The Law of Life

“The Law of Life” is a short story by early 20th-century American writer Jack London; it was first published in 1901 as a stand-alone piece in McClure’s Magazine, and included the following year in London’s collection, The Children of Frost. Like many of London’s works, the story’s setting and themes reflect London’s experiences prospecting for gold in the Yukon region of northwest Canada. Its fatalistic tone, meanwhile, is characteristic of the naturalist school of literature. This movement, which emerged out of realism in the late 19th century, sought to depict human experience and action as the product of historical forces and scientific laws—for instance, the Darwinian evolutionary theory that “The Law of Life” draws on.

As the story opens, an elderly man named Koskoosh listens as the rest of his tribe packs up camp to seek new hunting grounds. He also hears the cries of a sickly child named Koo-tee whose death is imminent. Koskoosh was once the tribe’s chief but is now blind and sickly, and he is staying behind so as not to slow the others down. Although his granddaughter

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