Miyax is torn between the settings of wilderness and civilization. Her preference is for traditional Inuit life based on living off of the Alaskan landscape, but for a variety of reasons she is both made to and chooses to live in civilization. The struggle of deciding where to be and how to live characterizes Miyax and the plot.

The Alaskan wilderness can be harsh and difficult, and the novel makes this clear in Part 1 by describing Miyax as lost and desperate on the North Slope of Alaska, having run away from home. Her struggle to survive within an unforgiving landscape shows that Julie of the Wolves has elements of a basic human-versus-nature plot.

However, the novel also shows nature to be incredibly enriching, even in the harsh Alaskan landscape. This is at least the case for those, like Miyax, who know where and how to look for what nature can provide. In a wilderness that many would describe as barren, Miyax finds food grass, moss, and Arctic peas. Likewise, she ingeniously uses the raw materials she finds to create what she needs, like using caribou skin for a sled and tent, and using reeds to freeze water inside to create ice poles to use for that tent.