THE STORY

OF
KEESH

Submitted by:
Micah Grace Lucas

Submitted to:
Mrs. Fe Mendoza
 INTRODUCTION

The story of Keesh is a short story which was written by Jack London that
was first published in January of 1904. Keesh was the son of a great
huntsman, who was well known and respected in his tribe. Unfortunately,
Keesh’s father died when Keesh was very young. As is often the case, the
legendary exploits of Keesh’s father was forgotten with time. After many
years, the child grows to be thirteen. Inspired by tales of his father’s skills
as a hunter, and emboldened by his self-confidence and the lackluster
amount of food being gathered by the tribe, he addressed the village elders
in the Igloo of the tribe’s chief. A child addressing the tribal elders was seen
as precocious. Keesh declared that he would honor his father’s memory and
became a great hunter, and bring back a wealth of meat for his people. He
was scorned, and they allowed him to go off on his own. Many never
expected to hear from him again. Four days later Keesh returned, with an
enormous burden of freshly-killed meat over his shoulders. He explained
that an entire polar bear’s carcass laid a day’s travel from the village. The
villagers were stunned by this boy having endured the elements and
succeeded in his quest, became suspicious. After several more hunting
excursions on Keesh’s part, all alone and all resulting in enormous amounts
of meat for the tribe, the villagers begin whispering that Keesh is
undoubtedly practicing witchcraft. However, they had no choice but to be
loyal to this manchild, as he had begun to provide them all with bounteous
food. Keesh had the appreciative villagers construct for him an enormous
Igloo, rivaling that of the chief. After more speculation and Inuendo as to
the source of Keesh’s hunting prowess, it was decided to send two scouts to
follow him on a hunting exhibition. They returned several days later, having
been successful in trailing Keesh to his kill, an enormous (and dangerous)
polar bear. They told a tale that the tribal council simply couldn’t believe.
Upon his return, the tribe gathered in Keesh’s igloo to accuse him of
witchcraft. He answered their charges well. Keesh explained the source of
his hunting success. He explained why the two scouts sent to follow him
observed him striding up to the bear, enraging it, and convincing it to
follow him. He explained why the scouts witnessed his leaving small round
balls of food on the ice for the bear, and why the bear soon became ill, and
deranged. He explained how he was then able to spear the bear without
endangering himself.
 DETAILS

a. Plot and Conflict Structure

In the beginning of the story the author tells about a boy who had name
Keesh lived in the poor condition together with his mother. Keesh lived at
the edge of the polar sea. The father of Keesh had been a brave man. But he
had died hunting for food. Keesh was his only son. Keesh lived along with
his mother, Ikeega. One night, the village council met in the big Igloo of
Klosh-kwan, the chief. He listened, then he waited for silence. He said, “It is
true that you give us some meat. But it is often old and tough meat, and has
many bones.” The hunters were surprised. This was a child speaking
against them. The council ordered Keesh to go to bed. The next day, Keesh
started out for the shore, where the land meets the ice. Those who watched
saw that he carried his bow and many arrows. Across his shoulder was his
father’s big hunting spear. Again there was laughter. One day passed, then a
second. On the third day, a great wind blew. There was no sign of Keesh.
This part is the beginning of the conflict. His mother, Ikeega, put burned
seal oil on her face to show her sorrow. The women shouted at their men
for letting the little boy go. The men made no answer, but got ready to
search for the body of Keesh. Early next morning, Keesh walked into the
village. Across his shoulders was fresh meat. It’s the middle of the story. His
mother was very happy. Keesh, trying to be a man, said to her mother that
he would sleep because he was tired. There was much talk after Keesh went
to his igloo. The killing of a bear was dangerous. But it was three times
more dangerous to kill a mother bear with cubs. The conflict is rising action
by knowing that the men did not believe Keesh had done so. But the women
pointed to the fresh meat. At last, the men agreed to go for the meat that
was left. But they were not very happy. So began the mystery of Keesh. On
his next trip, he killed a young bear and on the following trip, a large male
bear and its mate. Then there was talk of magic and witchcraft in the vill.
Keesh continued to bring meat to the village. Some people thought he was a
great hunter. There was talk of making him chief, after old Klosh-kwan.
They waited, hoping he would come to council meetings. But he never
came. The council sat up late talking about Keesh and the meat. They
decided to spy on him. On Keesh’s next trip, two young hunters, Bim and
Bawn, followed him. After five days, they returned. The council met to hear
their story, then the two hunters reported what they had seen. Klosh-kwan
led the council to the igloo of Keesh. Keesh told the people in the village
how he had killed the bears: he bent some thin pieces of whalebone. The
ends were pointed and sharp as a knife. Keesh bent the thin, sharp bones as
knives into circles, then put some seal meat inside them, then put them in
the snow to freeze. The bear had eaten the ball of meat with the circle of
bone inside. When the meat got inside the bear, the meat got warm, and the
bone went snap! The sharp points made the bear sick. It is easy to kill them.
The conflict is falling action here. Keesh used head-craft, instead of
witchcraft, he rose from the poorest igloo to be the chief in the village. And
for all the years that followed, his people were happy. No one cried at night
with pains of hunger. It’s the end of the story. The story ends with a close
denoument. We know that from the end of the story when Keesh told about
how he could kill big bears with two bare hands. Apparently he used his
brain/wits that made the others said “Ah” for understanding it.

b. Characters

1) Keesh
Keesh was a thirteen-year-old boy who lived at the North Pole a long time
ago. His father died of sruggling with a bear in order to keep the people in
the village from starving. After that, Keesh lived alone with his mother. One
council Keesh complained about unfair treatment, but other people laughed
at him. Therefore, he decided to hunt by himself. Later on, Keesh used his
brain to kill many bears and divided them fairly. In the end, Keesh rose to
power and became the leader of his people. Keesh is the major character of
this story. He appears throughout the story. He is a round character, we can
prove that from the beginning of the story and the ending. At the beginning
he is a young boy who is innocence, but at the end of the story he becomes a
brave man who is respected by the others

2) Klosh-Kwan
Klosh-Kwan was the chief of the village who lived in a large igloo. In the
beginning, he could not believe Keesh, but he admired him later. He is a
deutragonist because in the beginning of the story, he has opposed Keesh
but at the end he generously acknowledges what he sees. He is a round
character too.
3) Ikeega
Ikeega was Keesh’s mother who lived only with his sole son. She loved his
son very much. She is a flat character, because from the beginning until the
end she is the same, doesn’t develop. She is a tritagonist because she is a
character which is needed as the complement in the story.

4) Ugh-Gluk
Ugh-Gluk were opposed Keesh from the beginning until the end of the
story. So, Ugh-Gluk is considered as the antagonist and has flat character.

5) Bim and Bawn

Bim and Bawn were two clever young hunters who were appointed to spy
on Keesh. They told how Keesh killed bears when they came back. They are
a tritagonist character because they just appear in some parts of the story
and don’t have important role, the are just as complement and flat
character.

c. Setting
The Story of Keesh takes place in a cold area. We can conclude from the
word “Igloo” which we can find in the story. Igloo is a type of shelter built of
snow so that we can find in snow area that originally built by Inuit.
Furthermore, we can explore it from the story itself. Keesh hunted bear, as
we know that the bear just find in cold area, it’s pole.So, we conclude that it
takes place in a cold area.

d. Point of View

In this short story, the author takes place as third person limited
omniscient. It means that the author knows everything about the character
which he creates, but there is a place where the author doesn’t know about
the character. The author doesn’t know what is in the deep heart of the
character.

e. Style and Tone

The style that is used in this story is a good style in literature work. It is
used the English old style. We can find some sentences in the story which

use the old style. For an instance, “Thou hast a wife Ugh-Gluk”. The word
“thou” means you. Beside that, we can find figuratice language here. For
example, look at the following sentence, “The anger boiled a white heat”.

f. Theme and The Moral Value of The

Story

The theme of this short story is the sacrifice which is forgotten. Keesh tries
to prove that his father has become the savior for his community. He comes
again to make the society aware that they have to appreciate every sacrifice
of the person. We can derive some moral values of this story such as we
have to appreciate the sacrifice of a person and we should not have bad
prejudice towards each other.
 DISCUSSION

From the detail that we have explained above, we are interested in theme
and the moral value of the story. The theme of the story is the sacrifice
which is forgotten. This phenomena is commonly found in community life.
In fact, we often find in our daily lives. After Keesh was born, when he was
young, his father had been a very brave man, when a time of famine came,
he was willing to sacrifice himself to go to hunt bear alone. While we know
that bears are wild animals, but he thought of how his society could survive.
This makes Bok, Keesh father’s went out hunting without thinking of his
own safety. After the death of Bok, people around him tend to forget the
sacrifice and struggle that he has done.So, we can say that the theme
portrays about the characteristic of the characters in the story. The theme
forms the characteristic of the characters in the story. The sacrifice which is
forgotten means that Keesh father had desire to save the society by hunting
the bear. However, he failed and died. On the other hand, his sacrifice isn’t
respected by the society. We can see that in the story after the death of
Keesh’s father, Keesh and his mother were ignored by the society such as
they were isolated from the society, they were left to live in slum suburb. By
knowing the sacrifice of Keesh’s father, the society should be empathy and
care about them. They should treat them like the other members of the
society. In fact, it was not like that. As the result, we know that the
characteristic of the characters in the story are portrayed from the Keesh’s
father sacrifice, because the Keesh’s father sacrifice is unvalued in the
society. We can see from the characters in the story such as Ugh-Gluk. Ugh-
Gluk is the harsh person, then she likes to underestimate people. it looks at
the story that from the beginning until the ending of the story she is still
unconscious with the sacrifice of the Keesh’s father. She still opposes Keesh
desire to go to hunt the bear by himself. That is the proof that she is a harsh
person. Beside that, she likes to underestimate the people seems when she
said to Keesh that, it’s impossible to the son of a failure in hunting will be
success to hunt the bear who is 13 years old by himself. Not only the Ugh-
Gluk character that we can see from the theme but also the other
characters. After the death of his father, Keesh lived alone with his mother
in poverty and they are quickly forgotten by the society. In contrast to when
Keesh has grown and become a strong boy, he tried to prove the community
that he is able to hunt. When he succeeded in getting some bear meat, the

people around him change into community who appreciate and elevating
them into the higher class. Before Keesh succeeded in proving his
intelligence in the hunt process, the people around him have given
prejudiced by accusing first that Keesh has used magic to get the bear meat.
This story shows the character in a community life. They just appreciate
someone when he/she succeeds to give something to the
society/community and they immediately forget it then. Finally, we can
know the caharacteric of the characters through the theme.

CONCLUSION

Through this literature work, the author tries to portray the phenomena
that is commonly found in our life. Keeesh is a major character who has
important role in the story that the author expect to be able to create the
impression of being a savior in the community. Keesh tries to sensitize the
community by doing the same thing as that of his father do in the past.
Finally, he succeeds in showing to the community that his father is a figure
of people who contributed to the community life by looking into Keesh’s
work. We can get some moral values that we have expressed in the detail
that we have to appreciate the people’s work and sacrifice and we should
not give prejudice first before we can prove someone else work. Based on
the author’s life who had experienced as the laborer, factory worker, oyster
pirate on the San Francisco Bay, member of the California Fish Patrol,
sailor, railroad hobo, and gold prospector and he endorsed socialism, it’s
related to the theme of story that told about the social life in human
relation in the community. Beside that, the live of the main character in the
story has connection with the real author’s live.