Point of View

The novel is narrated from the point of view of Humphrey Van Weyden, an upper middle class youth who sets out on the Pacific Ocean for "adventure" and material for his writings. Van Weyden is soon stripped of his ivory tower view of the world when confronted with the barely-civilized nature of Wolf Larsen's savagely. Van Weyden's morbid fascination with Wolf Larsen causes him puzzlement about the dualistic nature of Wolf Larsen's personality that finally distills into the same fear and disgust that other members of the crew feel toward him.

Language and Meaning

The language is standard American English of the period, but traces of Cockney appear in the speech of Cooky.

Structure

The novel is structured in the classic conflict-crisis-growth-resolution format. The conflict is basically Wolf Larsen against his crew when he tries to manage them through brutality and sudden outbursts of extreme...