Call Of The Wild Setting Essay

The most key component of Jack London's Call of the Wild is its particular setting. While reading the novel, the reader discovers the dangers, trials, and difficulties of the Alaskan wilderness. Clearly, the reader would not discover these elements in a plain of Nevada or the streets of Los Angeles. For a story set in one of these places, the plot-line would be very different. These dangers of the Alaskan wilderness are what make the story into a great work. This novel is a case where the story is based on the setting. For instance, “Dog and man watched it crawling along over the ice. Suddenly, they saw its back end drop down, as into a rut, and the gee-pole, with Hal clinging to it, jerk into the air. Mercedes' scream came to their ears. They saw Charles turn and make one step to run back, and then a whole section of ice give way and dogs and humans disappear. A yawning hole was all that was to be seen. The bottom had dropped out of the trail.” This scene would be entirely changed if Hal, Charles, and

“At the end of this day they made a bleak and miserable camp on the shores of Lake Le Barge. Driving snow, a wind that cut like a white-hot knife, and darkness had forced them to grope for a camping place. They could hardly have fared worse. At their backs rose a perpendicular wall of rock, and Perrault and Francois were compelled to make their fire and spread their sleeping robes on the ice fo the lake itself. . . . A few sticks of driftwood furnished them with a fire that thawed through the ice and left them to eat supper in the dark.” The reader sees how impossible it is for these conditions to be present anywhere but here. Ice, snow, and biting winds are all crucial to the setting and are part of what make this book. They contribute greatly to the animals' fatigue and broken-down state which are also essential for the