Abstract: Jack London, born in America, is a well-known reality writer. His writings, just as his roaring life, are powerful, simple, and dramatic. His characters are always under extremely harsh and life-and-death environments so that their most profound and genuine characteristics are fully and vividly presented in front of the readers. He sings the high praises of human dignity, including courage,tenacity and love. And the “harsh reality” he described often pierce the souls of his readers. Meanwhile, as one of the most influential writers in American of 20th century, his most representative works should be The Call of the Wild and White Fang which depict the life and adventure in the Far North.

     The Call of the Wild and White Fang both contain the elements of Bildungsroman. This thesis paper compares their initiation themes by combining the relevant theories of Bildungsroman with the study of The Call of the Wild and White Fang. The purpose of it is to explain Jack London’s inheritance and innovation to the traditional Bildungsroman and try to interpret his work from a new perspective so that, hopefully, it can provide some guidance to the cultivation of the kids today.

Key words:Jack London, The Call of the Wild, White Fang, Initiation Theme

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Introduction-5

Chapter I. Traditional Bildungsroman and Americanized Bildungsroman-7

1.1 The origin of calssic Bildungsroman-7

1.2 Characteristics of German classic Bildunsroman-8

1.3 Americanized Bildungsroman-8

Chapter II. Jack London's inheritance and innovation to the German Classic Bildungsroman-10

2.1 The Initiation theme in the Call of the Wild-10

2.2 The Initiation theme in White Fang-16

Conclusion-21

Bibliography-23

Acknowledgments-23