Central Themes In The Story 'The Call Of The Wild'

The Call of the Wild, on the surface, is a story about Buck, a four- year old dog that is part Shepherd and part St. Bernard. More importantly, it is a naturalistic tale about the survival of the fittest in nature. Throughout the novel, Buck proves that he is fit and can endure the law of the club, the law of the fang, and the laws of nature.

The call of the wild is about a dog named buck hat goes through many owners and then goes to the wild and joins a wolf pack. The central idea in The Call of The Wild is the way you treat animals can tell about you and your personality.

Human traits and characteristics like imagination, love, anger and revenge are projected by London into Buck’s character, a trait called anthropomorphosis, by using these human feelings and thoughts allowing the reader to better relate to Buck’s understanding and handling of certain situations. “At various points in the narrative, Buck is said to “imagine”, “decide”, “realize”, “know”, “divine”, “wonder”, and so on” (Auerbach 53). Further analysis of London’s narration by Auerbach of Buck is critical, claiming that while London is writing an animal tale, he is doing so more from a human perspective, rather than that of an animal. Unlike other animal tales written during the same time-period, London’s narration helps the story work as an animal story partly due to the way “Buck is put into a situation not in his control, then invested with a human mentality and morality to evaluate the situation, and then represented as reacting to that situation by way of “instinct”,”

Before the gold rush, Buck, a St. Bernard used to live in a plush, big house, going swimming, and going hunting with the Judge’s sons, but when he was stolen from his “family” and from his happiness he must adapt fast to the harsh environment. In this story, Buck changes from a domesticated animal into a fierce, primitive wolf, killing with no thought or regret but for blood. In the book The Call Of The Wild by Jack London, the theme is decivilization, three examples which proves this is, Buck stealing food from other dogs, Buck finding out that John Thornton is dead, and Buck killing the Yeehats.

Call of the Wild A major theme in The Call of The Wild is that one must adapt to survive, which buck does throughout the entire book. At the beginning of the book, Buck sees he needs to begin to assimilate to his surroundings. First, Buck learns, not everything is perfect, nor is everyone. For example, he sees that Manuel isn’t perfect when he steals and sells him so he can have money for the Chinese Lottery.

The Call of the Wild follows the story of a dog named Buck. When Buck is plucked from his domesticated life and home, and then later forced to become a sled dog, he begins to face the harsh wilderness of Alaska. The Call of the Wild is a story of survival, of doing whatever it takes to make it to tomorrow. Its a story of doing what must be done. The overall theme of The Call of the Wild, is perseverance.

The relations between Buck and the human he encounters are marked not surprisingly, by opposing forces, actions, roles or values: love and hate, master and slave, uneasy truce and open war, hunter and victim. Buck enters the story in his sustaining California environment as ruler of all he surveys: he was “king, -king over all creeping, crawling flying things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included.” Taken out of that happy valley, he was starved and mistreated by his captors and then subdued by the brutal club of a shrewd, red-sweated man. The man conquers Buck and Buck hates him; yet the beating brings with it the curiously ambiguous relation between master and slave: “When the man brought him water he drank eagerly, and later bolted a generous meal of raw meat, chunk by chunk from the man’s hand.” Buck’s understanding of human beings will henceforth be defined by power and the politic dispensing of the necessities of life.

Chris McCandless and Buck serve as examples of the archetype of the wild through their experiences of leaving where they feel most comfortable and answering the call of the wild. They show that each experience is inimitable because the wild is unique to every individual. For Buck, the wild is a place outside of civilization and his dependence on man, where the external threats of nature exist and he must prove himself as a true animal with instincts for survival. In McCandless' case, the place outside of civilization is actually an escape from his fears because the wild for him is in relationships, where the threat of intimacy exists and he must learn to trust others for happiness. This is because for each of us, the wild is what we

At the beginning of the book, civilization surrounds Buck, and he experiences the norm of a dog’s life. Buck lives on Judge Miller’s place, and lives a calm life with other dogs. In the book, it states Buck is “King over all… things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included” (12). Buck gets whatever he wants,

It’s impossible to know what motivates people. What they’re doing could be crazy, even dangerous things. For example, Buck was willing to kill Spitz for leadership. Annie Johnson was starting a business from nothing so she could support her children, and Ernesto sacrificed almost everything just to come to America. Although Buck wanted to win, and Ernesto and Annie were both desperate, all were willing to take a leap of faith in hoping to succeed.

(Pg 21)” As said in the previous quote, Buck starts complying to the status qho in order to survive. He becomes as harsh as nature to live in the hostile Northland. In conclusion, London uses a lot of symbols and details in his novel to tell the story of a man struggling in a fierce world.

During the middle of the book it talks about the training process after Buck is taken away from Judge Miller. He is taken to his first actual master and gets beat with a club. During the

The book The Call of the Wild is a fiction novel written by Jack London. The Call of the Wild is important because it is a book mainly based around animals, dogs, and there are few cases with human dialect. At the time the book was published there were no other books like it. The book was spread relatively quickly making more people read it and enjoy it. People enjoyed the book so much that today it is know as a classic and lots of students read it in school.

How should animal be treated by their owners? The way people treat their animals can effect the animal’s productivity. In The Call of the Wild , London conveys the theme of the effect on animals based on how their owners treat them through Hal, Charles and Mercedes’ callowness towards the dogs and John Thornton’s kindness and love. Hal, Charles and Mercedes’ callowness towards Buck and the other dogs made the dogs weak and barely able to stand.

I am talking about the book "The Call of the Wild," by Jack London. This book has a lot of different themes, but I would say the most prevalent one is that only the strong survive. This theme is expressed when Buck is first moved to the arctic and is not strong at all. This theme is also expressed when Buck's friend Curly dies because she was too weak. Lastly this theme is expressed when Buck kills Spitz, because Spitz was not strong enough.