The CALL of the WILD
by Jack London
characters
- Buck
- John Thornton
- Hal
- Charles
- Mercedes
Buck
A powerful dog, grew up upon Judge Miller’s estate in California’s Santa Clara Valley. He would be the one to call him the only fully developed character in the story. He is the only character whose past we know anything about. Buck comes across far more than a creature of instinct, he carries a capacity for mystical experiences a relationship to Thornton. While arriving to the north, he gets beaten, kicked and forced to pull sleds through the Canadian wilderness. The experience makes him stronger and he wins back his life. Buck’s journey is not an easy path; it is a struggle, with obstacles, from the long duel with his rival Spitz to the folly of Hal, Mercedes, and Charles. Buck is trying to fulfill his highest possible destiny.
Overview
The story is set in Canada during the 1890s. The Klondike Gold Rush time period when strong sled dogs were in high demand. Buck’s devotion to Thornton is total. Buck is mixed with an attraction to the wild, and he feels as if he is being called away from civilization and into the wilderness. This feeling grows stronger when he accompanies Thornton and his friends in search for the gold mine hidden deep in the Canadian forest. Buck always returns to Thornton in the end, until, one day, he comes back to civilization to find that Indians have attacked and killed his master. Buck then attacks the Indians, killing several and scarring the rest. Buck then heads off into the wild, where he becomes the leader of a pack of wolves. Buck every year returns to the place where Thornton died, to show his sorrow to his master before returning to his life in the wild.