Call of the Wild

In this year of literature I have read many books, my favorite of them was Call of the Wild by Jack London. The book was about a dog named Buck, a cross between a St. Bernard and a Scotch Shepherd, who was brought out of Santa Clara Valley, California, away from his master Judge Miller, up to the cold, North regions of Canada as a result of being sold by a treacherous servant of the Judge. Buck was first bought by 2 French Canadians who had gathered a sled team and were going to the Klondike Region. Throughout this time, Buck adjusts to the cold hard life of being a sled dog, and along the way to their destination, Buck had a constant rivalry with the leader of the team, named Spitz. He and Buck soon engaged in a bloody fight in which Buck triumphed, after which the rest of the team tore Spitz apart and Buck emerged as the leader of the team. Shortly after that, they arrive at their destination and were sold. They were bought by a man who delivered mail to mining locations, though this job was very tiring for the team, and one of the sled dogs was even shot after becoming sick. After being sold yet again, the team prepared to head north with a group of three inexperienced gold seekers. At first the sled dogs were overfed and mistreated, as their new masters refused to listen to the advise of other more experienced locals. By the time the second half of their journey came, the food had almost run out as a result of not conserving it at the beginning. One day, the group came across a man named John Thornton, who warned them about crossing the river, paying no heed they urged the dogs on but Buck, seeing the danger refused to move in his weakened state, and one of the men began to beat him with a club, this enraged John Thornton who decided to take the dog. He and Buck got a scenic view of the group as they fall through the ice and drowned. After spending time with John, Buck grew to love him, and along with some friends of Johns they went to mine for gold. At night Buck could hear wolves howling, one time he followed the sound and met one of them. Sadly when Buck returned he found that his beloved master, John Thornton, was killed by the Yeats, a tribe of Northern Indians, and after this, Buck attacked and killed many of them, including their chief. Once he had done this he decided that would answer the “Call of the Wild” and go to live with the wolves.

            The story Call of the Wild is an exciting one that I have really enjoyed, my favorite thing about it though, is how Buck had such a good character, Jack London truly captured the narrative in his writing and I think that this is one of the reasons that the story Call of the Wild is so popular.