Jack London's The Klondike Gold Rush

Born in 1876 in San Francisco, California, Jack London, a talented author, was mostly self-educated because his family was impoverished. At the age of 21, in an attempt to get rich quickly, he accompanied his sister’s husband to search for gold from the Klondike Region like many people during the Second Industrial Revolution, where rich factory owners employed workers from the lower classes with low wages; thus, these people were forced to look for sources of income from other places. During the mid-1890’s, the Klondike Gold Rush, situated between the remote regions of Canada’s Yukon Territory and Alaska, offered hope for desperate people to change the conditions of their lives. Situated between two rivers, most of the gold was found buried

In nature, there are a variety of organisms within the same species who have better-suited adaptations to their environment while some do not. The finches that Darwin studied in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador, for example, had different physical traits that suited them specifically for their environment, the resources that were available; consequently, the finches who do not have the necessary adaptations die off eventually, unable to reproduce a new generation. With additional research and studies, Darwin formalized this theory on the basis of evolution: “a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection, entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of less-improved forms.” (Darwin XIV). When a certain species produces too much offspring, they will all fight for the same food or resource that may not be in an ample supply. The organisms who are apt for survival do so by changing their diets, moving to another environment, or learn how to fight for it, but those who are unable to change for some reason become extinct and cannot reproduce because they cannot improve. If an entire species cannot survive under the conditions of its surroundings, then it will cease to exist. This can be seen in The Call of the Wild after the team of dogs gets transferred to Hal, Charles, and Mercedes. After enduring long

Personalities, a combination of dispositions, are not physical; they are not visible, but they determine the actions and thought process of an organism. Anything that the organism is affected by will change its personality. Likewise, the French philosopher states: “Our personality, which is being built up each instant with its accumulated experience, changes without ceasing.” (Bergson). This means that personality is constantly affected by those around it. Personalities are influenced by outside sources, and these changes to it foster a greater growth of knowledge and understanding. An example of this can be seen in the beginning of London’s novel when Buck first arrives into the real world. After he is released from a cage of two days, he rages and retaliates against a man in a red sweater who in return, nearly beats him to death with a club. Afterwards, London writes: “He saw, once for all, that he stood no chance against a man with a club. He had learned the lesson, and in all his after life he never forgot it. That club was a revelation” (London 10). This event shifts his attitude towards men with clubs: he learns that humans with this weapon are far more superior than he is, so he dares not to infuriate a man again. His choice to stay passive against them is built in to his personality, a choice that further develops the way he thinks about