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Call of the wild character analysis essay
Call of the wild character analysis essay
The call of the wild jack london essay about character analysis of buck
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My Personal Response to The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The novel The Call of the Wild tells a story about how Buck, a domesdicated dog in the "sun-kissed" Santa Clara, managed to survive in the wilds of Klondike. Jack London conveyed many of his own ideas about living in this novel by telling readers what Buck went through to adjust to the harsh realities of life in the frosty North, where survival was the only imprerative.
Throughout Buck's adjustment there were several turning-points which forced him to understand better of the rules of the wild world. The first one was Curly's death. When Buck first arrived in the north, he watched a friendly dog named Curly brutally killed by a group of vicious sled dogs, only because of her trying to make friends with one of them. The tragic passing of Curly not only left Buck in a shock of the wolf manner of fighting, but also symbolized his departure from the old, comfortable life of a pet in a warm climate and his entrance into a new world where the only law was "the law of club and fang".
However, Curly's death was only a beginning of the life-and-death battles serving as markers of Buck's gradual integration into his new environment. When Curly was killed, Buck recognized that he was in a world where it was to kill or to be killed, where power was truly the power over life and death. So once Spitz,the lead dog of the pack, feared his's power, Buck realized that he must exert it in order to survive. All of the dogs either have power,and must exert it on order to survive, or they give up their power to a bigger and stronger dog and can merely hope that that dog will protect them.Buck's instinct deterred him from the latter choice. His appearance of the power must lead to the assertion of his power. The only other option for him was death. So Buck exerted his power to defeat Spitz and became the ruler of the pack.
Speaking of instinct, there came another turning-point of Buck's life. When Buck led the team into John Thornton's camp, he did not conciously know why he did not get up. He only had a vague feeling of impending doom, and this feeling saved his life when the overburdened sled fell through the ice along with its owners.
In the first chapter of Into the Wild, Krakauer is able to establish the tone by using certain words and techniques to further punctuate it. By the way he writes, it is clear that the tone is objective. He shows this by not inputting any of his own opinion or beliefs in the first chapter. Instead, he just went with the facts. In addition, his word choices show that the tone can also be classified as serious. “He persuaded the young hitchhiker to take the food as well” (7). Instead of “persuaded”, he could have simply used the word “offered” but he wanted to get it across clearly that Gallien really wanted him to accept the food and other equipment because he knew with the stuff Alex had that he would not make it out in the wilderness. This shows the seriousness of the situation. With careful word choices and techniques, Krakauer was able to set up the tone of the first chapter.
Throughout the novel, Christopher McCandless’s character changed over time. Up to McCandless’s death, he wanted to live with the wild and to be away from civilization as far as possible. He changes his mind when he writes “HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED” (189). His purpose of living in the wild is to live with freedom and do whatever he wishes to do. However, he realizes he was a “refuge in nature” (189) and intended to abandon his solitary life and rejoin the human community. It is assumed that McCandless died a preventable death because of his unpreparedness, but it is now undeniable that his adversity is what caused his mortality. “…McCandless simple had the misfortune to eat moldy seeds. An innocent mistake, it was nevertheless sufficient to end his life” (194). Had he not eaten the moldy seeds, he would have remained alive to tell the tale.
After an expedition into the North Buck discovers his new location and temporary home. Once arrived buck rapidly accommodates to his new environment. Buck masters many skills that are mandatory to survive in his new habitat. Buck discovers that he can rely on his animal instinct and basic intellect to acquire the essentials to exist in the tundra. One of the most significant concepts learned by Buck is that while being attacked his must take an offense to survive. Another essential concept Buck grasps is that he must be at constant alert and that his size makes him inferior to others. Buck’s quick adaptations assist in his survival.
Buck undertook the mission of learning how to survive in the wild. Buck, a domesticated dog, was stolen and forced into the Klondike. He had to learn how to survive so he adapted by following the law of Club and Fang. He respected
A quick learner, he adapts well to the sled dog life. His heritage also helped him become accustomed to the harsh Klondike climate. Some difficulties such as sore feet and a voracious appetite set him back at the beginning, but he speedily overcomes them. Buck goes through several masters and many thousands of miles. Along the way, he learns “The Law of Club and Fang”: never challenge a human that has a weapon, and once a fighting dog falls to the ground, roaming huskies quickly destroy it.
Buck had been raised in California, on the ranch of Judge Miller. There he had the run of the place and was loved and pampered by all. Unfortunately, one of the judge's workers had a gambling problem and stole Buck to sell him for fifty dollars. Buck fights being tied, caged, and beaten, but his efforts only frustrate him. He is put on a train and a boat, being shipped to Alaska to be used as a sled dog. Although he is miserable on the journey, Buck learns an important lesson - the law of the club. If he does not obey, he will be beaten.
The novella The Call of the Wild is a story of Buck overcoming challenges while being thrown into the real world and learning new traits like persistence and resilience. Protagonist Buck is a colossal St Bernards cross Scotch shepherd dog, transforms from a humble house dog and then eventually returns to a primordial state as a best of the wild. Along the way he is faced with an endless array of challenges. London achieves this by portraying Buck’s change in character in a manner that explores and incorporates diverse motifs.
In The Call of the Wild, Buck has a theoretical relationship with a man like no other relationship. The man, John Thornton, is a real outdoorsy, diligent man that knows how to treat fierceful canines right. John Thornton is Buck’s ideal master, and they never let each other out of their site (117). For example, when Buck hears his ancestors and other keen, primordial, primitive wolves howling for him to join the pack, at first, the dog simply denies it and stays at John Thornton’s camp near the mouth of the White River. Why would Buck not want to join his wolf friends? It is because Buck has the most unrealistic relationship and such love for just a man, meaning he would stay inside of his comfort zone with John Thornton, rather than joining the call of wildness (115). Having the evidence of Buck not joining his wolf friends and staying with a man proves Jack London is a nature faker due to his bogus writings of a
While a reader might argue that the men wanted to get rid of the dog because the dog was suffering, the men in fact desired to shoot the dog for the sake of themselves, not for the dog's misery. Disregarding Candy's affection toward the dog, they pressured Candy to let them shoot the dog. Carlson constantly kept insisting that if they shot the dog in the back of his head, "‘he'd never know what hit him'" (45). The ranchers' rapacious nature turns the intentional mercy killing into a
What is a perspective? A perspective is someone’s point of view. It could also mean a particular belief toward or a way of regarding something. In Chapter 14 of Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer says, “My suspicion that McCandless’s death was unplanned, that it was a terrible accident, comes from reading those few documents he left behind and from listening to the men and women who spent time with him over the final year of his life. But my sense of Chris McCandless’s intentions comes, too, from a more personal perspective” (134). This personal perspective that Krakauer talks about is his own viewpoint of how McCandless died, “From all the available evidence, there seemed to be little doubt that McCandless- rash and incautious by nature- had committed a careless blunder, confusing one plant for another, and died as a consequence. In the Outside article, I reported with great certainty that H. mackenzii, the wild sweet pea, killed the boy” (192). When comparing the experience of the
Jack London wrote the novel The Call of the Wild; it was also his first success (Feast). The Call of the Wild is an exciting beast fable which dramatizes the unforgiving harshness of existence but shows that suffering can lead to heroic self-awareness (Buckner). London was big on the philosophical idea of Naturalism. As well as having links with literary naturalism, "The Call of the Wild is also a mythical book informed throughout with such traditional myths as the Myth of the Hero." Although Buck is always a dog throughout the story, his predicament is highly relevant to the human condition in a novel beginning with concise patterns of description and moving toward an increasingly lyrical style (Williams). The protagonist of The Call of the Wild is a dog named Buck. He's part German Sheppard and half Saint Bernard, he's labeled the "hero" of the story. The story takes place primarily in the Klondike region of Alaska except for in the first chapter it takes place in the Santa Clara Valley of California. The story is centrally focused around Buck; if it wasn't for him not having any speaking parts the reader would think he was a human because of the personality traits he possesses. In this paper we will discuss traits such as Buck's ability to adapt, Buck's bravery, his mental and physical strength, his loyalty and love and his instinct of the wild.
Candy, a major representation of loyalty and sacrifice, is an old rancher who has a dog, which is very old. Some of the ranchers who stays with Candy cannot even think of what keeps Candy from killing the dog who "...stinks like Hell"(35) and is "...all stiff with rheumatism"(44). Since Candy had his old sheepdog ever since it was a puppy, Candy does not want the ranchers shooting his dog to death because Candy's loyalty to the dog keeps Candy from wanting to sacrifice his lifelong partner, the dog. This is portrayed in the quote "Well-hell! I had him so long. Had him since he was a pup"(44). It was not until Slim, the most honored man in the ranch, agrees with the ranchers that putting the dog down would be the best that Candy gives in. Even though Candy gave in to put his dog down, he was reluctant to let the ranchers shoot him. This is shown in the quote where Candy is talking to George, "I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog."(60). Up until this point Candy remained very loyal to his old dog. It was only the thought that this was best for the dog that allowed Candy to agree to put him down. This sacrifice tells us that there is loyalty even between man and dog.
In The Call of the Wild, Buck finds comfort in his relationships with man. When he is initially removed from Judge Miller's house in Santa Clara Valley, he is given his first exposure to the wild where, "every moment life and limb were in peril" (London 31). But soon he finds himself not entirely ready to leave civilization and answer the call of the wild, because he must first experience love. Buck establishes a relationship with John Thornton, and "love, genuine passionate love, was his for the fir...
The death of Candy’s dog at the hands of Carlson and his luger could make the reader believe that Carlson is a vicious murderer who just wanted the dog dead when the death of the dog was just what Candy wanted and what was best for the dog. Candy’s dog had reached a point where he had no teeth, could barely walk, and was far past his days when he could run freely and herd sheep. Slim agreed with Carlson about killing the dog
Jack London was an American man of many talents, which included being an author, journalist and a social activist, despite being minimally educated. Nonetheless, he was undoubtedly most recognized for his short stories and novels that fixated on the harsh, cold climates that Mother Nature crafted. London focused on a deeper level of the wild and the literary devices in his work are littered throughout every one of his novels and short stories, including The Call of the Wild, White Fang, as well as “To Build a Fire.”