Preview

Summary, Plot, Moral Values, Themes the Call of the Wild

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
587 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary, Plot, Moral Values, Themes the Call of the Wild
Summary: Buck, the lead character, is a much loved and pampered dog living a comfortable life on a ranch under the loving care of his owner, a wealthy judge who makes his pet want for nothing. Then one day, Buck's life takes a dramatic turn when he's sold off by an unscrupulous servant to pay a debt. He travels in a cage for the first time and is sold in Alaska, where dog-sleds are the primary mode of transportation. Buck has to quickly adapt to his new life as a sled dog and learn how to survive in a dog-eat-dog world where the competition is tough and often deadly. The basic comforts he had hitherto taken for granted, namely abundant food and warm shelter, are replaced by the bare necessities for survival which have to be fought for tooth and claw. Buck learns quickly, his physique and natural intelligence standing him in good stead, all the while improving as a sled dog and ultimately deposing the pack leader, his arch enemy: Spitz. His life changes sharply yet again, as he is sold off to Hal and his wife, people who know nothing about sledding or caring for animals till at last he is rescued by a kind and loving man, his last master: John Thornton. At last Buck finds a master who loves him besides caring for or pampering him. However this happiness is not built to last, his master is murdered by the vicious Yee-Hats, a tribe of brutal savages. In the midst of his anguish, Buck has to find his true self, he has to listen to the Call of the Wild and to answer it to go leaping towards his destiny... Get this e-book now at a very low price. Summer Promotion at eBooks.com! Take $15 off on $100 or more purchase. Use code: SUMMEREBOOKScp. Valid until Sep 22, 2012

Social/Historical context: The book was published in 1903, the time of the gold rushes and adventures in vast, unexplored tracts of land. A time before the full use of machinery and sophisticated technology, when often, dog sleds and carts were the only means of communication in the wilderness. London's
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Compare and Contrast Call of the Wild Essay
    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Compare and Contrast Call of the Wild Essay

    The book and the movie of The Call of the Wild are fairly similar. In both the movie and the book, Buck first lives on Judge Miller’s estate and is kidnapped by Manuel, the gardener. Buck is sold, then disciplined and learns the law of the club. Francois and Perrault, two French men, buy Buck and Buck quickly learns how to pull in a sled. On the way to Dawson, Buck and the lead dog Spitz have a rivalry and Buck ends up killing Spitz. After he kills Spitz, Buck becomes lead dog and there is no more trouble between the dogs. When Buck and his team become too tired to pull any longer they are sold to Hal, Charles, and Mercedes and are worked very hard. Some of the dogs die because of the humans’ lack of knowledge of the dogs. They stumble into John Thornton’s camp and John Thornton advises Hal not to take any chances on the rotten ice, but Hal wouldn’t listen. When Hal starts beating Buck, Thornton attacks Hal and takes Buck from him. Hal starts the sled and as Hal, Charles, Mercedes, and the remaining sled dogs go across the frozen river, the ice breaks and they all drown.…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Into The Wild Theme Essay
    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Into The Wild Theme Essay

    Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is the story of Christopher McCandless, a determined young man who chose to embark on an “Alaskan Odyssey” in order to live in nature on his own terms. Into the Wild conveys the nature of the relationship between self and society by examining McCandless’s reflections on self, society, and nature. In connection with these themes, “Survivor Type” by Stephen King and “Nature” by Ralph Waldo Emerson add relevant analysis of the complex relationship between one’s natural self and society. These works all present similar themes: that one’s actions and character change drastically in nature, and there is a distinct difference between one’s natural self and the self that one presents in society.…

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Call Of The Wild: Movie Analysis
    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Call Of The Wild: Movie Analysis

    David Fallon’s film, Call of the Wild, is movie surrounding the adventures of a young man and his dog. I watched the film on my computer on July 1st, 2015. The movie begins with a kidnapped dog, named Buck, being auctioned off. Buck immediately steals the attention of young Miles, the other protagonist in the movie. Buck initially works as a sled dog for a Yukon mail carrier. On his first job, Buck faces severe weather, wolf attacks, and a fight with Spitz, the team’s lead dog. The harsh conditions kill every dog except for Buck and leaves the mail carrier in a near-death condition. Buck saves the mail carrier, but is sold again to two travelers, Hal and Mercedes. Miles is hired as a travel guide for the duo. Hal mistreats the dogs, refuses to listen to Miles, and eventually causes his own death. Mercedes and Miles are able to survive the journey with Buck’s aid.…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Call Of The Wild Analysis
    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Call Of The Wild Analysis

    First, Buck begins hunting wild game. For example, he kills and also eats a bull moose and black bear alone. Since Buck can kill and eat on his own, he is on his way to becoming wild. Second, Buck kills the Yeehats after they attack and kill Thorton and his friends at camp. For instance, Buck rips the throats of the people of the tribe who have done wrong to him and his former family. Since buck kills humans, he is very close to becoming completely wild. Last, Buck answers the call by joining a wolf pack. For example, the pack surrounds Buck and tries to attack Buck, but stops and accept him as a part of the pack. Since the wolf pack accepts Buck he takes lead of the pack and becomes the famous “Ghost Dog”. In conclusion, Buck becomes wild and fulfills his quest to find his true…

    • 690 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Call Of The Wild Analysis
    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Call Of The Wild Analysis

    Everybody has had their good and bad times, and usually with their bad times they have to persevere. In The Call of the Wild, Buck was torn from his loving, peaceful life and forced into hard labor, hatred, and regret as he got to know how the wild works. On the other hand, my dad had to persevere when his sister and niece died and he had to learn how to get through that hard time in his life just like Buck had to do.…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Call of the Wild Theme Project
    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Call of the Wild Theme Project

    “…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.” How did Buck, an ordinary domestic dog living in the sun-kissed Santa Clara valley in California, go from being the favored of a wealthy judge, to the head of the wolf pack in eastern Alaska? Buck makes many enemies along the way, but he also makes friend that will always have an impact on him. Learns lessons he would need to know to survive this treacherous land. Even finds out what it’s like to live in the foot-steps of his ancestors, and Buck loves every minute of it. He loves the feel of being an un-domestic wolf in the wild. All he has to do; is heed the Call of the Wild.…

    • 1368 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Old Yeller
    • 16937 Words
    • 45 Pages

    Old Yeller

    While the relationship between a boy and his dog is a persistent theme in children and young adults’ as well as American culture, Old Yeller is not merely a boy-and his dog story, but also a dramatic expression of the meaning of adulthood Set in a settlement on the edge of civilization in the Texas frontier, Old Yeller is a novel about a boy named Travis, his family and their day-to-day lives on their farm in the 1860s, a dangerous place with all kinds of perilous forms of nature such as wild boars, wolves, and rattlesnakes, which threaten this family on what must have felt like…

    • 16937 Words
    • 45 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Call of the Wild
    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Call of the Wild

    One of the most striking aspects of The Call of the Wild is that the protagonist is a dog which London endows with human characteristics. His human-like pride and drive for leadership caused him to adapt and conquer, even to the extreme of killing the existing leader of the dog pack Raised as a domestic dog, Buck was out of his element in the raw north, but he was a quick learner and adapted to his surroundings by learning from the other dogs. One example of this is when he immediately learned to dig a hole in the snow and slept there to keep warm just like the experienced dogs in the pack. Throughout the book, Buck hears a “call from the wild”; he has a yearning to go live in the woods, hunt, and howl with the wolves.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Diction In The Call Of The Wild
    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Examples Of Diction In The Call Of The Wild

    In the story The Call Of The Wild By Jack London, Buck, a dog from the South Santa Clara Valley who lives an easy trouble free life, is captured and sold off into the Alaskan Gold Rush Force as a sled dog. He passes through the hands of many owners, some of which he loves and some of which he hates, but they always pass out of his life good or bad. At the end of the story his favorite new owner John Thornton is killed by Indians along with Buck’s companions Skeet and Nig. This causes Buck to become more indigenous and eventually leave all his domestic traces behind. This novel contains an abundance of diction to help set the tone and mood.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Call of the Wild: Theme
    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Call of the Wild: Theme

    The Call of the Wild is a about a dog named Buck. More importantly, his transformation from the old Buck, the civilized Buck, to the new ferocious Buck, who must learn to adapt to the dangerous life of the Sled Dog, where survival is the only goal. In The Call of the Wild, determination and dominance are on a basic level of survival. Buck is determined to survive, but also to be leader. Buck learns the hard way that “kill or be killed” is the only way of life among the dogs of the Arctic, the moment he steps off the boat and watches as his friend Curly, Newfoundland, was the victim. “They closed in upon her, snarling and yelping in a mass attack. Within seconds, Curly was dead” (Pg 28). The theme of this story is “Survival of the Fittest.” The idea that species adapt and change by natural selection with the best suited mutations becoming dominant. In other words, animals who are born with better traits are the ones who survive. Four words that describe Buck’s will have to accommodate to for if he wants to survive. But while you might argue that Buck was born with all the right genes that lead to his survival. “His father, Elmo, had been a huge St. Bernard… for his mother, Shep, had been a Scotch shepherd dog” (Pg 2), the truth is, while his survival had to do with his breed and genetic traits, it had more to do with his determination to dominate and will to survive. Only by sheer determination is Buck, our protagonist able to survive through the bitterness of the wilderness and the sled dog way of life. We see this struggle particularly in Buck’s conflict with Spitz, in his determination to become the lead dog on Francois and Perrault’s team, and, at the end of the novel, in the way that he battles his way to the leadership of the wolf pack. Buck does not merely want to survive; he wants to…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Buck's Development as a Sled Dog in Jack London's Call of the Wild
    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Buck's Development as a Sled Dog in Jack London's Call of the Wild

    house dog to a sled dog. Buck, being forced to adapt in order to survive, has made him become…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Chris Mccandless 'Themes In The Book Into The Wild'
    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Chris Mccandless 'Themes In The Book Into The Wild'

    Through out the book, Chris is prompted to make many small decisions in order to determine how he will live the rest of his life. From the moment he decided to go onto the road from Virginia to the West Coast, then landing in Alaska, he made small mistakes due to ignorance to fine details. During the most part of the book, Christopher McCandless is struggling without himself knowing of it. Many people he sees and meets along the way have warned him about the dangers of traversing the wilderness, alone with very little supplies and experience. After journeying into the deep Alaskan wilderness, Chris's actions show that with ignorance to small details, suffering will soon follow.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Mccandless 'Into The Wild': Comparing The Book And Movie
    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Mccandless 'Into The Wild': Comparing The Book And Movie

    The life of Christopher Johnson McCandless has been a source of both inspiration and controversy throughout North America. His trek into the Alaskan wilderness, which led to his eventual demise, left him remembered as heroic and reckless, a brilliant artist and an irresponsible egotist; but regardless of what one’s opinion is on Chris McCandless, there is no denying that he is interesting and has inspired a variety of works in the media, including author Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, which was adapted into a film in 2007. Though both the novel and film follow the same storyline, the two have their inevitable differences.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Brief Summary Of Buck's Journey
    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Brief Summary Of Buck's Journey

    Judge Miller’s dog, Buck, a half sheepdog and half St. Bernard, was recently captured by a gardener on the estate, and was sold to dog traders. He was beat in an effort to instill obedience into him. Soon after, Buck is sent to the Klondike region. Two mailmen, named Francois and Perrault, take him as their property. As Buck assimilates to his new sled-dog life, he develops a rivalry with Spitz, one of the lead dogs on his team. One day, Buck gets into a fierce encounter with Spitz, where Buck ends up killing Spitz, and subsequently, becomes the new leader of the team. Francois and Perrault, being inexperienced, force the dogs to carry much heavier loads, resulting in one dog becoming ill. The mailmen send the group of dogs to an assembly of gold hunters, Charles, Hal, and Mercedes. The new masters treat the dogs perfunctorily, and end up falling through a section of ice, pulling in the dogs and the humans into a frozen lake. The dogs are then pulled into John Thornton’s camp, a caring master whom Buck treats with devotion. However, a growing attraction for the wild pulls him away from society. He makes friends with wolves, bears, and moose while the men look for gold. In a battle with the Yeehats, an Indian…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Dogs Could Teach Me
    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Dogs Could Teach Me

    The story, “The Dogs Could Teach Me,” by Gary Paulson, and the article, “The Last Great Race on Earth,” by Diana Nyad, tell stories about mushers in Alaska, and their dog sled teams. They are both about the journey, and the love between a dog and a human. Mushers in Alaska learn the extent of a dog’s loyalty when they take them out on a trail; they form a bond, and feel that they would die for their dogs, and that the dogs feel the same.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics