A Piece of Steak

From the opening lines of the story, London establishes the theme of hunger and poverty. Tom King is eating his “last morsel of bread” in a “slow and meditative way” (1), as if to savor it. Even after eating his food, he remains “distinctly hungry.” The text returns to this theme later during the fight when Tom, “in a flash of bitterness,” thinks about the piece of steak and wishes “that he had it then behind that necessary punch he must deliver” (16). Indeed, Tom blames his defeat on the steak he did not have. “It was all because of that piece of steak,” he thinks to himself (17). Meat takes on other significance in the text as well, as Tom’s purpose in the fight is to bring home meat to his family. He imagines his walk to the Gayety as him going “out into the night to get meat for his mate and cubs […] in the old, primitive, royal, animal way, by fighting for it” (4). Meat is the prize of the fight but also the cause of his loss: He must win the fight to bring home meat, but he needs meat in order to win the fight.