The quotation suggests that outward change does not necessarily erase deeply rooted instincts. Although the animal has adapted to a more settled and controlled existence, London presents its wild nature as dormant rather than eliminated. The image of the wolf merely sleeping conveys the possibility that older patterns of behaviour could reappear if circumstances changed.

The line also reflects a recurring tension in London’s animal fiction between inherited tendencies and the effects of environment. Domestication can shape behaviour, habits and relationships, but the quotation implies that it may coexist with capacities formed by ancestry and earlier experience. The metaphor therefore presents identity as layered rather than completely transformed: adaptation alters how an individual behaves without necessarily removing what came before. More broadly, the passage can be read as a reflection on the persistence of instinct and the limits of conditioning.