Reading 4: The Love-master (conflict and plot)

Discussion questions:

• What has made Beauty Smith such a terrible person?

• What makes White Fang such an effective fighter?

• Why do you think some people are thrilled by dog fights?

• How might White Fang’s life proceeded if he had defeated the bulldog?

• When do you think White Fang truly comes to trust Scott?

• Does White Fang follow a typical narrative plot (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution)?

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Key element: conflict and plot

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.8.5
Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.

White Fang is structured more like a biography than a novel. If you had to identify the main conflict, it would be White Fang’s struggle to find a place in the world. His circumstances make him ill-suited for life among humans and life among wolves. Despite his ability to survive, he is often a miserable misfit.

If White Fang has a central internal conflict, it is White Fang’s struggle to trust and care for Weedon Scott.

Have the students work in groups to list all of the conflicts portrayed in White Fang. Instruct them to include the internal and external, the major and the minor. Then ask them to identify a main conflict that pervades the novel (White Fang finding his place in the world). Finally, have them identify the key internal conflict for White Fang.

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Lesson closing:

How is the structure of White Fang more like a biography than a novel?

How does London develop White Fang’s internal conflict?

If the main story is White Fang learning to trust Scott, why does the novel have so many other episodes?