London s focus in the story is to prove that ideology wrong. London further exemplifies man s ignorance of nature throughout the story. He compares the man s intelligence and instincts to that of his lone companion, the dog. Possibly in its brain there was no sharp consciousness of a condition of very cold such as was in the man s brain. But the brute had its instinct.
Intelligence is a scale created by man.
It allows man to reward himself and praise himself on his supposed intellectual explorations. However, instinct is a form of intelligence. The dog realizes the danger of the situation in which the dog and the man are involved. The dog is not hampered by this supposedly superior intelligence. Instinct is the animal s strongest ally, an ally that the man lacks use of.