In this chapter, London shows three inexperienced people from the Southland, confronted by entirely different circumstances in the great North, and he shows their inability to adjust to such extremely diverse circumstances. Each of the three, Mercedes especially, tries to bring too much of "civilization" with them into this extremely uncivilized country. London has nothing but contempt for these inept wanderers of the North, who have no business being there. In contrast, John Thornton has a great deal of compassion for the dogs who pull the sled, but even he shows very little compassion for these ignorant people of the South. Even Buck knows, by instinct, that the ice will not hold up, yet these people of so-called civilized intelligence will not — and seemingly cannot — learn how to survive in the harsh North. In other words, as London has constantly suggested, Buck's primitive instincts have taught him the means of survival against overwhelming odds, whereas these three humans succumb to the harsh vicissitudes of the Northland. Hal, Charles, and Mercedes are destroyed, finally, by their own stupidity.
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