Mercedes In The Call Of The Wild

Mia Tortorella

F block

Mr.Hickox

In the novel, The Call of the Wild by Jack London, Buck is a southern house dog who gets kidnapped and sold to many different people. He is introduced to the cold northern wild. In chapter five, Buck is sold to a couple of travelers Charles, Hal, and Mercedes and the reader learns how the narrator characterizes these people. In this chapter we meet Mercedes, wife of Charles and brother of Hal, she is not used to the conditions of the north and her helplessness begins to show through her actions. At the beginning of their journey, we see Mercedes often not being able to adjust to this way of life. The narrator explains,” She cried in general, and she cried in particular over each discarded thing.(67)” This example shows that she cannot live without her clothes and is quite a crybaby. She is also described a child-like and spoiled. According to the story,” She let her legs go limp like a spoiled child and sat down on the trail.(72)” This statement shows how they ruined a whole days travels just because she would not walk.

In the beginning, we can tell that Hal is an out of place in the wild with the sled dogs.The narrator explains,”Both men were manifestly out of place.(62)” Which means they were clearly out of place. The narrator also describes Charles for having some political views. He states,”nevertheless the quarrel was as likely to tend in that direction as in Charles political prejudices.(71)” To prove Charles was a quiet man it states,” and Charles eyes wistfully watered.(75)” He didn’t express a lot of feeling. In this chapter, we do not learn too much about Charles but he does have some