Different apostates attempt to break away from the harsh reality of their own. The Apostate criticizes the cruelty of the American industrialism by depicting the miserable life of a child labourer. Every day the boy begins to work when the city still lies in blackness. Years of toils wears him out. There is no joyousness in life for him. Finally, he is determined to escape from the factory—"There was no bitterness in him, nothing but an inordinate hunger for rest." In Li-Wan, the Fair, the heroine attempts to get rid of her Indian husband, who deems that husband is the "lawgiver" of his wife and that "the wife travels the husband's trail wheresoever it goes." Beyond endurance, she secretly turns to two women for help, but her pleadings are treated with indifference...Mauki is another running-away story. The hero Mauki, after all dangerous adventures, successfully goes back to the bush villages and makes himself the chief.

《莫基》描写了首领的儿子莫基在被丛林居民偷走后的离奇经历。先是做奴隶，后又被招去做劳工，莫基几次试图逃跑，但都被抓回。整篇小说情节跌宕起伏，人物刻画细致入微。《美女李婉》中李婉想要摆脱丈夫的控制去寻找幸福，计划却一次次受阻；当她向外界寻求帮助时，遭到的却是世人的冷遇......这一切，都在杰克•伦敦的笔端下演绎得凄婉生动。《叛逆者》中的童工约翰尼七岁起就在各种工厂干活，十多年后，约翰尼终于不甘再像机器一样工作下去，决定逃离工厂，寻找新的生活。这篇小说记录了二十世纪初美国机器大工业背景下工人的悲惨生活，批判了残酷的现实，并借约翰尼的觉醒和叛逃表现了对未来的期许。