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Chapter 34
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sea-Wolf, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Self-Reliance and Maturation
Materialism vs. Idealism
Survival of the Fittest
Love, Duty, and Choice
Summary
Analysis
Van Weyden and Maud Brewster get a mast aboard the Ghost and hoist it. While they’re working on repairing the masts, Wolf Larsen comes out again. Van Weyden and Maud Brewster work hard all day. After supper, Van Weyden says they should remain wary of Wolf Larsen, even though he’s blind. He plans to take away Wolf Larsen’s boat to ensure the captain can’t come ashore.
Van Weyden and Maud Brewster once again demonstrate all that cooperation can accomplish. Van Weyden’s wariness toward Wolf Larsen shows that he has learned not to underestimate the captain—that even blindness is not enough to stop the ambitions of Wolf Larsen.
Themes
Literary Devices
When Van Weyden and Maud Brewster wake the next day, they find that Wolf Larsen has sabotaged some of their work. Van Weyden says Wolf deserves to die, but he doesn’t have it in him to do the killing. When he and Maud go aboard, Van Weyden says they shouldn’t let Wolf know that they know what he did. They take off their shoes and creep around the deck, avoiding Wolf, then they steal his small boat.
Wolf Larsen seems to be acting out of pure spite: he has nothing to gain by sabotaging Van Weyden’s work and only does so to make Van Weyden suffer more. Though having power over others might have helped Wolf Larsen become powerful before, now, it just leads to empty destruction.
Themes
