Jack London(1876--1916) was born in San Francisco of an unmarried mother of wealthy background, Flora Wellman. His father may have been William Chaney, a journalist, lawyer, and major figure in the development of American astrology. Because Flora was ill, Jack was raised at an early age by an ex-slave, Virginia Prentiss, who had a great influence on the boy while he grew up. At the age of fifteen he was an oyster pirate, operating his own sloop on the waters of San Francisco Bay. He went to sea, became a tramp, a fortune-seeker in the Klondike, and lived a hard and adventurous life. One of his greatest passions was the sea. In 1896, the second Gold Rush in the Arctic Region, Jack London got the news of gold in Klondike and his great adventure-lover made up his mind to boar for the Klondike. He underwent great hardships and even risked his life in the journey, yet he enjoyed his time there. The harvest was what he had experienced, heard and read during the journey. He experienced difficulties, risks and scurvy. He heard legendary stories about other prospectors and he read Spencer and Milton.

The 19th century witnesses the transformation of the American society from an agricultural economy to an industrial economy. The industrialization is spreading over the west Europe and America. Many people regarded the industrialization as an enormous leap in human civilization and it certainly brought many positive effects. Such as promoted productivity, reduced costs, lowed the prices of products, advanced science and technology. In this period Jack London was reading Darwin’s theory of evolution--Origin of the species(introduced the foundation of the evolution theory to Jack London and paved the way for him), Spenserian evolutionist, Marxist-socialist, and Nietzsche’s theory of aesthetics which had brought London the term “Superman”and “Will to power”. The Darwinist belief that human are highly evolved animals becomes a refutation of the religious (Christian creationist) view that humans exists below angels and above animals. Therefore, the human animals respond to environmental forces like any other animals. The aim is survival. Furthermore, the law of life is that only the fittest survives in life struggle. In Love of Life, the protagonist struggle in such cold environment by lack of food and rest. “They did not remove their foot-gear, though the water was icy cold- so cold that their ankles ached and their feet went numb.” (Jack London, 1945:210) This sentence implies the coldness of the environment and the coldness of the heart. The nameless man was abandoned by his comrades when his ankle was sprained, his face was expressionless as ever, his eyes were like the eyes of a wounded deer. In such coldness, with desperation that was madness, unmindful of the pain. He did not stop when his comrades had disappeared. He fought with his fear again. He picked his way from marshland to marshland and across the rocky ledges which thrust like islets, through the sea of moss. Though alone, he was not lost. Came frightful days of snow and rain. He traveled in the night as much as in the day. All these implied the infinite and coldness of nature. The nameless man is rather weak by lack of food and rest, the cold still followed. This nameless man had been exhausted by the lack of food and rest, under these condition, the matches are greatly cherished as his life. He also has to fight with the mighty energy—coldness. Man can find himself littleness and powerless in coldness of environment in Jack London’s stories. There are frustration and destruction following. Man would be aware gradually of the mightiness of the land and the littleness of himself. However, man do all they can to change what would be changed and accept what could not be changed. Man tried their best for survival in the slightest hopeful situation.
In Love of Life, the man was finally saved but he paid the greatest price and the man’s littleness also could be depicted in several aspects during his hard traveling to the coast. At the beginning of the story, these two gold prospectors’ appearance was depicted “tired and weak” (Jack London, 1945:210), they had experienced a long and hard journey and were already exhausted. They still refused to give up their considerable amount of gold sand though they realized the situation they were in. ”They were heavily burdened with blanket packs which were strapped to their shoulders”. The nameless man sprained his ankle in crossing the river. This became a burden and possible danger to his comrades. So his friends abandoned him. Under these worsened situation, the nameless man became alone and hard to survive. It’s a disadvantage for man’s survival in this coldness environment.

Naturalism , inspired by adaption of the principles and methods of natural science during late 19th and early 20th century aesthetic movement, especially the influence of the Darwinian view of nature, to literature and art. Naturalism extended the tradition of realism in literature field. It aimed at an even more faithful, unselective representation of reality, a veritable “slice of life”, and presented without moral judgement. Jack London is regarded as one of greatest naturalist novelist. From London’s stories, To Build a Fire, The Law of Life, Love of Life, protagonists are always placed in the Northland with extremity situation. Man and the Northland are fused together and go into each other in the struggle. The Northland and man is actually confronted between infinite, irrational nature and finite and rational human beings. The Northland was vast and cold. The vastness and coldness seemed to be endless and ceaseless. All of these signified the infinite of the environment. In the extreme environment, man acted like other lower animals. However, the lower animals could live an easier life than the man. Animals survived dire environment by their keen instincts and beastly toughness because they acted by instinct and lived by instinct. In the battle that man and the Northland usually ended with the death of man. After death, man became part of the nature and joined the infinite and the irrational.
In Love of Life, the two tire and weak gold prospectors limped and staged among the rough-strewn rocks. They carried a considerable amount of gold sand on their way home. In that vast waste land, the journey was long, the weather was terrible and both prospectors were weak. The nameless prospector was abandoned by his fellow Bill when the nameless prospector’s foot was sprained in the river. During the journey, the nameless prospector was followed by a sick wolf when the man was creeping toward the coast. The sick wolf competes with the sick man for the right of survival. This was also revealed the nature law, the survival of fittest.

Jack London lived in a dynamic and transitional of the most crucial periods in American history which also shaped the character of the American nation. What he saw and experienced contributed greatly to his works, especially the exciting and enlightening stories about man and the indifferent environment and the desperate struggle of the man in the environment. The Law of Life, Love of Life , and To Build a Fire, were the most impressive short stories about the Northland. Man would find himself fragile and powerless in the Northland. The civilized man’s venture in the Northland taught them about the infinite and mightiness of nature and the universe and the finite and littleness of man. The frustration and destruction in the uncivilized land not only brought out the lost merits and virtues in the civilized man but also redefined the relationship between man and nature, man and man, man and himself. The experiences of the intruding men in the Northland would force people in the civilized world to meditate on the world, their society, the universe, their life, and themselves. Also through the struggle, we know that man’s value does not lie in his final destination but in his attitude toward his life.