Call Of The Wild Character Analysis

“The suck of the water as it took the beginning of the last steep pitch was frightful, and Thornton knew that the shore was impossible. He scraped furiously over a rock, bruised across a second, and struck the third with a crushing force (London 81). This quote was written by Jack London, the author of The Call of The Wild that he had written a novel about a St. Bernard and a Scotch half breed dog named Buck coming into the Yukon transferring from a master to another. He Becomes loyal and loving to his new master John Thornton they look for gold in the Yukon together, the wild is calling to buck and he has to chose John Thornton or the wild.For the theme Survival of the fittest there are several samples of how Buck has adjusted to his

Most of the other dogs stay away from Buck because of his size and strength, but Spitz becomes his constant enemy, from whom he learns an important lesson. Spitz fights with Curly, one of the dogs that is friendly to Buck. Buck watches as all the other dogs attack and kill Curly once he is down. Buck is determined he will never be put in the same position. He will fight to the death if necessary.

At the beginning, Buck is terrified of Spitz and strives to avoid him and do everything right. Soon, though, Buck longs to be the lead dog and goes out of his way to cause trouble for Spitz. This ultimately leads to a fight between the two, with Buck emerging as the new lead dog.

After John Thornton dies and Buck’s only tie to humanity and civilization is severed, Buck proceeds to live out his days in a local wolf pack where he becomes the alpha. Here he becomes a legend to the locals and is forevermore known as the Ghost Dog because of ferocious actions presiding Thornton’s death. Throughout the novel, “The Call of the Wild” it is proven that adaptability is key to one’s survival in any harsh environment. Over the many years in Buck’s time after being kidnapped by Manuel, Buck demonstrated time and time again that being able to adapt to one’s surroundings is and essential to life. In the novel, it is conveyed through many different events and lessons that being able to become accustomed to a setting is key to

“ From far away drifted a faint, sharp yelp, followed by a chorus of a similar sharp yelps (London 105).” In the book, Call of the Wild by Jack London the main character Buck faces a retrogression. Buck goes from being king like to a wild rebellious dog. Buck goes through this change because men found gold. The men needed dogs like Buck. Buck was half saint Bernard and half scotch-shephard, so he was a gigantic dog and had a thick coat to survive in harsh weather like in the Klondike. So Buck is sold and beat he learns to obey the law of club and fang to be formed into a sled dog, but ends up forming a bond with a man his name was John Thornton . Thornton died and Buck answers the call and runs in the wild becoming alpha of the wolf pack. As Buck was

London’s novella Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck’s transformation from a domesticated pet on a vast Santa Clara Valley estate to the primal beast he becomes in the bitter regions of the Klondike wilderness. London delivers Buck’s journey in several key plot events and uses various settings and narration styles to tell the story in a way that allows a reader to easily become invested in Buck’s character and well-being from the viewpoint of a loyal and lovable pet, as well as, that of a creature returning to its primal roots and ancestry. Settings in Call of the Wild consist of generally harsh and vicious locations, situations previously unknown to Buck, and various hostile persons and dogs. As well as a variety of settings, London

In his novel, The Call of the Wild, Jack London wants us to see the step beyond the survival of the fittest to the complete adaptation to and domination of a once unfamiliar and unforgiving environment. Using a third-person, limited omniscient narrator, the cold, icy Yukon wilderness, and a journey from lazy farm life to the deadly work of a sled dog, we see Buck, a Saint Bernard/Scotch Shepherd mix slowly return to his ancestral roots. As Jacqueline Tavernier-Courbin states in her book The Call of the Wild: A Naturalistic Romance, “The book deals less with the concept of evolution than with that of devolution” (Courbin pg 57). London asks us to believe that happily domesticated farm dog, Buck, can not only survive life as a sled dog in the Yukon, but can become completely in tune with his primitive inner self, and ultimately thrive as a leader of a wolf pack.

We are all born into this world, never knowing what life has in store for us. It’s a journey that we are all not accustomed to, some of us grasp onto life and use its full potential, as others take the high road and use life as a chance of self exploration. The novel, Into the Wild, portrays a college graduate and successful homebody, Jonathan McCandless, taking a life’s journey that not even his parents expected. This character analysis will showcase how even in life, when one was given everything, we all have a choice to make our own path in life. The character analysis will also shine light on McCandless psyche, home life and the psychological theory to the why, behind his self exploration.

Before entering the wild, Buck lived a comfortable life as a domestic family dog. He ruled over his land and carried a great amount of pride. It

“Buck stood and looked on, the successful primordial beast who had made his kill and found it good” (London, 43). The novel The Call of the Wild by Jack London starts with a dog named Buck that lives at an estate in California. However, Buck got stolen and shipped to the Yukon, during the gold rush, where he was sold to multiple different owners. In order to survive, he has to fight and steal food, and obey his owners to do whatever they say. Buck wants to be the master of the pack no matter who is in it, and who owns him.

In the biography Into the Wild written by Jon Krakauer, Chris McCandless makes the decision to try and live in the wilderness. With little food, no communication with the outside world, and dangers around every corner McCandless decides to try and survive. Possible character traits that McCandless had that caused him to make this decision are: thrill-seeker, overconfident, or he was just inspired and wanted to live poor instead of wealthy.

Into the Wild (1996), a novel by Jon Krakauer, explores the life of Christopher McCandless and the events leading up to his death. In an effort to prove his independence, Chris makes a tragic journey to Alaska that killed him at 24 years old. Along the way, he encounters many people who have been impacted by his mature, unique personality. Wayne Westerberg, Jan Burress, and Ronald Franz are a few people who were affected by his wise character.

For at least a full chapter, the team works to deny Spitz his power as lead dog, when finally one night Buck fights Spitz to the death, and he wins. In this quote his victory is described “Buck stood and looked on, the successful champion, the dominant primordial beast who made his kill and found it good.’’ (London 43). When Spitz is killed it shows he is unfit to be the alpha dog of the pack, and Buck becomes the ‘dominant primordial beast’ meaning he’s the most fit to become the alpha dog, showing this by killing

Buck came to mastery of his will to survive he new how to fight he had that in him   There were fierce that brought buck to mastery so when he bristled and showed his teeth”. (london 49) This prove that buck was fit to live in the wild. He could hunt and kill when he need to. Also he was a leader he wanted to be a model for the other dogs but if he needed to he would kill them. Lastly, Buck learned through his time in the wild that he needed to be strong and the master.    At one point in the novel, Buck mastered Spitz, all the sled dogs to prove that he was the master of everything.  Each one of these tasks were not easy for Buck. “Mercy did not exist in the primordial life it was misunderstood for fear and such misunderstanding for fear and such made for death kill or killed eat or be eaten was the law” ( London 77).  Buck showed the theme struggle for mastery when he realized he needed to fight to survive and be the leader. He is able to change and accept the hard conditions in the Northland and overcome the obstacles because he is more smarter and has many much more imagination than any of the other

Call of the Wild is a novella written by Jack London that is ironic about life and the way we look at it. We look at life as humans and other things are just living in our world, that nothing else has a say in the world because we do not speak the same languages. Example of this is how we “own” dogs, cats, horses, etc; we do not “own” them, they are their own being with goals of their own. We may not be able to understand what they are saying or what they are thinking, but as London explains throughout his novella, one dog in particular has such high aspirations for himself that he will not quit for anything and his name is Buck. Never giving up on what you want in your life is the real message in this story that is being portrayed through the life of Buck.