Set primarily in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush, Jack London's 1903 novel, The Call of the Wild, follows the experiences of Buck, a St. Bernard mix, as he's kidnapped from his easy domesticated life and forced to work as a sled dog. As he adjusts to his ever-changing station, Buck survives by tapping into his primitive wild side. Buck is raised on a California estate owned by Judge Miller. Buck is a big dog, part St. Bernard and part Scott Shepard.
He views himself as the prince of the estate, above Judge Miller's dogs. Then, one of Judge Miller's servants secretly sells Buck to a stranger. The man puts Buck in a crate and ships him to Seattle, where another man disciplines Buck by beating him with a club, an action that represents the novel's key motif of violence. By learning to obey a man with a club, Buck becomes an effective member of his dog team. Throughout his adventures, the law of club and fang will imprint deeply upon Buck.
Violence is the law of the land. Sometimes it's motivated by passion, sometimes it's chaotic and destroys community. Here, it helps Buck shed his pampered upbringing, removed from the wild. Next, Buck goes by ship to the Northland.
Buck quickly realizes there's no fair play in the Northland. It's either kill or be killed. Two men, Francois and Perrault, buy Buck and add him to their dog team.
Buck learns how to pull a sled and how to sleep by digging a nest in the snow. But he also learns to distrust and hate the leader of the dog team, a treacherous dog named Spitz. Francois and Perrault place Buck in a team of eight dogs, including Spitz, who's the leader, and the team pulls a sled across the snow-covered terrain toward the town of Dawson.
As Buck adapts to his new life, he sheds his domestication and embraces his primordial instincts. Spitz tries to pick a fight with Buck, but Buck avoids a confrontation, instead focusing on adjusting to his new life. One night, ravenous wolves attack their camp and devour all the food. As Francois, Perrault, and the sled dogs continue their arduous journey to Dawson, Buck gains more confidence and makes it clear he's not afraid of Spitz. Sensing Buck's impending mutiny, the dog team becomes unruly.
Okay. When the expedition reaches Dawson, Buck rests and listens to the song of the huskies, the ancient song of the breed. During the next sled excursion, Spitz confronts Buck. They have a fierce battle, and Buck injures Spitz badly.
Then the other dogs on the team encircle Spitz and kill him as Buck looks on triumphantly. After defeating Spitz, Buck assumes the role of the sled team leader. Buck proves to be an excellent leader, disciplining the dogs as needed.
When Francois and Perrault get a new assignment, they hand over the dog team to a Scotch half-breed who must deliver a heavy load of mail to the North. During the night, when Buck gazes at the fire, he has visions of a primitive man who is afraid of the dark. In Alaska, Buck and his dog team are sold to two inexperienced men named Hal and Charles, along with Charles' wife, Mercedes, who is also Hal's sister.
Mercedes' belongings are one of the novel's most important symbols that show her misunderstanding of her environment. symbolized by the way she packs her belongings for the trip. She overloads the sled with belongings that have no value in the wild. The value of an object in the wild is based on its use or purpose. Mercedes brings objects that have value only in civilization, where objects are evaluated by their positive reflections on their owners.
Because Mercedes does not understand this distinction, she soon causes her own death as the overloaded sled becomes too heavy for the ice to bear. The wild does not support the folly of material wealth. The inept trio overload the sled and refuse to rest the exhausted dogs who've traveled for 2,500 miles. And as the team crosses the wilderness, some of the dogs die of starvation. Eventually, the expedition makes it to the camp of John Thornton, who warns them that the bottom of the trail is falling out because of melting ice.
Hal ignores the advice and beats Buck to get him to stand up. Enraged, Thornton shoves Hal away, cuts Buck loose. The importance of this moment is represented by one of the novel's key symbols, Buck's harness.
The straps that connect Buck to the dog sled team shift from a symbol of submission to dominance, and then to freedom as Buck's situation changes. After Buck's kidnapping, the harness emphasizes Buck's shift in position, from dominance at Judge Miller's to a position of subservience as he's forced to pull the sled for the prospectors. However, after Buck dethrones Spitz and takes over as leader of the dog team, the harness comes to symbolize his authority to lead the pack.
When John Thornton cuts away Buck's harness here, Buck discovers a freedom in being Thornton's companion rather than his servant. Indeed, the expedition continues on without Buck. The sled breaks through the ice, and Al, Charles, and Mercedes, along with the sled dogs, plunge to their deaths.
John Thornton nurses Buck back to health, and Buck and Thornton form a strong bond. Although Buck is connected with his primordial wolf instincts, he becomes devoted to Thornton. In Dawson, Buck wins a bet for Thornton by pulling a sled loaded with a thousand pounds of goods for a hundred yards.
Using his winnings, Thornton and his friends finance a search for a lost mine in the remote far north. Buck loves to lounge by the fire, dreaming of teaming with Primordial Man, a key motif in the novel. Vision Buck's primordial visions progress as he answers the call of the wild. Buck has already vividly imagined a primitive man sitting by a fire and looking fearfully into the dark.
Here, when Buck sits with Thornton by the fire, the dog senses the presence of other dogs, half-wolves, and wild wolves. Because Buck shares his ancestors' instincts, he becomes their living embodiment. His vision has a tangible reality.
Buck has become an active participant in his own visions. Soon enough, Buck will run with his wolf brother in the woods, sensing he has done so before during a primordial age. Buck begins to reenact his visions in the real world, making his visions of primitive ancestors a reality. After months, the men find a stream with abundant gold and make camp. In the following weeks, as Thornton and his friends pan gold, Buck often wanders into the woods to hunt.
He becomes proud of his ability as a predator, but he always heads back to Thornton and his camp. One evening, Buck finds a treasure trove of gold. finds Yeehats chanting at the camp. Yeehats are a fictitious tribe of First Nations people. Enraged, Buck attacks the Yeehats, killing some and scattering the rest.
Buck then finds Thornton dead by a pool, and he mourns his master. That night, Buck hears the call of the wild. With his last hide, a humanity broken, Buck heads into the forest where he meets a wolf pack.
Buck shows his dominance by killing the pack's leader. The pack accepts Buck as their new leader. At the end of the novel, the Yeehats tell stories about a fierce ghost dog, who is Buck. These stories can be seen as legendary visions of the wild.
By fully embracing his visions, Buck has transformed himself into legend. Readers have likely picked up on the novel's key themes. First, there's Civilization vs. Wild.
Jack London conveys this theme through the stages of Buck's transformation. In the first stage, Buck lives the plush life of a domesticated dog on a sprawling California... a state that London portrays as the height of civilization. Buck sees himself as the ruler of this realm.
But soon, Buck faces the uncivilized world of the Northland, a world with no genteel rules or comfort. As Buck learns, dogs in the North follow the law of club and fang and must kill or be killed. He begins to connect with his primitive instincts.
And although he is governed by the law of the wild, Buck isn't yet wild himself. He spends most of his time with people. Francois and Perrault perform tasks of civilization, and Buck forms a strong bond of love with John Thornton.
Stage two is an intermediate stage in which Buck connects with his primitive instincts in a rough but human setting. In the final stage, Buck becomes immersed in the wild while leading Thornton's dog sled. Here, Buck's primordial instincts reach their full potential, and he becomes a fierce predator. After Thornton's death, Buck breaks from the human community and surrenders completely to the Call of the Wild by becoming a leader of a wolf pack. Law and order is another critical theme.
In the Call of the Wild, London contrasts two sets of rules. The Law of Club and... and Fang and the Law of Love and Brotherhood. The Law of Club and Fang rules the uncivilized world in the wild, and the Law of Love and Brotherhood is most often found in civilization.
The wild has no human-made code of laws, so it's ruled by strength and survival of the fittest. London never asserts that the Law of Club and Fang is stronger than the Law of Love and Brotherhood. Instead, he creates a dichotomy within Buck where the two laws coexist. However, after forming a strong bond of love with Thornton, Buck suppresses these wild instincts and allows his love for the man to rule him. Eventually, when Buck stalks prey in the forest, his primitive side develops even more, creating an internal struggle between two identities, the loyal affectionate dog in Thornton's camp and the fierce predator in the wild.
London never indicates which side of Buck is stronger. When Thornton dies, Buck no longer has a bond with humans, and he's free to embrace the wild. Knowledge and power is a theme depicted through Buck's ability to adapt and change to his environment.
Buck's always open to learning new skills and embracing his instincts, and the more he learns, the more powerful he becomes. This allows him to embrace the call of the wild. The author also stresses what happens when civilized people and dogs fail to adapt to the wild. Hal, Charles, and Mercedes are too foolish, prideful, and conceited to adapt to the wild, and in the end, that ign... Prince kills them.
For Jack London, lack of knowledge leads to weakness and death. Finally, the theme of belonging is directly tied to the importance of community. Throughout the novel, Buck yearns to be a part of a community. On the judge's estate, Buck belongs to a civilized community and is content with his place in it. When Buck is thrust into the Northland, he must adapt his behavior to a new, uncivilized community, or else he won't survive long.
Then when he meets John Thornton, Buck develops a love for him. and wants to stay with him. He wants to belong to Thornton's community, which consists of the man's friends and other dogs. London sees community as essential for survival. When Buck mutinies against Spitz, the dog team becomes unruly and their sense of community is fractured.
Some scholars psychoanalyze the text, focusing on Freud's analysis of the significance of dreams and on the influence of Charles Darwin's theories. According to Darwin, there's a natural process of of selection in which living things compete for essentials such as food. He also theorized that animals have evolved a moral sense based on doing what is good for the community.
Darwin believed that one's environment has a strong influence on one's nature. Some critics claim that Buck represents the superhero as defined by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche believed the ideal person, the overman or superman, is one who learns to harness his or her strong passions and use them in creative ways. When Buck learns about the law of club and fang, He realizes he must control his passions and use them in certain ways to survive. By doing this, Buck becomes a type of super canine in this unforgettable and wildly unique.