In Tales of the Pacific, my favorite short story was “Koolau the Leper.” Usually I enjoy stories with political themes like this one. The story starts with the diatribe of a leper uprising, as the lepers are treated as subhuman due to their disease. People fear catching leprosy because the illness deforms the body until the lepers appear inhuman; a combination of fear and disgust causes the lepers to be mistreated, as people tend to judge others based upon outward appearance.
Though the lepers are ordinary human beings, people somehow judge their inner character by their outer decomposing flesh. The illness is symbolically equated with moral decay, so the lepers not only suffer greatly from the physical disease itself, but the spiritual anguish of losing their beauty and being ostracized. Koolau, however, strongly opposes the mistreatment. He says, “Because we are sick they take away our liberty. We have obeyed the law. We have done no wrong. And yet they would put us in prison.” Though the lepers are not morally degenerate, they are punished for the curse that nature thrust upon them. Their suffering is doubled, and tripled considering the fact that the disease was imported and spread due to imperialistic greed.
Koolau is a martyr who dies for his cause, even after his fellow lepers betray him; I appreciated his strength, determination, and sense of justice.
London is the quintessential man versus nature author, and in his stories nature is a cruel antagonist indeed. A common theme throughout his short stories is the contrast between nature’s alluring beauty, grotesque violence, and apathy toward humanity. Tales of the Pacific grieves for the fallen paradise of the Hawaiian islands.
Sophisticated Innocence 