The Superior Man essays

The Superior Man essays The characters in Jack Londons The Sea Wolf are a wide diversity of personalities. The captain of the Ghost, Wolf Larsen, is a cruel and merciless character who has no sympathy for mankind. He then captures a gentleman named Humphrey Van Weyden who challenges him mentally. Van Weyden, who represents good, triumphs over Larsen, representing evil. This paper will discuss the physical, mental, social, and moral attributes of the main characters and will also portray the themes of the novel. As the story starts Humphrey Van Weyden is on a ferryboat traveling through the San Francisco Bay to. There is a very dense fog in the bay and they suddenly hit a larger boat. While his boat is sinking Humphrey jumps off and is rescued by a nearby ship which is full of cold-hearted pirates. Humphrey is forced to stay with them and become their cabin boy. Van Weyden quickly begins to hate the people around him especially a man named Thomas Mugridge who constantly hounds him and threatens to kill him. Wolf Larsen is the cruel captain of the Ghost. He is the most brutal, non-caring person anybody could ever meet. He beats his crewmembers viciously anytime they do anything wrong or talk back to him. Now they are headed deep into the Pacific Ocean toward the coasts of Japan. On the way the crewmembers begin to despise their captain more and more. One day a man named Leach tries to kill the captain but ends up killing the first mate. Wolf then asks Humphrey to become the first mate and he agrees. Wolf reads many books and is a very smart and intellectual man. He and Humphrey always talk about life and other things even though Humphrey despises him and is afraid of him. One day a storm hits and many of the crewmembers are lost. Wolf then discovers a stray ship with four men and one woman onboard. They are made part of the crew to make up for the lost crewmembers. The womans name is Maud Brewster, a writer whom Humphr...