The Acorn Planter

Published in 1916, The Acorn Planter is one of just three plays written by Jack London. On the surface a story about the genocide of American Indian tribes, underneath it is a scarcely hidden allegory of ecological suicide by those who understand little of nature's abundance. The story is set in three distant phases detailing in the first instance a prophecy set out for an Indian Tribe by Red Cloud, a visionary, in second instance a seeming repudiation of the prophecy only, in the third instance for the prophecy to come true. A fourth act, titled as an epilogue, the players return to spell out the importance of maintaining a symbiotic relationship with the natural world.