How Is Buck Developed In The Call Of The Wild

“Buck stood and looked on, the successful champion, the dominant primordial beast, who had made his kill and found it good” (36). This excerpt is written to show the protagonist’s transition into a more wild nature while still maintaining his intelligence. Jack London’s adventure fiction novel The Call of the Wild is a skillfully composed story that follows Buck, a St. Bernard-Scotch shepherd mix dog, when he is taken from his easy life in coastal California and brought to work with a pack of other large sled dogs. He is then forced to learn the way of the wild and slowly parts from his domesticated nature. Buck is able to adapt to his new life by using his clever thinking and imagination. It is a masterfully written tale and London’s use of

Buck wanted it “that pride which holds dogs in the toil to their last gasp and breaks their heart if they are cut out of the harnesses” (31). Buck and his fellow pack members all feel immense pride in their work, which is in itself an example of anthropomorphism. Buck, however, feels this on an even deeper level, fueling the connection between his mind and a human’s. Buck has already adapted to the way of the sled dog and leans on many of the instincts of his ancestors that have been uncovered, but he still has that same kingly aura he had while living in California. With this, London clearly exhibits that Buck’s desire for superiority is just as much an instinct as his ability to kill to eat. Though humans today may not have the same urges Buck has to hunt their prey, it is very possible for them to have that desire for power. London perfectly balances that line between the wild and domestication, helping the reader connect to the story. Nearing the end of the book, Buck is enraged when the only man he has ever loved, John Thornton, is killed by

He left in order to satiate his hunger for the wild. When he senses something has gone wrong at camp, he returns to find every resident of the camp killed by a tribe of indians (the Yeehats) inhabiting the region. Buck sees the Yeehats dancing around the remains of a wooden lodge, and, in a maddened state, rushes at them and kills without mercy: “He sprang at the foremost man (it was the chief of the Yeehats), ripping the throat wide open till the rent jugular spouted a fountain of blood. He does not pause to worry the victim, but rips in passing, with the next bound tearing wide the throat of a second man” (75). London attributes a rage so deep that Buck kills without thought to avenge Thornton. This trait shows the reader the lengths Buck will go for someone he loves, much like a human. Dogs are not always thought of as having deep enough feelings to truly love. Someone may love their dog on their own, but most of the time they don’t feel like their dog loves them as they do. A little while earlier in the story, London had already directly stated to the reader that Buck loved