Major Themes In George Orwell's Into The Wild

As we read the book, we learned and did assignments about the different themes that are found within it. Themes are usually the hidden messages between the passage and they show us what the book is about. Throughout the book we follow many of Bucks adventures that reflect the different messages he learns and struggles with on the way. The major themes of this novel are nature vs civilization, ancestral memory, and man vs animals. The first major theme that we see in the entire book is the controversy between nature and civilization. By nature, Jack London is referring to the wilderness and not just physical nature but also the feeling of being wild and free. By civilization, he means the humans and the people around him that have lived with him and

The reason why there is a conflict regarding these two topics is because of Bucks circumstances. Buck often feels like things in his environment are “calling” him into the wild and they want him to let go of everyone that he has so that he can run free. The reason why this becomes a problem for him is because going into the wild is what his heart desires but there are so many things that he

Buck grew up in a very modern family where he lived an easy life and when he was kidnapped, he had to do what he could to survive. Our ancestors obviously lived in poor conditions like wild beasts that had to survive one way or another and that is what Buck had to do. He was reminded of his ancestors in many ways but the one that was the most vivid was when he saw the “hairy man”. Buck would dream that by the fireplace there was a predominantly nude man who was hairy and sat in a weird way, he had “...ragged and fire-scorched skin handing part way down his back, but on his body there was much hair”(London 47). This man symbolizes something like a caveman or ancestors which was just another reminder to Buck of how he had learned to