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Fear In Jack London's The Sea Wolf

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Governments all through the ages have used intimidation, intrigue and lies to get what they want. Before the Greeks invented the idea of democracy, it was a survival of the strongest and the smartest. Despite the speed that governments accomplished their motives, people eventually got brave and decided to risk their current state of well being in hopes of a better life. Sometimes the people succeeded in overthrowing the government and sometimes they do not. In Jack London’s book “The Sea Wolf” London’s addressed how fear creeps into the minds of the people. He used the character Wolf Larsen to represent fear. Fear is a very powerful and effective tool but it does not last. The main character of the book, Humphrey van Weyden had been aboard …show more content…

The tension between the oppressor and the oppressed soon grows to the point where the line breaks. When it breaks it causes a conflict. In society when the line breaks this can result in a revolution or a war. In the book, the line broke when Larsen’s crew was mistreated to the point of starting a mutiny between Larsen’s inner circle and the crew. Larsen repelled the mutiny and killed the head members but it weakened his rule. This showed how unpredictable the weapon of fear can be. If the oppressor succeeds in repelling the oppressed it tries to reestablish its rule. Larsen promoted Van Weyden to first mate due to his growing popularity on the crew. Despite all that the oppressor does soon the oppressed become influential enough to overthrow the oppressor. When Larsen had a stroke, Van Weyden made his escape and got away from the fierce Larsen. An oppressive government cannot last forever against the people that it oppresses. It has to fall eventually because the use of fear does not create any allies and soon it causes the oppressor to suffer greatly. At the conclusion of the book Larsen suffers grave consquences due to mistreatment if his crew. Any government that chooses to use the weapon of fear may achieve great results at first but it will not last long if it is overused. London’s story showed that fear can be powerful but the results of the use of fear are only

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