The short story “The White Heron” has a benevolent view of nature and its interactions with humanity, as opposed to “The Law of Life” by Jack London. This particular story carries a message of inevitable death and a merciless nature that demands total obedience and can only promise one thing to an individual. That they will meet their impending doom, though no one can say where or when. Here we will compare and contrast a multitude of different underlying motifs and themes, including nature's opposition to humanity, the protagonists' interactions with nature, and the role of the antagonists, whether natural or not. . does the reader believe that nature acts towards humanity? Even though humanity seems to idolize and idealize nature, sooner or later we must realize our own naivety and recognize nature as a wild and deadly force independent of man. The truth is that nature has no more respect for man than we might have for a particularly annoying insect. According to Jack London, nature demands perfection and anything that does not deserve death. However, in "The White Heron" nature is benevolent and peaceful, and you can clearly see the departure from the past habits of the Puritans and a clear transition to a mixture of romanticism and naturalism form a coherent and entertaining short story. Nature and its interactions with people are radically different in the two stories, leading to two very different protagonists. For example, in The White Heron, the protagonist is a little girl named Sylvia who grows in her understanding of the world. As she learns more about herself and matures, she realizes that the world isn't always as rosy as she thought, and that if she really wants something, e.g. .... in the middle of paper ...... fortunately, while the old man is happily devoured by a pack of (no longer) hungry wolves. Which do you think has the most realistic outcome when it comes to human nature and nature itself? If you, the reader, chose the ending of The White Heron, in which an impressionable young girl passed up the opportunity to obtain a substantial sum of money from a boy she was in love with, I, the author, I have to decide between two things. Either a hopeless idealist drowning in his own naivety, or an idiot. Nature is a force that can be vindictive, malicious and cruel beyond belief. Of course, it is as bipolar as it is majestic and can contain many resources necessary for its survival. In “The Law of Life,” nature itself is an antagonist, while in “The White Heron,” it is a loving friend. Whatever you think, nature is certainly not a force to be trifled with..