The Theme Of Survival In The Call Of The Wild

“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

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.

Jack London’s novel, The Call of the Wild, is about the transformation of Buck. As a dog who was raised as a domestic animal, he must learn to adapt to his new wild surroundings after he is snatched away from civilization. The author's message of this novel is “survival of the fittest.” Buck’s only chance of staying alive is to display his strength and fight. This quote displays Buck’s thoughts on the rules of the wild; the only way to survive. It is clearly shown that having superior power is the only route to not being killed. Each dog, no matter which breed or age, learns these rules almost instantly and gets put into their place; their journey to proving themselves and rising to the top begins. This citation is significant to the theme, because it depicts the valuable law of the wilderness, which is “survival of the fittest.” This quote describes the “eat or be eaten” world that Buck is now adapting to in order to live. The theme, “survival of the of the fittest,” is shown in this quote, and seems quite gruesome. However, “...master or be mastered...Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten…” is exactly how the animals in the wild sustain their places in their “communities.”

Beaten, neglected, and loved Buck dealt with all those things. In the story ‘’ The Call of the Wild ‘’, the central theme is how one treats animals can reflect on what kind of person they are.

Jack London brings a natural instinct into the spotlight by defining that everyone has that primal call to the wild, and often one feels this when in a difficult situation. Giving into this ‘call of the wild’ leads to a different kind of adaptation, it makes you become primal to survive in a primal situation. Further into the book it states, “The others sat down and howled. And now the call came to Buck in unmistakable accents. He, too, sad down and howled.” (London, 1990, p.62). This is the defining moment of Jack’s book when Buck lets go of all ties to humans and decides to carve his own path, adapting the way he needs to, not the way that humans encouraged him. Soon, Buck changes himself completely to fit snugly into the environment and to prevent further torturous struggles with humans. These quotes combine to paint a picture of total and complete change when it comes to a new and unfavorable environment.

This year’s summer reading options were marvelous. It was a hard choice to choose what book to read, but in the end, I chose The Call of the Wild by Jack London. The Call of the Wild was an adventurous tale about a dog named Buck and his adventures as he was sold into a harsh life of relentless labor in the cold and brutal North. The author of this classic novel, Jack London, was a short-story writer and a prolific American novelist. He was born in San Francisco, California. He was known for his other novels, The Sea Wolf and White Fang. I chose this particular novel because I love reading classic novels and it seemed to be an interesting and exciting story. Finally, this was the novel of my choice because it was recommended to me by my grandma.

Buck was forced to persevere often in Call Of The Wild. In the book Call Of The Wild, Buck is torn from society and his everyday life, but he still finds a way to overcome the adversity and

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.

In Jack London’s classic novel The Call of the Wild, the main character, a dog by the name of Buck, is thrown into the harsh environment of the Klondike and is forced to change, so the theme of this novel is adapt or die. Buck adapts to people, other animals, and his new environment in order to survive. Buck undergoes physical, social, and behavioral adaptations in order to survive. First and foremost, Buck undergoes extreme physical changes as he apartes and adjusts to a very different lifestyle. Buck shows his physical when he is about to pull the 1000 pound sled and “He was in perfect condition, without an ounce of superfluous flesh, and the one hundred fifty pounds he weighed were so many pounds of grit and virility.

Manuel kidnaps Buck and sells him to pay off a debt. Buck’s trustworthy nature changes as soon as he is beaten and is not fed or allowed to drink water. When Buck arrives in Seattle he is almost beaten to death by the man in the red sweater. "He saw, once for all, that he stood no chance against a man with a club." (Call of the Wild, page 19). Buck learns from this horrible incident the ‘law of the club.’ The law of the club states that a dog is no match for a man with a weapon. Buck witnesses as his newly-made friend named Curly is torn to pieces by thirty or forty huskies after she falls to the ground from fighting. Buck is taught the ‘law of the fang’ from Curly’s death scene. The law of the fang recognizes the fact that once a dog falls to the ground he is dead. In the north, Buck learns many traits that will help him journey through the north in order to survive. Buck learns that he has to eat his food quickly in order to not have it stolen; he learns to steal food to survive, because the daily ration cannot fill his stomach; he learns to break the ice out from his toes; and finally Buck learns that in order to stay warm during the harsh, freezing nights, he has to make a ‘nest’ to sleep in. Because Buck learns these new secrets of the sled dogs, he is able to survive in the north and to maintain his

“Dazed, suffering intolerable pain from his throat and tongue the half throated out of him, Buck attempted to face his tormentors” (London, 21). Buck is first taken from his sunny life in California to Alaska. He has to watch his friend suffer which pushes him to fight the indians. In the CAll of the Wild, Buck has to put up with his new society, which has lots of violence, harsh conditions, and proving he can still be a leader, by leading the sled group and protecting his new owners and friends. Buck learns even through hard times, you can still get through your hurdles.

In the book The Call of The Wild, after Buck gets taken he has to learn how to become a durable and courageous sled dog to satisfy his owners. As we saw in the book,

Buck learns his first lesson in survival when he is beaten. This is where he learns that only the strong and smart survive the wilderness, "He saw...that he stood no chance against a man with a club. " Buck gets beaten by the man with a club because that is how sled dogs are taught and disciplined. Buck knew he couldn't win against the man with a club; the man was much bigger and stronger than Buck and he knew he could do nothing but take the beating.

Every day Buck has another obstacle to face in order to stay alive. In The Call of The Wild, Jack London uses the character, Buck, to illustrate the theme of survival. Buck was forced to do something he knew nothing about, being a sled dog. Shortly after he was taken from his home he was bought and forced to be a sled dog, trying to learn from the other dogs in the team. He eventually gets the hang of it and as his strength increases he becomes one of the best on the team.

The author of The Call of the Wild, Jack London, heavily influenced the literary world with his inspirational works, specifically surrounding the theme of Naturalism. London followed the same theme, among others, in many of his works, focusing on how the environment affects its inhabitants and the details of the environment itself. The descriptions of nature London took the time to include in his books and the way they affect the story is what makes his works truly remarkable. He strongly committed himself to his works and put a great deal of effort into researching them to ensure accuracy. In The Call of the Wild, there are three main themes that are made evident: naturalism, coming of age, and loss of innocence. Naturalism is what London is most known for, and is shown through his attention to the surroundings of his characters. Coming of age was displayed through specific life changing events that altered Buck’s perspective. And finally, loss of innocence can be seen in the gradual, but sure decline of Buck’s morals.