Chapter 7 - 6

06 Literature

The Call of the Wild

The story of a dog that is kidnapped, beaten, put to work, and forced to live in such harsh conditions that he turns on humans and kills one can hardly be considered an advertisement for the natural friendship between man and dog.

But Jack London’s classic novel The Call of the Wild is not an indictment of how humans treat animals.

Rather, the story told from the perspective of a dog, Buck, is a metaphor for human experience.

Since Buck represents humankind, it is not humans’ relationship to animals that is at issue, but the struggle to balance the comforts of civilized life against the ancient longing for the wild.

It is true that the humans Buck encounters after he is forced out of his leisurely domesticated life are nearly all cruel and stupid.

The dog traders who take him to Alaska to work on sled teams beat him to teach obedience.

He is bought first by mail carriers who overwork the dogs, shooting one that becomes ill.

He then works for a trio of inexperienced gold prospectors who overload the dog sled, bicker with each other, and end up plunging to their deaths through the ice because of their foolish mistakes.

However, Buck is saved from being beaten to death by a wise prospector named John Thornton, who earns the dog’s devotion and love.

Buck later returns the favor, saving Thornton from drowning.

Even after Thornton is killed by Indians, freeing Buck to join a pack of wolves, the dog returns every year to the place where his master was killed to mourn his death.

The relationship between Buck and Thornton forms an important counterpoint in the novel, not only to the insensitive humans in Buck’s early life, but also to the growing attraction of living in the wild.

The novel’s main theme is Buck’s inborn attraction to the ways of his ancestors, which he begins to learn while working outdoors with the sled team.

Even though this leads to his transformation into a bloodthirsty pack animal, the novel portrays the change as positive, because the domestic dog thus fulfills his highest destiny.

In other words, violence and savagery in the novel must be understood in the context of a larger theme.

Similarly, rather than understand the characters in The Call of the Wild literally as humans or dogs, we need to consider the novelist’s deeper purpose in telling the story.

Buck is portrayed with human qualities.

He experiences shame, wonder, and justice.

We witness his life through human eyes.

The fact that Buck ends up torn between his love for a man, Thornton, and the call of his wild ancestors implies that there is something in the relationship between humans and dogs that is as compelling and nearly as ancient, as instinct.

In fact, as he is rediscovering the ways of the wild, Buck has visions of the humans around him wearing animal skins and living in caves or trees, and he runs alongside, protecting them.

His relationship with Thornton is a realization of this vision, so Buck finds it difficult to leave Thornton, even as he longs to be primitive.

The obstacles that Buck encounters in The Call of the Wild do not point to the ignorance and savagery of humans versus the innocence of dogs as much as the struggle faced by all creatures to attain highest calling, which the novelist portrays as fulfillment of their original nature.

As Buck’s friendship with Thornton shows, this does not necessarily exclude attachment to the world of humans−the civilized world.

But greatness and mastery do mean choosing the more demanding path in the and.

Jack London’s classic American novel ultimately supports the primitive forces in humans and beasts above the forces of civilization, which appeared so mighty at the time the book was written in 1903.

Despite the conflicts Buck faces, the novel does not promote animals as nobler than humans.

Both humans and dogs can be violent out of stupidity or necessity.

Either can also live lazy lives of comfort or take a nobler path toward fulfilling their destiny.

Because they share this position of choice between civilization and the wild, humans and dogs can have a relationship based on mutual decency or servitude.