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- Buck mourns over John Thornton's body but that night hears the call. The wild wolf pack circles him. They lunge and strike at him, but he displays a wolfish agility in fighting back. An old wolf comes forward, sniffs noses with Buck in a friendly manner, and lets out a howl, announcing Buck's initiation into the pack.
www.litcharts.com/lit/the-call-of-the-wild/chapter-7-the-sounding-of-the-callThe Call of the Wild: Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis - LitCharts
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Buck begins as a spoiled regent, strutting proudly over his soft, sun-kissed domain, but he abruptly sees everything taken away from him. He is reduced to nothing, beaten and kicked and forced to pull sleds through the Canadian wilderness.
- Buck Quotes
Living the life of a “sated aristocrat” with Judge Miller in...
- John Thornton
The Call of the Wild is, first and foremost, the story of...
- Hal, Charles, & Mercedes
The civilized world tolerates and even smiles on such...
- Important Quotes Explained
In the civilized world, Buck is born to rule, only to be...
- Character List
Buck’s final master, a gold hunter experienced in the ways...
- Context
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- Buck Quotes
- During the four years since his puppyhood he had lived the life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was even a trifle egotistical, as a country gentleman sometimes become because of their insular situation.
- He had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial. No lazy, sun-kissed life was this, with nothing to do but loaf and be bored.
- The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, and under the fierce conditions of the trail it grew and grew. Related Characters: Buck.
- At a bound Buck took up the duties of leadership, and where judgment was required, and quick thinking and quick acting he showed himself superior even of Spitz, of whom Franois had never seen an equal.
Buck does not merely attack Spitz head-on; instead, he slyly undercuts Spitz’s authority among the other dogs by siding with the weaker animals in disputes. Thus, he paves the way for his own leadership even before the final confrontation arrives.
Living the life of a “sated aristocrat” with Judge Miller in the civilized world in no way prepared Buck for this harsh jolt of reality in the wild. Just like Mercedes, Buck’s first reaction is to take offense to the way he is treated on the frontier.
Buck goes through an amazing physical transformation in The Call of the Wild that ends up being a great way to analyze his character arc in the broader sense. Buck's no squirt to begin with; part of the reason he’s stolen from his ranch is that he’s a physically impressive dog.
Though Buck has asserted himself among his fellow dogs, he doesn’t have automatic authority over his human masters, who still ultimately decide the fate of the team. Thus, Buck is required to “revolt” against his owners, disobeying them until they grant him the lead position.
Buck avoids this fate because he follows his intuition, emphasizing that his feral senses are strong. Buck's survival, juxtaposed against Hal's death, also proves that not all masters are worthy of wielding the club—and that those who aren't worthy will eventually lose their power, as Hal does.
