The Sea Wolf

Jack London's The Sea Wolf tells the story of a domesticated intellectual lad named Humphrey van Weyden, who after surviving a ship wreck, he is picked up by Wolf Larsen, the captain of the seal-hunting schooner Ghost. Brutal and cynical, yet also highly intelligent and intellectual, he rules over his ship and terrorizes the crew. Van Weyden adequately describes him as an individualist, a hedonist, and a materialist. As Larsen does not believe in the immortality of the soul he finds no meaning in his life and has come to despise all human life and deny its value. Being interested in someone capable of intellectual disputes he takes care of "Hump" while forcing him to become a cabin boy, do menial work, and learn to fight to protect himself from a brutal crew. Later, another castaway is picked up, Maud Brewster, a famous woman poet, with whom Hump soon falls in love. After an attempt to escape from the Ghost, Maud and Hump are cast away on a lonely island.