Rex Berry
Wilson
Pre-AP ELA 8
04 September 2017
Character Traits of Buck from The Call of The Wild
How would being kidnapped, stolen, and transported from California to Alaska change one’s character? It would certainly have an effect on one’s personality and character traits, but in different ways depending on the individual. The Call of the Wild, a novel by Jack London, is about a dog named Buck who lived on a ranch in California, but was stolen and sold. He was transported to Alaska, where he worked as a sled dog. Throughout the novel, his character traits slowly change. Over the span of the novel, Buck turns from domesticated to primitive, and he returns to the wild at the end of the novel, completely independent from any human.
DOMESTICATED TO PRIMITIVE
Over the course of The Call of the Wild, Buck’s character traits become increasingly more primitive. He was born on a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California to a St. Bernard and a Scotch shepherd dog. At the beginning of the novel, he was stolen by the gardener’s helper and sold. He was then transported to Alaska to work as a sled dog. While working as a sled dog, he learns to follow primitive law far out from civilization. At the end, he joins a pack of wild wolves, proving his strength and agility and becoming the leader of the pack, and he hunts and kills like a wolf. All of this signifies Buck’s transformation into a wild beast. something. “He did not steal [food] for joy of it, but because of the clamor of his
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.
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.
“Your circle of influence dictates your path.” -John Bielecki. Influence others have can guide your life. In the book “Call of the Wild”, Jack London uses the influence of masters. Buck is a pampered prince in Santa Clara Valley, in Judge Miller’s house. One day, he is kidnapped and sold to be a sled dog. Buck met several masters, the man in the red sweater, Francois and Perrault, and John Thornton. All of them played a great role for Buck’s rapid growth. Under the harsh environment of toiling, Buck gradually grew into an undefeatable, wild beast. Among his masters, Buck felt passionate love for him and Thornton. After Thornton’s death Buck returns to the wild, but the trace of civilization left him brings him to the place where Thornton
In the classic, Call Of The Wild, by Jack London, Buck, a southland dog from California, is sold off to gold seekers during the Alaskan Gold Rush. He is thrust into the brutal and unforgiving life of a sled dog and is vilely treated. Buck then must adapt to the harsh life he has been placed into by learning to fight and survive in order to prosper. Years after he was drafted into the gold rush, he is rescued from his suffering by a man named John Thornton. While bonding with John, Buck is also growing closer to nature. When Buck was out exploring, John’s camp was attacked by indians, and he is killed. Buck then decides to return to the wild and live like his ancestors. The author is highly intentional of the diction used in
Perseverance is an immense trait that rules all if one contains it. Never giving up, pushing through, that is what it means, and that’s what it takes. Perseverance can be mastered by anyone, you have to fight and never back down to succeed. Raise the bar, and push past others. Both Buck and Leighton persevered by succeeding in the face of adversity and giving it everything they had.
In The Call of the Wild, Jack London utilizes the uprising of a dog’s primitive nature to communicate the influence of ancestry present within all beings. When Buck is ripped out of domestication, he immediately channels his hidden defensive qualities whenever a sense of danger is present. He discovers traits within himself that he was unaware to have possessed, sometimes even becoming shocked by his own reactions. The instincts of Buck’s ancestors awaken once he arrives in the Yukon Territory which allows him to fend for himself and survive while undergoing the dangerous conditions of the climate. Buck not only fits the criteria necessary to survive, but he goes above and beyond and finds himself successful and thriving as the leader of the
“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative”(H.G. Wells). The theme in the Book The Call of the Wild is adaptability is essential for survival. At the beginning of the Book, Buck must learn and adapt to his new life in the wilderness to survive.
In The Call of The Wild, Buck is kidnapped and sold by a gambling obsessed man, and has to persevere as he's forced to be a sled dog. One of the examples of his perseverance is the beginning of his adventure. Buck is approached by the gardener Manuel, and as soon as Buck realizes he is up to no good he is kidnapped. He is then beaten by a club until he
In the classic Jack London’s classic novel Call Of The Wild, adaptability is essential for survival.
In the novel The Call of the Wild, one of the main characters named Buck gets stolen by a gardener and sold to dog traders, who teach Buck to obey by beating him with a club and become a sled dog. Buck goes goes through many lessons to learn how to adapt to his new life out in the wild. Buck learns three big lessons. He learns his first lesson when he is beaten, learns his second when Curly dies, and realizes that he has to kill Spitz in order to survive. Buck is constantly learning lessons about how to survive in his new life.
I liked chapter 7 of Call of the wild because,Buck starts to act like a wolf. And Buck is strong as could be. Plus Buck is a very smart animal for a dog. Also I think Buck is a very great dog so far that I have read about him. And that Buck is learning how to be a wolf like he always wanted to be.
The Call of The Wild If you hang with the chickens, you’ll cluck and if you hang with the eagles, you’ll fly. - Dr. Steve Maraboli. A major theme in Jack London’s classic The Call Of The Wild is that life is a quest one’s true identity which Buck must undertake and achieve throughout the course of the book.
In The Call of the Wild, one theme could be that only the strongest survive, Buck goes through significant changes in his life and has to learn very quickly how to adapt in order to survive. The connection between this theme and natural selection is that if you are not able to adapt or suited for a certain task, you will fail. If Buck had not adapted and learned how to a sled dog, he would have most likely of died. When it says "only the strongest survive" it means that if you are not prepared or are weak, you will die first. In natural selection, when disasters happen or things in the world change, only the strongest, smartest, and quickest to adapt will survive. Bucks life changed very rapidly, but he was able to adapt very quickly to his
In the Call of the Wild, by Jack London, a young Newfoundland mix embarks on a journey through the Alpine. Battling both the elements, and the pull of civilization, Buck must fight his way to the top in the quest for alpha dog. Not only battling civilization, but his comrades as well, Buck must be the strongest and the smartest to prevail. In the harsh world of the frozen North Buck gains ingenuity, lost through years of domestication.