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Call of the Wild. by Simone Leigh. 4.40 · 53 Ratings · 35 Reviews · 2 editions. A Perfect Life? Anna is a writer, making her…. More. Want to Read. Rate it: Freedom (Call of the Wild, #1), Thralldom (Call of the Wild, #2), Retribution (Call of the Wild, #3), Revelation (Call of the Wild, #4), Redemption (Cal...
Book Summary. Buck, a huge, four-year-old half-Saint Bernard and half-Scottish shepherd dog, is living a life of civilized ease in California's Santa Clara Valley in the home of Judge Miller. It seems to be the best of all possible worlds, for Buck is the most prized animal that the Judge owns.
The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck.
- Jack London
- 1903
From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes The Call of the Wild Study Guide has everything you need to ace quizzes, tests, and essays.
- Introduction
- Author Biography
- Plot Summary
- Characters
- Themes
- Media Adaptations
- Topics For Further Study
- Style
- Historical Context
- Compare & Contrast
The Call of the Wild first appeared in serial form in the popular magazine The Saturday Evening Postin 1903. Later that year, an expanded version was published in book form and enjoyed favorable reviews and commercial popularity. The novel's simple style and crude depiction of harsh realities in the frozen Klondike region appealed to a reading publ...
One of America's most prolific and beloved authors, London was born in 1876 in San Francisco, California. His family was so poor that he went to work as soon as he finished grade school. His early experiences working in a saloon and a factory, hunting seals, tramping on the railroads, and spending thirty days in prison for vagrancy provided London ...
Chapter 1: Into the Primitive
Buck is a dog living with Judge Miller at a sprawling ranch in Santa ClaraValley, California. He lives the life of a country gentleman's dog, beloved by his master and given the run of the property. Buck's idyllic life is cut short by one of the ranch hands, Manuel, whose gambling habit and large family prompt him to sell Buck on the black market. Buck is taken by rail to a man in a red sweater, a dog breaker, who uses a club for training. Buck's spirit is beaten, but not broken; he learns to...
Chapter 2: The Law of Club and Fang
The law of the club refers to the method humans use to extract obedience from a dog; the law of the fang refers to the method dogs use to subjugate other dogs. Buck learns about the law of the fang when Curly, one of the friendlier sled dogs, makes advances toward another dog. This other dog rips open her face, then jumps aside to avoid retaliation. Curly is then killed by thirty to forty dogs. Buck learns life in the Klondike is violent, survival belongs to the alert, and leadership belongs...
Chapter 3: The Dominant Primordial Beast
As the team works its way up the frozen Thirty Mile River to Dawson, Buck prepares to challenge Spitz. One night when Spitz confronts him, Buck attacks. However, a gang of starving, marauding dogs interrupts the fight and turns the camp upside down looking for food. The team runs off into the woods until they leave. A few days later, due to the strain of the trip, Dolly goes mad, howling like a wolf, chasing Buck until Francois finally axes her to death. Once in Dawson, Perrault wants to trav...
Buck
Half St. Bernard, half Scotch shepherd, Buck is a dog and the protagonist of The Call of the Wild. The novel is told largely from Buck's perspective, although the narrator interprets his "feelings" and "thoughts" for the reader. Buck is a loyal friend to his owner, Judge Miller, and he "lived the life of a sated aristocrat" on his California ranch. But he is physically strong from hunting expeditions, and his thick coat and strength are exactly what the men going North to seek their fortune i...
Charles
Charles is one of Buck's masters. He is searching for gold, but his group is completely unprepared for the harsh, demanding environ-ment. Through their ignorance, lack of sense, and cruelty, they starve the dogs and nearly work them to death. When they travel on a precarious river trail, they crash through the ice to their deaths.
Dave
Dave is the wheel-dog on the team. His pride in his work is so great that he ends up working himself to death, unwilling to be carried when he becomes ill.
Civilization vs. the Wild
The main conflict in The Call of the Wildis the struggle between civilization and the wild. The novel traces Buck's gradual transformation from a domesticated dog to a wild one.
Jack London Cassette Library, read by Jack Dahlby, includes readings of The Call of the Wild, Martin Eden, and The Sea-Wolf.The Call of the Wildis read by Arnold Moss on a cassette made by Miller-Brody.The Call of the Wildwas first captured on film in 1935 by United Artists.In 1972, a film was made of The Call of the Wildstarring Charlton Heston as John Thornton. It is available on video.Research the philosophies of the "superman" and the "survival of the fittest" as espoused by Friedrich Nietzsche and Herbert Spencer, two thinkers who influenced London. Compare them to London's ph...Read Ralph Waldo Emerson's seminal essay "Self-Reliance" (1841). Write an essay considering whether or not you think it was possible for Buck to be a "self-reliant" individual at the end of the nin...For decades The Call of the Wildhas been considered by many to be a children's book. Do you think it is an appropriate book for children, and why? Who do you think the intended or most appropriate...Research changing views of nature and the American wilderness in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, studying such figures as Henry David Thoreau, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Muir. Write...Point of View
Point of view is the narrative perspective from which a work is presented to the reader. The Call of the Wildis told from a very unusual point of view—that of a dog. Yet a human narrator stands outside of Buck's consciousness and makes sense of the dog's universe to human readers. London also tries to maintain Buck's believability as a dog. So while he explains his motivations, London reminds the reader that Buck does not actually think. After a lengthy passage about Buck's moral decline, exp...
Setting
Setting is the time, place, and culture in which the action of a narrative takes place. The Call of the Wild is neatly divided into two regions that are diametrically opposed—the Southland and the Northland. The former represents civilization and the latter the wild. In the South, Buck lived a domesticated and perfectly stable life. When Buck arrives in the North, he realizes that survival is the only concern. The difference between the two regions is typified by their climates. In the South,...
Allegory
Many critics perceive that The Call of the Wildwas more than the story of a dog. Many believe that it is an allegory about human society. An allegory tells two stories at once: the surface narrative, which in this case would be Buck's transformation; and the "real" story that is suggested by the literal narrative. As such, then, this novel also tells the story of the savagery of man, who is transported into a hostile world against his will, must confront his inability to determine his own fat...
The Klondike Gold Rush
Many early settlers in North America had migrated in search of the gold that Spaniards had found in Central and South America. Dreams of a continent paved with gold did not begin to come true until the 1840s, when gold was found in California. In the subsequent decades, gold was found in many regions of the West. Most prospectors that traveled to California never realized their dream. By the 1880s, mining had become big business, making it even more difficult for optimistic individuals to see...
At the turn of the century, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was applied to human society by philosophers and a new cadre of social scientists, including Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner. Adapting the notion of natural selection, they argued that life was a struggle for survival and that the "fittest" would come out on top. It was inevitable that only a few individuals would prosper; the rest would suffer in poverty. According to Social Darwinists, these conditions were not only...
1900s: Americans recognize the need for conserving or protecting the environment. The U.S. government begins forest preservation efforts in 1891. In 1892 John Muir founded the Sierra Club. In 1903...1900s: Indigenous to the area, wolves inhabit most of the northwestern United States, Canada, and Alaska. Today: Wolves have long ago disappeared from most of the United States. A project to reintr...1900s: Alaska, which became part of the United States in 1867, was sparsely populated until the gold rushes in Juneau (1880) and the Klondike (1897). The excitement regarding these discoveries brou...1900s: In 1901 Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States. A member of the "Rough Riders," a volunteer cavalry regiment, Roosevelt was a war hero in the Spanish-American War in 1898....Questions & Answers. Quotes. Quick Quizzes. Deeper Study. The Call of the Wild Questions & Answers. What kind of dog is Buck? In Chapter One, the narrator explains that Buck is a mixed-breed dog, deriving his traits from both his St. Bernard father and Scotch shepherd dog mother.
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A summary of Chapter 1: Into the Primitive in Jack London's The Call of the Wild. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of The Call of the Wild and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.
