’’Old longings nomadic leap,
Chafing at custom’s chain;
Again from its brumal sleep
Wakens the ferine strain.’’
-John Myers O’hara
The Call of the Wild authored by Jack London in 1903. Its an adventure story - a story of a dog. The author is taking his readers on a journey to Charles Darwin’s theory of Evolution through the eyes of Buck-the dog. Its the story of transformation of a dog - for his contribution to the next generations. A tame beast called away from civilization into the wild so that he can reconnect to its primitive roots.
The primary theme of The Call is the wild’s struggle for existence and be the Master. And the other theme is Man’s desire to have an adventure.
One-liners:
Chapter 1 Title- Into the Primitive (Buck and his puppyhood days-ending with his kidnapping)
Chapter 2 Title- The Law of Club and Fang (moments of life at Dyea beach)
Chapter 3 Title- The Dominant Primordial Beast (survival for life)
Chapter 4 Title- Who Has Won to Mastership (thirty days at the Dawson)
Chapter 5 Title- The Toil of Trace and Trail (arrival at Skaguay, Buck is rescued by John Thornton)
Chapter 6 Title- For the Love of a Man (the relationship between animals and the humans)
Chapter 7 Title- The Sounding of the Call (death of John Thornton-Buck’s Master)
The Story
Buck is a strong-willed, civilized, dignified dog. He leads lavish life at Judge Miller’s estate in California’s Santa Clara Valley till one day he is kidnapped for money and sold to the dog traders to work as a sled dog during the gold rush. He, for the first time sees men’s cruelty - constantly abused and beaten by them, challenged by other dogs. Gradually he adjusts to this new life as a sled dog, where he learns to fight back and eventually kills the lead dog of their team-Spitz to become the master of the team.
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But Buck was neither house-dog nor kennel-dog. The whole realm was his. He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge’s sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, on long twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge’s feet before the roaring library fire; he carried the Judge’s grandsons on his back, or rolled them in the grass, and guarded their footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard ....... for he was king, --king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included.
He was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken. He saw, once for all, that he stood no chance against a man with a club. He had learned the lesson, and in all his after life he never forgot it.
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The whole team was forced to carry heavy loads. During the work, one of the dogs becomes ill. The driver, eventually shoots him. The team is again sold to a group of American gold hunters—inexperienced and uncivilized. Their inexperience and cruelty leads to the death of half of the dogs.
Buck is rescued by John Thornton - the civilized miner. So, Thornton becomes Buck’s master and Buck is devoted to him in its totality.
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This man had saved his life, which was something; but, further, he was the ideal master. Other men saw to the
welfare of their dogs from a sense of duty and business expediency; he saw to the welfare of his as if they were his own
children, because he could not help it.
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Life again was at its best for Buck until, one day when he comes back to camp only to find his master dead, slain by Yeahats. In rage, Buck attacks the Yeahats killing many, injuring others. He, then heads off into the wild. Thus, breaking his last link with humanity.
Finally, becomes the leader of a group of wolves, a legendary figure-a Ghost Dog. But every year he returns to the place where Thornton died to mourn his master.
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All day Buck brooded by the pool or roamed restlessly about the camp. Death, as a cessation of movement, as a passing out and away from the lives of the living, he knew, and he knew John Thornton was dead. It left a great void in him, somewhat akin to hunger, but a void which ached and ached, and which food could not fill, .......
In the summers there is one visitor, however, to that valley, of which the Yeehats do not know. It is a great, gloriously coated wolf, like, and yet unlike, all other wolves. He crosses alone from the smiling timber land and comes down into an open space among the trees. Here a yellow stream flows from rotted moose- hide sacks and sinks into the ground, with long grasses growing through it and vegetable mould overrunning it and hiding its yellow from the sun; and here he muses for a time, howling once, long and mournfully, here he departs.
’’But he is not always alone. When the long winter nights come on and the wolves follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be seen running at the head of the pack through the pale moonlight or glimmering borealis, leaping gigantic above his fellows, his great throat a-bellow as he sings a song of the younger world, which is the song of the pack.’’
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My Word:
(Would like to define these two terms before my word)
ALLEGORY - A story in which characters are narrated through symbols, often with some moralizing conclusion.
ATAVISM means certain traits/characteristics possessed from a remote ancestor.
(courtesy: Cosmo English Ref’ Dictionary).
The frequent use of allegorical characters by London made it a Masterpiece. The relationship of Buck and Thornton is the ideal man-dog relationship and they both are completely devoted to each other. This bond is the only force that kept Buck stick to the civilization. Their bond is so strong that it is broken only after Thornton is dead and even then Buck makes a pilgrimage to his master’s resting place every year. This shows their mutual respect was reciprocal one, a proof that Buck was more of a partner than the servant to his master.
contd in comments section ....