The Call of the Wild:
Life lessons that are learned and thought
Introduction
As a student in Introduction to Literature I have had the opportunity to engage in reading and writing from the books listed: The Call of the Wild, Harry Potter and the sorcerer’s, and I know why the cage bird sings. These books have taught me that a message could be delivered in many perspectives. I have learned that a book is more than a story being told. It is up to the reader imagination to take then to that magical place. From these books I have choose to challenge myself to critic The Call of the wild by Jack London. It is an outstanding book that could be a positive feature for fifth grader to college students. The best thing about this book is that your view will change as you get older and wiser. For example I read this book in sixth grade and then again as a third year student and my views have change. Presently this book informs me that one’s life may end up different then the life they started. Also you change depends on the world that surrounds them such as people, environment, and life experiences just to name a few. I believe that The Call of the Wild is one of the best books written, because it educate the readers that throughout life you will continue to learn and be thought. In this paper I will explain Social Darwinist and the terms, technique I us to base the true agenda, and agree my thesis represented by quotes from the book. I will tackle number 3 for this take home midterm.
Social Darwinist and terms
Jack London writing technique influence his readers to consider Social Darwinist has an outlook on life. Merriam Webster’s explain Social Darwinist “to study of the human society, specifically a theory I human sociology that individuals or groups achieve advantages over others as the result of genetic or biological superiority. In class my classmates interpret it as “the survival of the fittest.” I agree with them, but I feel that you have to learn and gain from your mistakes. For example how could the strong survive without concurring adversity? London expresses it as, “And not only did he learn by experience, but instincts long dead becomes alive again. The domesticated generations fell from him. In vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed (page 40).
In the book Into The Wild the main character Alex did some questionable things. Although he did some unusual things, he was sane. Alex was well educated and highly respected by everyone who knew him.
Mark Twain is one of the best-known writers of all time, writing things that are most commonly known for being humorous and relaxed. In “The Lowest Animal”, Twain discusses his final outcome after completing a series of experiments he undertook at the London Zoological Gardens. His end result is Charles Darwin’s theory that man evolved from earlier ancestors, but flipped completely upside down. This theory is widely known, but Twain argues a different one. In this essay, he uses affective reasoning and facts from his experiments to back up his claim, all while using Aristotle’s appeals and logical fallacies.
Perkins, George B., and Barbara Perkins. "The Beast in the Jungle." The American Tradition in Literature (concise). 12th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009. 1148-1177. Print.
In the fiction of Huxley, the classical conditioning is one of the major concepts. In this science-fiction novel, Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre is the place where humans’ serial production and education is given. Through Pavlovian conditioning, the social class and duties of these people are predetermined. They are perfectly healthy and immunized to all kinds of sickness, even to aging. (i.e.: peop...
Sometimes a character may be pushed over the edge by our materialistic society to discover his/her true roots, which can only be found by going back to nature where monetary status was not important. Chris McCandless leaves all his possessions and begins a trek across the Western United States, which eventually brings him to the place of his demise-Alaska. Jon Krakauer makes you feel like you are with Chris on his journey and uses exerts from various authors such as Thoreau, London, and Tolstoy, as well as flashbacks and narrative pace and even is able to parallel the adventures of Chris to his own life as a young man in his novel Into the Wild. Krakauer educates himself of McCandless’ story by talking to the people that knew Chris the best. These people were not only his family but the people he met on the roads of his travels- they are the ones who became his road family.
Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.
Darwin and Evolution are inextricably linked in the minds of most people who have had the opportunity to study them in basic biology. However, Darwin's theories of selection and survival of the fittest have been applied to moral, economic, political, and other cultural aspects of society. Dennett briefly touched on some of the political and social ramifications of Darwin's theories in the final chapter of Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Other philosophers and thinkers have also adapted Darwin's evolutionary ideas, in order to apply them in a societal or cultural context. One great example of this adaptation of the biological concept of evolution, is the appearance of Social Darwinism during the 19th century.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a fascinating tale of a utopia with no possible way of ever being disrupted. That is, until Alpha-Plus Bernard Marx brings a savage into their type of normalcy. Along with this plot, symbols and countless complex concepts make the book an educational experience worthwhile. Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps to show these concepts to an inexperienced reader. Some of the many literary elements the author includes are how all works are connected, how every trip is a quest, and of course, irony.
Through journal entries, highlighted passages, stories of people’s encounters, and personal experiences, author Jon Krakauer attempts to reconstruct the life of a young transcendentalist man named Chris Johnson McCandless in the biographical novel Into the Wild. McCandless was a 24-year-old young man who completely severed his connection to the world, his family, and all of his tangible possessions in hope to survive off the land in Alaska. In the two years that led to his Alaskan Odyssey McCandless created a new life for himself and lived by the name Alexander Supertramp, in hope to leave his old life behind. Krakauer starts his novel “Into the Wild” by bluntly revealing to the audience that he had only survived 113 days and his remains were found two weeks after preceding his death. Rather than focusing on McCandless death, Krakauer focused on his life. Although Krakauer is biased, he proves to be a credible biographer and proves the assertions he made in his authors note.
The people in a society are often a product of the presiding government’s policy. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, many of the citizens are artificially made and act like robots. However, in a reservation next to the new world, there exists a boy named John who was born and raised like a human. John is excited to go the new world because he believes that life will be better there. When John enters the new world, he sees many abnormalities that go against his beliefs, and the citizens call him a savage because he is not one of them. By juxtaposing John, the so-called savage, against the “refined” society, Huxley demonstrates the extreme extent of humankind 's atypical actions under the subjugation of a totalitarian government.
Harmon, William, William Flint Thrall, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009. Print.
Many people, especially those living in democratic regions of the world, perceive themselves as fundamentally free, as they are able to make their own choices. In Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, most of the citizens of the World State are considered to lack this kind of freedom. Unlike the citizens of the World State, John the Savage is presented as one of the flawed characters we are able to relate to. Consequently, by contrasting those around him, he is presented as a free character. However, the actual freedom of his choice is limited by the factors in his environment that shape his personality. As a result, John is very similar to the members of the World State and for the same reason people today are very similar to John. By creating the paradoxical character of John the Savage, who is both free and conditioned, Aldous Huxley presents the idea that complete freedom in humans is a flawed construct and that people are a product of their environments.
Call of Wild is filled with positive and negative features of the story. It is a heartwarming tale but it is missing a climax and the pace of the story stays the exact same throughout the book. On the bright side the first chapter is told very well and vividly using words and phrases that make me feel as if I am placed right in the scene. Yet, the story just doesn't seem to be finished it feels as if there is a missing part. Jack London did a phenomenal job of describing the hunger, the pain and the setting of the dogs while they were in Alaska. I thought more detail could be added to parts of the story, for instance some of the smallest and least important facts are filled with the most detail. For example the gardener has almost a whole
Jack London brings man versus nature discussion into his story. The environment, however doesn't play against him for say, but does warn him from the very beginning. The audience can conclude that just like “the man” everyone is alone in the world - fighting for ourselves and the things we wish to acquire. The character created by London is isolated from the universe and fooli...
Klin, Candyce. “Darwinism as A Cultural Issue” Cedar Crest College, 2 June 2001. Web. 17