Later in the story, when the man himself gets his feet wet, he is compelled to remove his shoes and sustain frostbite, which entails all those calamities that finally spell his doom. This was a matter of instinct.” (London). Though the dog slips into a pitfall, it recovers, and “made quick efforts to lick the ice off its legs, then dropped down in the snow and began to bite out the ice that had formed between the toes. There can be hidden traps and if a person happens to walk into it, the snow will cave in and drench the foot. The relevance of the theme becomes more pronounced in the episode where the man forces the dog to lead, perhaps based on the knowledge that the spring in the area never freezes and the frozen snow on the top conceals it. Thus, from the onset of the story itself London provides clues for his audience regarding the theme of the conflict between the man’s knowledge and the animal’s instinct, of which the latter commands an upper hand. On the other hand, the animal appears dejected by the prospect of having to embark on this journey as if its instinct has warned it of the imminent dangers such an endeavour will bring upon it.
Though the man is aware of the statistics about the weather, London hints that he is not conscious of its significance or the implications it might have on his life, because he has never experienced it, being “a new comer in the land, a chechaquo, and this was his first winter.” (London). London alludes to the vanity of the man’s knowledge right from the beginning of the story when he portrays the man taking pride in the fact that he has accepted the challenge of daring to walk nine miles when the temperature was 60 degrees below freezing point.
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