John Carter's fight with the great white apes

John Carter’s fight with the great white apes is the episode in which he and Woola save one another, transforming a watchful animal into his most steadfast companion. The encounter begins when Carter tries to evade Woola and ends with Carter protecting the wounded creature from a Martian warrior; its consequences echo later, when Woola follows Carter across a trackless waste and again rescues him from danger.

Causes and Setting

While Carter is a captive among the green Martians, Woola guards him with a devotion that Carter initially does not understand. The animal blocks the chamber’s exit and, when Carter attempts to leave the city, charges after him. Carter uses his extraordinary leaping ability to reach a high window and believes he has outdistanced his pursuer, only to be pulled into the building by a great white ape.

The ape pins Carter down while another approaches with a stone cudgel. These creatures are described as immense, upright beings with additional limbs; Carter sees the second ape preparing to strike him. The danger is immediate, but the reversal comes from the very guardian Carter had tried to escape: Woola bursts into the room and attacks the first ape, interrupting the threatened blow.

The Fight and Its Reversal

Woola’s intervention gives Carter a chance to rise, but the struggle between the animal and the ape remains unresolved. The ape’s mate flees at first, while the one fighting Woola grips the guardian and gradually weakens him. Carter watches Woola losing strength and recognizes that his protector may not survive the fight unaided.

Carter takes up the cudgel that had fallen during the attack and strikes the ape on the head, killing it and ending its hold on Woola. The victory brings a second danger: the surviving mate returns, enraged at the sight of its dead companion. Carter first considers escape, judging that flight offers a better chance than confronting a creature whose strength greatly exceeds his own.

Carter Protects Woola

Carter’s decision changes when he sees Woola lying on the floor, weakened and apparently appealing to him for help. The animal had put itself between Carter and the ape; Carter therefore turns back rather than abandoning it. He throws the cudgel at the advancing ape, disrupting its charge, then uses two punches to bring it down. He retrieves the weapon and finishes the fight before the ape can recover.

Tars Tarkas, Sola, and several warriors arrive as Carter completes the encounter. They had noticed his absence and followed the enraged ape into the building, where they witnessed his fight. Their response reflects the green Martians’ esteem for physical prowess and courage: Carter’s earlier feats, his jumping, and this battle raise him in their regard. Sola differs from the warriors, attending to Carter’s condition and checking him for injuries rather than treating the danger as entertainment.

The Aftermath and Their Bond

The rescue is not over when the apes are defeated. As the party prepares to leave, Carter notices that the warriors’ attitude toward the recovering Woola seems threatening. One warrior draws a pistol and is about to shoot the animal. Carter knocks the weapon aside; the shot strikes the window casing instead. He then helps Woola to its feet and signals for it to follow him. Tars Tarkas allows Carter to act as he chooses, and Woola returns with the group.

The exchange establishes a reciprocal bond: Woola has saved Carter from the ape, and Carter has saved Woola first from the struggle and then from the warrior’s weapon. Carter identifies Woola as a friend alongside Sola, whose care for him has been consistent. The contrast matters in a society where, as Carter observes, compassion and gratitude are poorly understood: the creature regarded as a mere beast displays the loyalty he finds lacking among many of the green Martians.

Recurrence and Significance

Woola’s loyalty persists beyond the chamber. Carter later says that the animal guarded him throughout his captivity, never voluntarily leaving him and saving his life twice. Carter’s experience with Woola also informs how he treats the thoats he acquires: rather than relying on blows to establish control, he patiently wins their confidence. They come to follow him and obey his commands, demonstrating that kindness can yield both attachment and practical reliability.

The bond is tested again when Carter, Dejah Thoris, and Sola lose their way in the wilderness. Woola has followed them across the trackless waste and presses close to Carter as he sleeps. Much later, during Carter’s solitary search for a waterway, Woola appears again and saves him from an attacker. The animal is visibly weakened by hunger, but its return confirms the loyalty first made mutual in the fight with the apes. The episode’s significance therefore lies not only in Carter’s physical victory: it establishes a continuing relationship in which protection, gratitude, and humane treatment cross the boundary between human and animal.