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The Call of the Wild
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, is a classic piece of American literature. The novel follows the life of a dog named Buck as his world changes and in turn forces him to become an entirely new dog. Cruel circumstances require Buck to lose his carefree attitude and somewhat peaceful outlook on life. Love then enters his life and causes him to see life through new eyes. In the end, however, he must choose between the master he loves or the wildness he belongs in.
The novel starts on Judge Miller’s property in Santa Clara Valley. Buck is the king of his domain and everyone knows it - from the lowly house dogs to the Judge’s sons. However, a gardener with a gambling problem soon ends Buck’s relaxed life. He sells Buck in order to obtain more money; Buck is sent west to be a sled dog and is cruelly mistreated along the way.
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.
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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.
The novel, The Call of the Wild, follows a four-year-old mixed Saint Bernard and Scottish shepherd, named Buck. In the beginning of the story, Buck lives in the home of Judge Miller, located at Santa Clara Valley, California. In Santa Clara, Buck lives a luxurious life. At the time of the story, gold is discovered in the North. With this discovery, the value of large dogs like Buck escalated dramatically. The dog’s value was due most to their ability to haul heavy sleds through the abundant snow. Unfortunately, Judge Miller’s servant, Manuel steals Buck to sell him to a band of dog-nappers to pay for his accumulating gambling debts. The ring of thieves that bought Buck is gaining a secure banking by trading the dog to northern executives. Buck, who has had an easy life so far, does not adapt well to the terrain as the other canines do. Buck does not easily tolerate the confinement and mistreatment of his new authority. Buck’s gains the misconception, which then is an aide that any man with a club is a dominator and must be obeyed.
To escape the reality of this undeniably complicated world, would be something so distant to even consider, yet it would not be impossible to. The film “Where the Wild Things Are” unconsciously portrays an attempt at this escape through the leading role, Max and his fellow Wild Things. Max’s Journey could be considered a quest for sanity and morality in the sense that his everyday life initiated him to escape this reality and experience a much preferable life in which would be considered his safe space, where he was unknowingly faced with his own deepest aspects of himself through the personalities and conflicts of others leading him to further learn his place in the world.
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.
like a real wolf, and he even would be strong enough to beat a wolf at
As Buck watched the other dogs chow down on their food, his breath warmed his chest as he let out a low growl to Spitz. The sly Spitz had taken Buck’s food and outsmarted him. Buck soon learned that living in this condition would require new knowledge and a quick thinking mind. Even though other dogs are almost as wild as he is, Buck possesses the quality of intelligence. In Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, his intelligence allows him to become the only member of his pack to survive because of his shrewd hasty actions, his ability to weigh out consequences, and his flexibility in adapting to his new environment.
First of all, the protagonist of The Call of the Wild, Buck, is a complete alpha dog. Realistically, nobody can catch up to Bucks skill level. Buck’s muscles became as hard as iron, and he grew callous to all ordinary
Buck is sold as a sled dog to several brutal owners who are trying to find gold in the Alaskan wilderness. To survive, Buck must adapt to this harsh environment. Through Buck’s success, Jack London shows that only the fittest can survive.“He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survived ” (london 74-75). In A Long Walk to Water Salva has to learn to step up and be a leader for his family and friends. Salva goes through many hard courses and realizes he must be brave and strong to survive. During his journey he helps many people by stepping up and being the boss, he saves many lives and shows great leadership throughout the novel. “Do you see those bushes? You need only to walk as far as those bushes”... “ Each time, he spoke to salva using his full name. Each time, Salva would think of his family and his village, and he was somehow able to keep his wounded feet moving forward, one painful step at a time” (Park
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.
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.
In April of 1992 a young man named Chris McCandless, from a prosperous and loving family, hitchhiked across the country to Alaska. He gave $25,000 of his savings to charity, left his car and nearly all of his possessions. He burned all the cash he had in his wallet, and created a new life. Four months later, his body was found in an abandoned bus. Jon Krakauer constructed a journalistic account of McCandless’s story. Bordering on obsession, Krakauer looks for the clues to the mystery that is Chris McCandless. What he finds is the intense pull of the wilderness on our imagination, the appeal of high-risk activities to young men. When McCandless's mistakes turn out to be fatal he is dismissed for his naiveté. He was said by some to have a death wish, but wanting to die and wanting to see what one is capable of are too very different things. I began to ask myself if Chris really wasn’t as crazy as some people thought. Then I realized it was quite possible that the reason people thought he was crazy was because he had died trying to fulfill his dream. If he had walked away from his adventure like Krakauer, people would have praised him rather than ridicule. So I asked the question, “How does Krakauer’s life parallel Chris McCandlesses?”
Jack London whose birth name is John Griffin was known for his fiction adventurous novels. Although he was a sailor, gold prospector, rancher and served his country in the Army he still have yet served the time in the wilderness of Alaska. Jack London wrote ‘’The Call of the Wild’’ as if he lived it before. His words jump at you so viciously you had no choice to swallow, savor, and meditate on your life just like Chris McCandless. In the book ways of reading page 429 the dark knight of the soul by Richard E. Miller said that Jon Krakauer wrote about how Jack London actually persuade Chris McCandless that he could possibly escape the bonds of the corporatized world and reach a space of greater calm.
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.
Chris McCandless and Buck serve as examples of the archetype of the wild through their experiences of leaving where they feel most comfortable and answering the call of the wild. They show that each experience is inimitable because the wild is unique to every individual. For Buck, the wild is a place outside of civilization and his dependence on man, where the external threats of nature exist and he must prove himself as a true animal with instincts for survival. In McCandless' case, the place outside of civilization is actually an escape from his fears because the wild for him is in relationships, where the threat of intimacy exists and he must learn to trust others for happiness. This is because for each of us, the wild is what we fear, a place outside of our comfort zone and, as McCandless' experience shows, not necessarily a physical place. To render to the call of the wild we must leave everything that makes us feel protected, and we must make ourselves completely vulnerable to the wild. McCandless and Buck show that in order to successfully respond to the call of the wild we must relinquish control and drop our guards, until ultimately the fear subsides and we find peace with ourselves as well as with our 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