Jack London's The Call of the Wild

Jack London's The Call of the Wild concerns the adventures of a dog named Buck. The story takes place during the time of the Alaskan gold rush in the late 1890s. At the beginning of the novel, Buck lives a free and easy life on Judge Miller's ranch in Santa Clara, California. This peaceful existence is interrupted when one of Judge Miller's workers steals Buck in order to pay off a gambling debt (London The Call of the Wild 23). Buck is sold to dog-kidnappers who transport him to Alaska to work on a sled team. On the dog-sled team, Buck quickly learns the laws of survival of the frozen North. He soon becomes the leader of the team, by overcoming the dog Spitz in a savage fight to the death. However, Buck's adventures take a turn for the worse when the team is purchased by three incompetent gold seekers: Charles, his wife Mercedes, and his brother-in-law Hal. The dogs are nearly driven and beaten to death when a kind man named John Thornton steps forward to rescue Buck. With his new master, Buck learns to experience love for a human being for the first time in his life. Buck helps Thornton win a large bet by pulling a thousand-pound load, and then goes with his master and two other men "into the East after a fabled lost mine" (London 86). After Thornton is killed by Yeehat Indians, Buck joints a pack of wolves and is gradually "transformed into the immortal Ghost Dog of Northland legend" (Labor 278).

Many writers have commented on the theme of this unique story

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alive" (49). A bit later in the story, Buck undergoes an even greater initiation in which he experiences a symbolic "death and rebirth" (Labor 277). This takes place when Charles, Mercedes and Hal overload the sleds and drive the dogs almost to death. Just as the cruel owners are about to beat Buck to death, John Thornton steps in and rescues the dog. This is the symbolic rebirth which sets the stage for the final steps in Buck's mythical development. According to Labor, the character John Thornton relates to the bildungsroman idea by serving as "the benign helper who traditionally appears in the Myth to lead the hero toward his goal" (277). In this role, Thornton leads Buck further toward his destiny by taking him on a quest for a legendary "lost mine" in the depths of the frozen wilderness. After Thornton's death, Buck is left free to fulfill the ultimate phase of his development. He joins a wolf pack and leads a hunt for a huge bull moose. Watson notes that the killing of the bull moose is Buck's "final initiation ordeal" (50). After this experience, Buck is elevated to the status of a mythical figure among the Yeehat Indians of the region. It may be noted that all of Buck's initiatory experiences relate to the vi

Category: Literature - J