The Law of Life

Over the course of the story, it becomes clear that death is the “law of life” referenced in the work’s title. Although the story centers on one death—Koskoosh’s—in particular, even Koskoosh himself acknowledges that his fate is not in any way unique; mortality is “the law of all flesh” (Paragraph 11). As such, it is everywhere in the story—not just in Koskoosh’s references to falling leaves and dying animals but also in the work’s very setting. The extreme environment in which Koskoosh’s people live ensures that death (particularly from cold or hunger) is a constant and very real possibility even for the young and healthy; Koskoosh, for instance, remembers a famine so severe that “not one in ten of the tribe lived to meet the sun when it came back in the spring” (Paragraph 13). The story at times hints that death is not simply inevitable but necessary, in the sense that one creature’s demise so often means another’s survival. This is part of what makes the wolves an effective symbol of death; as predators, they live by killing and consuming other animals.

Given how inescapable reminders of death are in the Yukon, it isn’t surprising that Koskoosh and his tribe’s general attitude towards mortality is one of practicality and resignation.