Buck's Evolution In The Call Of The Wild

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Over the course of The Call of the Wild written by Jack London, Buck’s several owners help shape the dog that he turns out to be. Buck is a large and handsome dog who is part St. Bernard and part Scotch sheep dog. All throughout the book, the pack of dogs travel to various places and overcome many difficult obstacles in their journey across the Arctic North. These difficulties lead to Buck becoming more like his primitive ancestors, which is a main theme of the book. Although the owners are only mentioned for a short period of time each (excluding Thornton), each of them made a huge and immediate impact on the story and Buck himself. There were four main owners who contributed to Buck’s evolution, including the Judge, Perrault and Francois, the trio consisting of Mercedes, Hal, and Charles, and John Thornton. Overall, these people had a profound influence on Buck and his new way of life. Buck’s owners frequently change, yet their differences …show more content…

London does a terrific job in trying to convince the reader that Buck has the two different personalities: savage and primordial and sweet and loving. The side most apparent was the primordial dog because most of the owners encouraged Buck to use that part of him, but, there still is the side to Buck of the cute and cuddly house dog, as described in chapter one. Despite the main theme of the book of Buck’s evolution into a fearless dog, the book ends up being on the banned books list. The reason for this may be that the events and people in the book tolerate animal cruelty, which is a growing problem in today’s society. Many people speaking out against animal cruelty, testing, and confinement. Buck goes through similar things to these animals today go through, which is believed by some to be inappropriate to have in a library. Ultimately, Buck changes and evolves as a result of different ownership styles that occur throughout the course of the