Chapter 2 Practice Quiz — White Fang
by Jack London — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter 2
How many dogs do Bill and Henry have at the beginning of Chapter 2?
They have five dogs at the start, having already lost Fatty before the chapter begins.
Which dog disappears first in Chapter 2?
Frog disappears overnight, making him the second dog lost in two days (after Fatty).
What does Bill strike the intruder with when it steals fish from the dogs?
Bill strikes it with a stout club, though the animal still escapes with half a sun-cured salmon.
What tethering method does Bill use to try to keep the dogs safe overnight?
He ties them Indian-style with leather thongs and stout sticks fastened close to their necks so they cannot gnaw through the leather.
How does Spanker end up being lost to the wolves?
One Ear chews through Spanker's leather thong, freeing him. Spanker is then lured away and devoured by the wolf pack.
What evidence of Spanker's fate do the men find on the trail?
Henry finds only the stick to which Spanker had been tied, with the leather gnawed clean off both ends.
Why does Bill attempt to shoot the she-wolf, and what happens?
Bill wants to stop her from luring away more dogs. As he raises the rifle, the she-wolf leaps sideways into a clump of spruce trees and vanishes before he can fire.
How many dogs remain at the end of Chapter 2?
Three dogs remain at the end of the chapter, down from six at the start of the journey.
How does Henry identify the intruder as a she-wolf?
When the animal glides into the firelight, Henry recognizes it as a she-wolf and explains that she is the decoy who draws out the dogs so the rest of the pack can eat them.
What is unusual about the she-wolf's appearance?
She has a grey wolf coat with a faint, baffling reddish hue that appears and disappears. She is also unusually large, standing about two and a half feet at the shoulders and nearly five feet long.
What story does Bill tell about Ol' Villan's dog?
Bill recalls that Ol' Villan had a dog that ran away and lived with wolves for three years before Bill shot it out of a moose pasture on Little Stick. This supports the theory that the she-wolf is a former domestic dog.
How does Bill's psychological state change over the course of Chapter 2?
Bill becomes increasingly fatalistic and despairing, moving from wishful thinking to grim certainty that the wolves will get them, comparing them to sharks following a ship.
What is Henry's final thought before falling asleep at the end of the chapter?
Henry thinks "There's no mistakin' it, Bill's almighty blue. I'll have to cheer him up to-morrow," showing his concern for his partner's mental state.
What role does One Ear play in the loss of Spanker?
One Ear, unable to free himself from the stick-and-thong system, instead chews Spanker loose. Spanker is then lured away by the she-wolf and killed by the pack.
What does the dwindling number of sled dogs symbolize in this chapter?
The shrinking dog team symbolizes the gradual erosion of civilization's defenses against the wild, as nature systematically strips the men of their resources.
How does the she-wolf represent the boundary between wildness and domestication?
She displays doglike mannerisms and knowledge of human camps while being fully wild, embodying the thin line between civilization and savagery that is central to the novel.
What theme does Bill's shark analogy illustrate?
Bill compares the wolves to sharks following a ship, illustrating the theme that nature is a patient, inescapable predatory force and humans are merely prey in the wild.
What narrative technique does London use by contrasting Bill and Henry's dialect with the formal narration?
London uses a dual register—colloquial dialect for dialogue and formal, poetic prose for description—to contrast the characters' rough humanity with the grand indifference of the natural world.
How does London use foreshadowing in Bill's dialogue?
Bill's repeated pessimistic statements—especially "They're goin' to get us"—foreshadow his own eventual fate and build narrative tension throughout the chapter.
What is naturalism, and how does it appear in this chapter?
Naturalism is a literary movement that portrays characters as subject to natural forces beyond their control. London shows this through the wolves' instinct-driven hunting and the men's inability to stop the systematic loss of their dogs.
What does the word "objurgation" mean as used to describe Bill's reaction to Frog's disappearance?
Objurgation means a harsh rebuke or severe scolding. Bill raises his arms in objurgation, cursing the Wild for taking another dog.
What does "crestfallen" mean in the context of Bill standing with the club after striking the intruder?
Crestfallen means disappointed or humiliated. Bill is half triumphant for hitting the animal but half crestfallen because it still escaped with half the fish.
What does "apathetically" mean when Bill asks how Spanker's disappearance happened?
Apathetically means showing no interest or concern. Bill asks the question without emotion, having become resigned to the repeated losses.
What is the significance of the she-wolf's "merciless wistfulness of hunger"?
This phrase captures the paradox of an animal that gazes at the men with an almost longing, doglike expression, but whose wistfulness is driven purely by predatory hunger rather than affection.
What does Henry mean when he says "A man's half licked when he says he is"?
Henry means that admitting defeat is itself a form of giving up—once a person accepts they are beaten, they have already lost half the battle. He says this to counter Bill's fatalism.