979.Merriam-Webster?s Encyclopedia of Literature. Massachusetts Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1995Tenant, Roy. Who was Jack London?http//sunsite.berkely.edu/London.html18 February 2005