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CHAPTER-III
THE CALL OF THE WILD
The immediate inspiration for the story The Caii of the Wild had come
from two different dogs. One of them was real and another was fictional.
Marshall and Louis Bond, who had come to the Klondike from the ranch of their
father, Judge Bond, near Santa Clara Valley, with their two dogs, inspired
London to write on them. One of the dogs was Jack and was greatly admired by
London. He took that real dog and modified to his taste and named Buck, based
on scientific and evolutionary determinants. The major themes and motifs of
Buck are determinism, survival and violence. The theme of determinism is of
course basic. It carries the idea that natural law and environmental influence
which are more powerful than the will of Buck. The theme of survival grows out
of the application of determinism to biological competition; the notion that
survival is the supreme motive in animal life provides a point of view from
which all emotion, motivation and conflict may be approached. The theme of
violence grows with the transfer of emphasis from tradition (ultimately
supernatural tradition) to survival. Animal survival is a matter of violence, of
force against force (environmental force against hereditary force). Due to that
influence also London has created a character Buck based on truth. Buck is a
pleasant big dog but one of his ancestors, in the hierarchy, has been a wolf. The
natural and evolutionary determinants provide the fundamental essence for Jack
London to write an excellent fiction on the legendry dog. Buck, half Scotch
shepherd, half St. Bernard, is stolen from his comfortable home in California
and sold to an agent. Taken to the Yukon and put into brutal service in a dog
team, he quickly learns the law of club and fang and he learns to survive in these
arctic wilds, and he would have to be stronger and more cunning than other dogs
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in the team. The seven chapters of The Call of the Wild fall into four major
parts or movements are similar to that of a play. Each of these movements is
distinguished by its own theme, rhythm, and tone; each is climaxed with an
event of dramatic intensity; and each marks a stage in the hero's transformation
from a phenomenal into an ideal figure.
Part I consists of three chapters, which stress on physical violence
and amoral survival, the most Naturalistic and the most literal of the book. The
first chapter’s name is “Into the Primitive”. It is a take-off for going into the
primitive. Its rhythms are quick, fierce, and muscular. Images of intense
struggle, pain, and blood are predominant. The first chapter describes the great
dog Buck’s kidnapping from Judge Miller’s pastoral ranch, and his subsequent
endurance of the first rites of his initiation. This chapter is known for the
beginning of the transformation that ultimately carries him deep into Nature’s
heart of darkness.
For two days and nights he neither ate nor drank, and
during those two days and nights of torment, he
accumulated a fund of wrath that boded ill for whoever
first fell foul of him. His eyes turned blood-shot, and
he was metamorphosed into a raging fiend. So
changed was he that the Judge himself would not have
recognized him; and the express messengers breathed
with relief when they bundled him off the train at
Seattle. (496)
Chapter II, “The Law of Club and Fang”, takes the hero to the Northland. It is
about his encounters with the dogs and men, who are to become his traveling
companions, on the Dyea beach, in the hard long months ahead. He acquiesces
for the lesson of survival. As he is broken into his traces for the trail, he is
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motivated extraordinarily for the love of toil. But his moral values disappear.
He learns that stealing, an unthinkable misdeed in his former state can be the
difference between survival and death. Buck is obedient not to his masters, but
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conclusion of the first major phase of Buck’s initiation; for it reveals that he is
not merely qualified as a member of the pack but that he is worthy of
leadership. In this chapter, there is a pronounced modulation of style to signal
the glimmerings of Buck’s mythic destiny. Instead of sharply detailed physical
description, there is a poetic description,
With the aurora borealis flaming coldly overhead, or
the stars leaping in the frost dance, and the land numb
and frozen under its pall of snow, this song of the
huskies might have been the defiance of life, only it
was pitched in minor key, with long-drawn wailings
and half-sobs, and was more the pleading of life, the
articulate travail of existence... When he moaned and
sobbed, it was with the pain of living that was of old
the pain of his wild fathers, and the fear and mystery
of the cold and dark that was to them fear and mystery.
(506)
London’s style becomes increasingly lyrical as the narrative rises from literal to
symbolic level, and it reaches such intensity near the end of the chapter III ,
which makes a reader to understand that Buck’s is no common animal story.
There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and
beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox
of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive,
and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is
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alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes
to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of
flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad on s stricken
field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading
the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the
food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him
through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of
his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were
deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. He
was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal
wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle,
joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not
death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself
in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and
over the face of dead matter that did not move. (507)
This passage is a thematic epitome of the whole work, and it functions as a
prologue to the weird moonlit scene in which Buck challenges Spitz for
leadership of the team, and the primitive world. From the end of the third
chapter, the second movement begins. Part II consists of the remaining four
chapters. In chapter IV “Won to Mastership” Buck is a leader and hero as well,
but not a God. His divinity must be confirmed, as prescribed by ritual, through
death and rebirth. In chapter V, death occurs symbolically. Clustering darkly,
the dominant images are those of pain and fatigue as Buck and his teammates
suffer under the ownership of the three chechaquos: Charles, his wife Mercedes
and her brother Hal. They display all the fatal symptoms of incompetence and
unfitness. “Buck felt vaguely that there was no depending upon these two men
and the woman. They did not know how to do anything, and as days went by it
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became apparent that they could not learn. They were slack in all things, without
order or discipline” (518). Without a sense of economy or the will to work and
endure hardship themselves, they overwork, starve, and beat their dogs -then
they turn on one another. "But it was not food that Buck and the huskies needed,
but rest. And though they were making poor time, and heavy load they dragged
sapped their strength severely... Not only did they not know how to work dogs,
but they did not know how to work themselves” (518).
This ordeal is the second long and difficult phase of Buck’s initiation.
The “long journey” is described in increasingly morbid imagery as the
“perambulating skeletons” (519) and “wayfarers to death” (520) approach closer
to their fatal end in thawing ice of the Yukon river: the journey ends Buck’s
symbolic crucifixion as he is beaten nearly to death by Hal shortly before the
ghostly caravan moves on without him and disappears into the lethal river.
Buck’s rebirth comes in Chapter VI, “For the Love of a Man”, which also
functions as the third and transitional movement of the narrative. Having been
rescued by John Thornton, the benign helper who traditionally appears in the
Myth to lead the hero toward his goal, Buck is now being readied for the final
phase of his heroic and monstrous traits. The passionate devotion to Thornton
climaxes in the final scene of Chapter VI, when Buck wins a thousand-dollar
wager for his master by moving a half-ton sled a hundred yards; this legendary
feat, which concludes the third movement of the narrative and foreshadows the
hero’s supernatural appointment in the fourth and final movement. Chapter VII,
“The Sounding of the Call”, consummates Buck’s transformation. In keeping
with this change, London shifts both the setting and the tone. Thornton, taking
the money earned by Buck in the wager, begins his last quest, “...into the East
after a fabled lost mine, the history of which was as old as the history of the
country. Many men had sought bit; few had found it; and more than a few there
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were who had never returned from the quest. This lost mine was steeped in
tragedy and shrouded in mystery” (530-531).
The “fateful region of both treasure and danger” is vastly different
from Judge Miller’s pastoral ranch and from the raw frontier of the Klondike
gold rush: it is the landscape of myth. The party finally arrives at its destination,
a mysterious and incredibly rich placer-valley where like giants they are toiled,
and days flashing on the heels of days like dreams as they heap the treasure up.
Thornton and his party are killed by the Savage Yeehats; and Buck is released
from the bond of love to fulfill the last phase of his apotheosis as he is
transformed into the immortal Ghost Dog of Northland legend; he incarnates the
eternal mystery of creation and life.
And here may well end the story of Buck. The tears
were not many when the Yeehats noted a change in the
breed of timber wolves; for some were seen with
splashes of brown on head and muzzle, and with a rift
of white centering down the chest. But more
remarkable than this, the Yeehats tell of a Ghost Dog
that runs at the head of the pack. They are afraid of
this Ghost Dog, for it has cunning greater than they,
stealing from their camps in fierce winters, robbing
their traps, slaying their dogs, and defying their bravest
hunters. (538-539)
Though The Call of the Wild has a dramatic effect, it is a testament to the
theme of survival and of the primitiveness in every human soul. At the end of
the novel, Buck breaks the bond with civilization and joins a pack of wolves and
his long dormant instincts come to the surface. This theme is particularly evident
in The Call of the Wild. Buck’s domesticity is possible due to the result of his
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training. In Buck, the dominant inherent wolfishness becomes apparent due to
natural selection. Due to civilization and well-treatment of the Judge Miller, in
Santa Clara valley, this wolfishness might have been masked or prevented. But
later, due to the worst situations, ill-treatment of hunters of Gold and the death
of John Thornton must have brought his masked or prevented wolfishness out,
in order to survive. If Buck had been remained only as a dog till the end,
dogliness would have become dominant and wolfishness as recessive. Unless he
had wolfishness as a dominant trait, he v/ould either be a victim in the hands of
different masters or he would run away from any one’s sight.
As per the law of segregation, Buck’s encounter with Spitz for leadership
and his hunting of a rabbit are proving the characteristics of a wolf. Buck is an
ideal example for having complete penetrance, as his gene wolfishness is
dominant; it produces its genotypic effect. “The dominant primordial beast was
strong in Buck and under the fierce conditions of trail life it grew and grew”
(502). The name of the third chapter in The Call of the Wild itself is “The
Dominant Primordial Beast”. Buck’s vigour obviously proves that he has come
from two different varieties. Buck’s parents or either any of them was not a wolf
but one of his grandparents was a wolf. “His father, Elmo, a huge st. Bernard,
had been the Judge’s inseparable companion ...- for his mother, Shep, had been
a Scotch shepherd dog” (494), From that wolf till the birth of Buck, his parents
in the lineage must have wolfishness as a recessive trait and dogliness as a
dominant quality. As there has been a cross hybridization, Buck has a possibility
to have wolfishness. If the same gene of wolfishness is carried over time for
generations and if it becomes dominant, that gene leads to mutation. His
dominant gene of wolfishness leads to dominant mutation. It expresses its
character immediately. When a pack of sixty wild dogs, which is circling about
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Buck and Spitz, awaiting the prey, whichever is going to be killed by the other,
and the attitude of those wild dogs reminds Buck a wolfish circle. His behaviour
infuriates Buck, who has already been waiting for the right opportunity to drive
Spitz away. “Once Buck went over, and the whole circle of sixty dogs start up;
but he recovered himself almost in mid air, and the circle sank down again and
waited” (508). To Buck, the wolfish circle is nothing new or strange and this is
the scene of old time.
The transformation of Buck into a wolf also is instinctive. In the
encounter between Buck and Spitz: “Spitz was a practiced fighter” (508) but
Buck is a bom fighter. “He (Buck) fought by instinct but he could fight by head
as well” (508). He drives Spitz away from sight. His encounter with Spitz
proves his prominent genotypic effects. This incident displays his macro
mutation. Buck’s mutation is also a reverse mutation. As he devolves from a dog
into a wolf, it is called back mutation or reverse mutation. A civilized dog which
has been evolved obviously from a wolf after many generations takes up
devolution and returns to the origin, in order to survive. Buck has been evolved
from a wolf long back, “Buck’s feet were not so compact and hard as the feet of
the huskies. He had softened during the many generations since the day his last
wild ancestor was tamed” (504). Buck, a domesticated variety is turned into wild
in order to survive and he gives up all the acquired traits which he has had for
four years, in the Judge Miller’s house. Buck’s encounter for having leadership,
trailing of sled, withstanding of acute starvation, immense strength, agility,
cunningness and hunting nature are proving the genotypic effects (monstrous
characters) of domesticated Buck. As London has characterized Buck as “one in
ten thousand” (494), the reversion would be possible. Buck is a fast learner. His
experience with the man in red sweater teaches him how to escape from
whippings and beatings. When the man in red-sweater has beaten Buck with a
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club, “the latent cunning of his nature” (497) arouses in him. As Buck has the
wolfishness and leadership in him, Perrault remarks him, as he is “one in ten
t’ousand” (498).
The conditions of the climate and food induce him to change. The
journey of Buck from Santa Clara Valley to the Northland freezes off not only
his body but his dogliness and civilization also. When Buck has been staying in
Santa Clara Valley and taken care of by Judge Miller, he must have consumed
cooked food, in plenty. Hence his wolfishness has no chance to be displayed.
When Buck is kept in a cage without food and water for two whole days, the
man in red sweater is throwing “raw meat” (497) at him and he devours it
quickly. Francois and Perrault also have given frozen fish, which would be only
available food for animals in the Northland. During the famine, he consumes
even the leather. “Fully half their grub supply was gone. The huskies had
chewed through the sled lashings and canvas coverings” (504). Then he tastes
live meat, a rabbit. As his food is changed and turned to be worse day by day,
the breaking up of protein and amino acid from the food what he has consumed
also lead to his mutation.
When Buck has been living in Santa Clara Valley (Southland), he is in
a “sated aristocrat” (494). When Buck has been in the hands of Judge Miller, he
is a good companion for him and his children.
Buck was neither house dog nor kennel dog. The
whole realm was his. He plunged into the swimming
tank or went hunting with the Judge’s sons; he
escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, on
long twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry
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nights he lay at the Judge’s feet before the roaring
library fire; he carried the Judge’s grandsons on his
back, or rolled them in the grass, and guarded their
footsteps through wild adventures down to the
fountain in the stable yard, and even beyond, where
the paddocks were, and the berry patches. Among the
terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel
he utterly ignored, for he was king -king over all
creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller’s
place, humans included. (494)
Such a domesticated dog is transformed into a wolf, as a result of natural
selection. Whosoever the master is, he is ready to obey and learn any thing new,
very fast. But he becomes inexorable in obtaining the leadership. “After some
time of this, Francois threw down the club, thinking that Buck feared a
thrashing. But Buck was in open revolt” (511). He becomes a trailing husky in
the hands of Francois, Perrault, the Scotsman, Charles and Hal. During that time
he acquires stealing nature, cunningness and brutality, in order to survive. His
first giant step is stealing a morsel of bacon from the other dogs. In this act his
comfortable old morality is rejected as “a vain thing and a handicap in the
ruthless struggle for existence” (501), where respect for others may be suicidal.
His adaptability reminds the famous quotation of Charles Darwin, “In the
struggle for survival, the fittest win out at the expense of their rivals because
they succeed in adapting themselves best to their environment” (13).
As he has been transported from such a pleasant climate to the Northland
where only snow is everywhere, his domesticity is evaporated due to the
different habits like, incessant trailing in the frozen snow, sustaining the
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starvation of food, chasing for live meat, striving for leadership and to the core,
killing of Yeehats and moose down as a wild beast. The latent wolfishness in
him makes himself to adopt to live in snow and to face perils that he comes
across. He learns to bite the ice out with his teeth when it collects between his
toes. His most conspicuous trait is an ability to scent the wind and forecast it a
night in advance. His dominant wolfishness which is instinctive comes out quite
often. “It was no task for him to learn to fight with cut and slash and quick wolf
snap. In this manner had fought forgotten the ancestors. They quickened the old
life within him, and the old tricks, which they had stamped into the heredity of
the breed, were his tricks...” (502). But he has discovered those hidden qualities
only through some external forces.
Though his wolfishness is strong in him, it comes out only under
certain fierce conditions. But the growth of beastliness is a secret. As he has
innate wolfishness in him, he can bear the heavy snowfall on him. “Driving
snow, a wind that cut like a white hot knife...” (503). When his hole has been
occupied by Spitz, he gives a warning snarl. “The beast in him roared...” (503).
The wolfishness in him only has rescued himself free, despite their attack, when
he has not seen such hungry dogs, ever before. “The wild wave of famished
beasts rolled back before them and Buck shook himself free” (503). Though
Spitz has been a lead dog and acknowledged master of the team, he feels that
Buck threatens his supremacy, due to his wolfishness. The other dogs are “all
too soft, dying under the toil, the frost and starvation. Buck was the exception.
He alone endured and prospered, matching the husky in strength, savagery and
cunning” (505). The clash for leadership comes in between Spitz and Buck,
which is inevitable. “Buck wanted it (leadership) He wanted it because it was his
nature” (505). As the wolfishness is dominant in him, he is capable of a leader
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of a pack of dogs. One night, there has been a heavy snowfall, and in the
morning, Pike, the malingerer, does not appear and he remains in the hole itself.
Spitz finds him and punishes him harshly. Buck interferes in the fight and
rescues Pike, in order to bring justice among the dogs, which have made that
place as pandemonium, Francois takes the whip and thrashes Buck. In the days
that follow, Buck continues to interfere between Spitz and the culprits, “...but
he did it craftily when Francois was not around” (505). This incident proves his
cunningness.
In order to win the mastership, Buck brings commotion among the dogs,
as a revolt. “The insidious revolt led by Buck had destroyed the solidarity of the
team” (506). Moreover Buck encourages such rebels to involve “into all kinds of
petty misdemeanors” (506). “The breaking down of discipline likewise affected
the dogs on their relations with one another. They quarrelled and bickered more
than ever among themselves, till at times the camp was a howling bedlam” (506
-507). But Buck only is behind for all the quarrels. Buck has not known his
power of hunting and stamina, till he chases the live meat -a rabbit and kills
Spitz in the fight slyly. At the beginning itself, the man in red sweater has
remarked Buck as “the red-eyed devil” (496) and the same is repeated by
Francois, when he has discovered the missing of Spitz,and Buck with wounds.
“Eh? Wot I say? I spik true w’en I say dat Buck two devils” (510) How a dog
would behave like two devils unless there has been the presence of wolfishness
in him predominantly? Buck knows well how to acquire the leadership and it
will not be sponsored to him. So he has grabbed the opportunity in encounter
between him and Spitz. In the fight that falls between Spitz and Buck, London
portrays that Buck is capable of identifying the danger, which is around them.
The hungry dogs have encircled those two fighters and waited to pounce upon
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the prey, whichever will fall on the ground. When Buck springs upon Spitz, with
his great strength in his last attempt, Spitz falls down “The dark circle (of the
hungry dogs) became a dot on the moon-flooded snow as Spitz disappeared
from view. Buck stood and looked on, the successful champion, the dominant
primordial beast” (508). As he has won the mastery, he is not ready to lose that
at any cost. He never allows Sol-leks in a fury, “driving him back and standing
him in his place” (510). This extra-ordinary attitude and behaviour would be
found only in one in ten thousand. Buck is not afraid of the thrashing of
Francois, with a club. He retreats two or three steps, till Francois puts down the
club. “But Buck was in open revolt. He wanted not to escape a clubbing, but to
have the leadership. It was his by right. He had earned it, and he would not be
content with less” (511). Though Buck has acquired the leadership by force,
from Francois, he is better than Spitz, as a leader. “At a bound Buck took up the
duties of leadership; and where judgement was required, and quick thinking and
quick acting, he showed himself the superior even of Spitz, of whom Francois
had never seen an equal” (511). Though he is fond of lying near the hearth,
which he used to do in Santa Clara Valley, he is not homesick. Such memories
have not influenced him. “Far more potent were the memories of heredity that
gave things he had never seen before a seeming familiarity; the instincts (which
were but the memories of his ancestors become habits) which had lapsed in later
days, and still later in him, quickened and alive again”(512). In this passage,
London gives a clue to the readers that Buck is going to change his life due to
the impact of his wolfishness in him. Buck’s trailing becomes a never-ending
event. He has already crossed fifteen hundred miles. Then Perrault sells Buck
and his team to a Scotsman, due to starvation. Francois and Perrault abandon
their search for gold, in order to survive. Their trailing under the mastery of the
Scotsman makes their lives still go worse. “Since the beginning of the winter,
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they had traveled eighteen hundred miles, dragging sleds the whole weary
distance; and eighteen hundred miles will tell upon the life of the toughest. Buck
stood it, keeping his mates up to their work and maintaining discipline, though
he too was very tired” (513).
Due to the starvation and persistent trailing for days and nights
together restlessly, all dogs become desperate. Among all, Dave is the worst
sufferer. Though he is allowed to run behind the sled, without harnessing, he
never likes to do. He fights with the master and starts trailing. “Buck’s one
hundred and forty pounds had dwindled to one hundred and fifteen”(514). He
has intended that mercy killing is better than allowing him to trail till his death.
“Also, they held it a mercy, since Dave was to die anyway, that he should die in
the traces, heart-easy and content” (514). Hence Buck is extra-ordinary and
exceptional among those dogs. The Scotsman believes that Dave is not fit for
trailing. So it is of no use. As Buck is fit to trail for more miles and leading the
other dogs as a leader, he can survive till the end of his life. “A revolver shot
rung out. The man came back hurriedly. The whips snapped. The bells tinkled
merrily, the sleds churned along the trail; but Buck knew and every dog knew,
what had taken place behind the belt of river trees” (514). As the team of dogs is
trailing continuously for thirty days, they are in a wretched state. Pike gets hurt,
in his leg, Sol-leks is limping and Dub is suffering from a wrenched shoulder
blade. But Buck only is less affected. His mates in trailing become unfit. Though
the other dogs are dying due to heavy toils, frost and starvation, Buck is
exceptional. The Scotsman decides to get rid of those worthless dogs. So he
replaces them with a new pack of dogs by selling them to Charles, Hal and
Mercedes. Instead of waiting for the recovery of those miserable dogs, the
Scotsman resumes his journey with the help of the new dogs.
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Buck remains as a wolf, which is an icon of cunningness. He practices
stealing of food cunningly, without anyone’s notice. Dub is always being caught
for the stealing of Buck. The most civilized and well-trained dog has to steal
food for survival. His stealing of food without anyone’s notice shows his fitness.
Though Hal reduces dog food into half for Buck and other dogs, he does not
decrease the distance and time of trailing. Buck, unlike the other dogs, strives
boldly till the end. If a wolf is successful in hunting and eating the prey full, he
will sustain the hunger till he goes for the next hunting. Buck also is having such
wolfishness in him.
.. so the six outside dogs under Buck could do no less than
die on half the ration of the husky” (518). As the wolfishness has been dominant
in him, he could have been alive. As Dub has been a dog only, he cannot sustain
hunger any longer. He cannot possess cunningness as a wolf has. He has been
caught and punished many times while stealing food from Francois. But Buck is
extra-ordinary in this aspect. When the other dogs have become “perambulating
skeletons” (519), he has lost only twenty pounds.
Buck is neither ready to
surrender to death nor withdrawn himself from his strenuous efforts to keep him
fit. But “Buck was still at the head of the team” (520). Dave is shot dead and the
others run away once and all, as the trailing still goes on. After several journeys,
Buck is sold to another owner, Hal, who is later trying to kill Buck due to his
disobedience. When Hal’s whip falls upon dogs, incessantly due to the
disobedience of the dogs, which have protested to trail further, with a formidable
bulk on the sled, they bear the beatings passively. They become inexorable to
their commands. Then Buck is rescued and cared for, by John Thornton. A great
love grows between Buck and John Thornton, as he has been rescued from the
shooting of Hal. As a token of indebtedness, Buck more than once saves
Thornton’s life in camp and on the trail. Despite his passionate love for
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Thornton as a dog, his wildness, cunningness and wiliness are similar to that of a
wolf. To everyone’s amusement, Buck drags a half a ton sled “in the intense
cold (it was sixty below zero)” (528) for one hundred yards, which brings
money to his master John Thornton in the challenge. Trailing for a hundred
yards with a thousand pound load, all alone in heavy snow is possible only for a
wolf but not for a domestic dog. This incident shows his fitness for survival and
lingering trait of dogliness which is still present in him. “For two days and
nights Buck never left camp, never let Thornton out of his sight. He followed
him about at his work, watched him while he ate, saw him into his blankets at
night and out of them in the morning. But after two days the call in the forest
began to sound more imperiously than ever. Buck’s restlessness came back on
him, and he was haunted by recollections of the wild brother ...” (533). This
shows his conflict whether to remain as a dog or devolve into a wolf. Though he
is a dog, the wolfishness in him makes not to be affectionate to all men. “They
were a new kind of men to Buck (of which he was destined to see many more),
and while he developed no affection for them, he none the less grew honestly to
respect them” (498). His fight with other dogs shows his decivilization.
Thornton almost brings Buck back to his old life, which is a civilized one.
However, he has retained civilization, due to the love of Thornton. Though his
killing of the bear and the moose shows his decivilization, his passionate love
for Thornton drags him to the camp. It shows his oscillation between
wolfishness and dogliness. But unfortunately Thornton is murdered by Red
Indians, while Buck is chasing a moose. When Buck returns to find his dead
master and the slayers, he rages through the camp like a thunderbolt, killing
several Red Indians and wounding others. As he finds the bond between him and
Thornton has broken down, due to his death, it becomes of no purpose to survive
as a dog. When Buck finds the conflict between dogliness and wolfishness, he
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suddenly responds to the call of the wild (wolf). So Buck takes up the place of
an enemy of his community -a wolf. “At last, at the end of the fourth day, he
pulled the great moose down” (536). His hunting as a wolf shows his complete
devolution. His movement is a backward movement. This is the change due to
the presence of hereditary factors. The change due to hereditary factors is
predominant in Buck. Then he flees into the wilderness, eventually becoming a
leader of the pack of wolves. The story ends with a sentence that shows London
at his best,
When the long v/inter nights come on and the wolves
follow their meat into the lower valleys, he may be
seen running at the head of the pack through the pale
moonlight or glimmering borealis leaping, gigantic
above his fellows, his great throat a-bellow as he sings
a song of the younger world, which is the song of the
pack. (539)
In the end London immortalizes Buck. At the beginning of The Call of
the Wild, Buck’s mask is his civilized, nice-dog personality. In the second
stage, Buck has discovered passion, which is a manifestation of the shadow: an
intense hatred of Spitz and an ardent love of John Thornton. The third stage of
Buck’s devolution involves the shedding of this new social mask and the
adoption of a third and final mask: a mythical or archetypal mask that becomes
the very embodiment of his shadow. His life with John Thornton and his
growing of his passionate love for him, show an interval in Buck’s devolution.
In the last stages of Buck’s devolution, London’s handling of the theme of
heredity becomes more and more mythical and archetypal. Though Buck has a
backward movement (retrogression), he takes on the added attraction and
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mystery of the wild. He is all beauty and strength, but he also has the fascination
of danger. Why does Buck want to be a wolf (predator)? Predators are always
more romantic than their prey. Even with physical beauty and grace on both
sides, the tiger is more romantic than the antelope, because human admiration
for his (predator’s) beauty and the coordination of his movements is allied to his
(human’s) fear of the danger he (predator) represents, while the human
admiration for the beauty of the antelope is allied to his pity for its obvious fate.
As it keeps distance emotionally from its object and demeans it, the pity is not a
romantic emotion. Any one wants to be the tiger, not the antelope, the winner,
not the vanquished. The tiger is therefore pleasing to anyone’s imagination and
is unconscious because his admiration is allied to the desire to be like him
(tiger). Spontaneous identification with the antelope would suggest a death wish
that would not be beneficial for the long-term survival of any one’s own kind.
Answering the call of the wild and transforming into a leader of the pack of
wolves and hunting Yeehats and moose down are benchmarks of his hereditary
traits. If the wolfishness has been an inherent quality of Buck and as a result of
that he could have killed the Yeehats in the end, any one would ask why Buck
has not displayed the same trait earlier to his tormentors, like the gardener
Manuel, the man in red sweater, Francois, Perrault, the Scotsman, Charles and
Hal. London admitted the reply of Darwin for the above question, “It is scarcely
possible to doubt that the love of man has become instinctive in the dog”
(Darwin 151). Though Buck’s neck is tightened with a rope, by the man in red
sweater, he never doubts men’s love for him. “Buck had accepted the rope with
quiet dignity. To be sure, it was an unwonted performance; but he had learned to
trust in men he knew and to give them credit for a wisdom that outreached his
own” (494). Buck’s transformation into a wolf is reverse. The natural selection
of Buck is acceptance of the wolfishness. His favourable variation is wolfishness
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and rejection of injurious variation is dogliness. Buck also selects the
wolfishness as a dominant trait only for survival. He becomes a leader of the
pack of wolves, instead of being a victim as a dog, in the end. The influence of
heredity and the milieu, the concept of the survival of the fittest and adaptation
as the key for survival are overwhelmingly important in The Call of the Wild.
The book deals more with the concept of devolution than with that of evolution,
the return to the primitiveness from the civilization, when the environment is
changed to brutality where the law is: eat or be eaten, kill or be killed.
Andrew Flink said that Buck’s experiences are closely parallel to two
crucial events in London’s life: the unqualified rejection of London by his
natural father and the time when London was arrested for vagrancy in Niagara
Falls and sentenced to thirty days in the Erie County Penitentiary. Flink bases
his comparison on the facts that Buck and London are both strong, healthy and
approximately the same age (London was eighteen and Buck approximately
twenty, if one counts one year of a dog’s life as the equivalent of five years of a
man’s). Buck has been sold to pay a gambling debt with which he has no
connection and London was arrested because of a debt he felt he had never
incurred; like Buck, London was forcibly transported and confined, and he was
ever able to forget this traumatic experience. London’s Northland heroes are
ruggedly independent. There is a situational ethic, predicated on integrity,
charity and pragmatism. They have invaded a hostile land where the ruling law
is “survival of the fittest” and where the key to survival is adaptability, but this
does not simply mean physical fitness or brute strength. They possess some sort
of cunningness, to overcome the weakest or strongest. Besides, they keep keen
observation and round the clock alertness. This kind of people only can become
dominant.
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Not only is the wolfishness, which has been latent in him is the
prime reason for Buck to devolve into a primordial beast, but also some external
factors. Good living and universal respect that he has received from the Judge
Miller’s house have^enabled “him to carry himself in right loyal fashion” (494).
In its physical appearance, Buck is a “dog, strong of muscle and with warm,
long hair” (493). He has been a king “king over all creeping, crawling, flying
things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included” (494). Generally dogs are
rather fond of children than of grown-ups. Jack London must have closely
observed the activities of his dog for he has given the authentic information
about Buck, lucidly.
He plunges into the swimming tank or went hunting
with the Judge’s sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice,
the Judge’s daughters on long twilight or early
morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the
Judge’s feet before the roaring library fire; he carried
the Judge’s grandsons on his back, or rolled them in
the grass, and guarded their footsteps through wild
adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard, and
even beyond where the paddocks were, and the berry
patches. (494)
Buck also, like his father Elmo, has been an inseparable companion of
the Judge. His mother was a Scotch Shepherd dog. He has weighed one hundred
and forty pounds and dignity is added to his weight owing to his good living and
universal respect. The love of water has been “a tonic and a health preserver”
(494) for Buck. Hunting and kindred outdoor delights have kept down the fat
and hardened his muscles. If Buck had remained as a civilized dog by staying in
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Santa Clara Valley itself, there would never be a fantastic fiction on him. The
helper of the gardener in the Judge Miller’s house, who has been a gambler, is
the first man to pull Buck out of his civilized life. When he has been handed
over with a rope to a stranger, he growls at him. He accepts the rope put around
his neck by Manuel, the gardener’s helper, because he has “learned to trust in
men” (494) he knows. Trusting the masters or well-known people is the most
fundamental quality of a dog. Accepting the rope shows his acceptance of
limitations. When the rope is handed over to a stranger, he growls menacingly.
This is the nature of any trained dogs. His unyielding quality pops up now and
then. When the rope is tightened by the stranger, “his strength ebbs and his eyes
glaze” (495). As the rope has been tightened mercilessly, Buck struggles in a
hiry, “his tongue lolling out of his mouth and his great chest panting futilely”
(495). So far in all his life, he has “never been so vilely treated, and never in his
life been so angry” (495). The worst treatment that he has received from him
makes so furious. For two days and nights he has neither eaten nor drank,
“during those two days and nights of torment” (496) he has accumulated a fund
of wrath that promises ill for whoever first falls foul of him. He is
“metamorphosed into a raging fiend” (496) due to those tormentors. His
perseverance and courage make him to face his tormentors, when he has been
put into a cage like crate. Several times during the night, he springs to his feet
when the sled door rattles open, “expecting to see the Judge or the boys at least”
(495). His love and affection for him show his dogliness. The reason for his
transformation and fury is: “He had never been struck by a club in his life and
did not understand”(496). He did not understand the reason for their brutal
beating in the beginning. Later, he understands that they want his ready
obedience. As he has not eaten for the two whole days, he eats the frozen raw
meat. Then, the man in red sweater seems to be a lawgiver, as has tamed him
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with a club. He feels that he is “a master to be obeyed, though not necessarily
conciliated” (497). He bears the beating of those tormentors. “He was beaten (he
knew that), but he was not broken...” (497). When he has beaten Buck brutally
with the club, Buck recalls the similarity between how he and his ancestors have
been tamed in ancient times. The beatings remind the reign of primitive law.
As Buck has been a trained dog, he is fast in learning new words of
Francois, who teaches him “ho” to stop, and “mush” to go ahead. Training a dog
is easier than training a wolf. “T’ree vair’ good dogs,” Francois told Perrault.
“Dat Buck, I tich heem queek as any ting” (497). In order to survive, he is to
accept his metamorphosis. His change into a wolf from a dog is due to the
influence of his experiences also. “He had been suddenly jerked from the heart
of civilization and flung into the heart of things primordial” (498). This shows
his atavism. His taboos for attaining mastery and survival are conspicuously
proving naturalism. Till the day, he has left Santa Clara Valley, for trailing, he
has been a civilized dog. “... the club of the man in the red sweater had beaten
into him a more fundamental and primitive code” (501). Buck is ravenous. The
pound and a half of sun-dried salmon which is his ration for each day, provided
by Francois and Perrault, seems to go nowhere. But the other dogs are in good
condition because they are less in weight. He has lost his fastidiousness, which
has characterized in his old life. He starves for days and practices to live like
wild animals. He steals a slice of bacon slyly, when Perrault back is turned. He
duplicates the performance on the following day, getting away with the whole
chunk. He is unsuspected despite the raising of a great uproar. “The first theft
marked Buck as fit to survive in the hostile Northland environment. It marked
his adaptability, his capacity to adjust himself to changing conditions” (501). If
he does not have such adaptability, he would have to meet his terrible death at
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the earliest. He allows the degrading of his moral nature, “a vain thing and a
handicap in the ruthless struggle for existence” (501). He has stolen the food not
for joy of it “but because of the clamor of his stomach” (502). He has not robbed
openly but slyly and secretly. “He could eat anything, no matter how loathsome
or indigestible; an once eaten, the juices of his stomach extracted the last least
particle of nutriment and his blood carried it to the farthest reaches of his body,
building it into the toughest and shortest of tissues” (502). It reminds the
secretion of amino acids in his body.
As he has been dragging the sled for long days persistently, his
muscles become “hard as iron” (502) and he grows callous to all ordinary pain.
Buck finds that, though Francois and Perrault have known much better about
dogs than any other masters, his leadership qualities are not recognized and
rewarded instantly. Buck’s adaptability never intends to fight with others. “He
was too busy adjusting himself to the new life at ease and not only did he not
pick fights, but he avoided them whenever possible” (502) . But, if he fights
with anyone, particularly, Spitz, for mastery, he knows well that that the fight
would end “only in the death of the one or the other”(503). Though he is
adapting himself to the core, he is fearless. When his hole has been occupied by
Spitz, he springs upon him with fury and makes Spitz to realize that he is an
unusual timid dog, due to “his great weight and size” (503). Though dragging a
sled has been new to Buck after leaving Santa Clara Valley, he and the other
dogs have covered thirty-five miles each for the first two days, and forty miles
on the third day. Due to his persistent trailing, he becomes exhausted and his
soles are highly painful. Francois makes four moccasins for Buck, from his. This
is a great relief for Buck. One day, as Francois has forgotten to wear the
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moccasins for Buck, his four feet were waving appealingly in the air. “Later his
feet grew hard to the trail, and the worn-out foot-gear was thrown away”(505).
Buck is a very good and caring leader. Buck receives new dogs in
comradely fashion. He has the pride as a dog. It is the pride of Dave to be
harnessed till his death. It is the pride of Spitz to correct the wrong doers and
make the dogs to be harnessed in time. “Likewise it was this pride that made
him fear Buck as a possible lead dog. And this was Buck’s, pride too” (505).
After becoming a leader. Buck administers the pack of dogs and their activities
with love and care, but not with punishment as what Spitz has done. “The rest of
the team, however, had grown unruly during the last days of Spitz, and their
surprise was great now that Buck proceeded to lick them into shape” (511). The
obedience in him shows his dogliness. So he obeys to the commands of Francois
in trailing. “It was a record run. Each day for fourteen days they had averaged
forty miles...” (512).
The mercy killing of Dave, by the Scotsman, confirms the insecurity in his
life. The worst treatment of Hal makes him to look back at his ancestors. As
days are going worse day by day due to incessant trailing for long days, under
acute starvation and heavy snow, at -sixty degree Celsius, he never intends to
remain as a dog, to Charles, Hal and Mercedes. Though Buck does not like them
due to their inefficiency in loading their items on the sled and in trailing, he is
obedient and dutiful to the core. But the saturation level for his obedience, as a
dog, comes to an end at last. From the clutches of their cruelty, Buck is rescued
by Thornton. His passionate love for Thornton shows his dogliness. He has
rescued Thornton’s life twice and earned hundreds of dollars for him in the
challenge, which proves his loyalty and vitality. Then he retains civilization,
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due to his passionate love for Thornton but it is not lasting till the end. He takes
vengeance on the tribes, for the sake of Thornton. As he finds no more bonds
that have tied him with any human beings, he goes to the forest and remains
there forever; because this type of protagonists has no end at aii. His killing of
the bear and the moose prove his wolfishness. His hunting also ranges from the
rabbit to the Yeehats tribes. No one seems supreme to him. He quite often
remembers “Eat or Be Eaten”, and practices the same, due to scarcity of food
and the worst treatment of his masters. The teams of dogs and his different
masters have gradually and silently developed Buck’s latent cunningness. “His
newborn cunning gave him poise and control...” (502). As he has trailed for
thirty-five miles or forty miles per day, and for days together, his feet are not so
compact and hard as the feet of the huskies. “His had softened during the many
generations since the day his last wild ancestor was tamed”. (504) But the
softness in his feet he has attained after many generation from a wolf, due to
evolution, is turned to be hard as the feet of a husky. This physical change
displays his rapid devolution. Buck has won the leadership after the killing of
Spitz. When Sol-leks is placed as a lead dog, by Francois, Buck springs upon
Sol-leks and stands in his place. Without knowing his intention, Francois throws
a club at Buck, in order to bring control over them.
Buck remembered the man in the red sweater, and
retreated slowly; nor did he attempt to change in when
Sol-leks was once more brought forward. But he
circled just beyond the range of the club, snarling with
bitterness and rage; and while he circled he watched
the club so as to dodge it if thrown by Francois, for he
was become wise in the way of clubs. (510)
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Due to the persistent trailing of Buck and his team for twenty-five
hundred miles, under various masters, they become desperate and inexorable to
their commands. The heavy snow, continuous and brutal whippings of Hal,
insufficient food and above all, restlessness bewilder them. ”... they were
bewildered and spirit-broken by the strange, savage environment in which they
found themselves and by the ill-treatment they had received” (517). The worst
treatment of Hal and Charles is the main reason for bringing out his wolfishness.
More trailing with less food is common to them. The masters also have less food
and money for them. “In the excess of their own misery, they were callous to the
suffering of their animals” (519). Their hard heartedness to the suffering of
Buck becomes a prime factor for giving up of his dogliness and bringing out his
wolfishness. “Hal’s theory, which he practiced on others was that one must get
hardened” (519). But the same Buck has retained his strength and vigor, due to
the love and care of Thornton. His playing with Nib and Skeet rejuvenates his
vitality. His passionate love for Thornton, which he has not had for any one,
even in the Judge Miller’s house, is a sort of adoration. Buck gets delighted,
when he has been called love names by Thornton, because, he has been used to
be called ill names (devil) by his previous masters. He finds the utmost comfort
when Thornton embraces him. If he is with Thornton, he is filled with ecstasy.
Buck has rescued Thornton’s life twice and brought a great victory, in the
challenge. Not only with that, has Buck revenged upon the Yeehats, the killers
of his lovely master, Thornton.
A man must be in harmony both with his environment and with himself,
one conditioning the other. A man can only adapt to his inner world and achieve
harmony with himself when he is adapted to the environmental conditions and
vice versa. Unfortunately, man living in society finds conciliating both needs
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difficult because the demands of society often thwart the demands of the self.
For Buck, it is different; both his hereditary and environmental factors induce
him to live as a wolf. In fact, the more he adapts to the demands of the harsh
environment of the North, the better he adapts to his inner world: conversely, the
more he listens to his inner yearnings, the fitter he is to deal with his
environment because the inner voice he listens to is that of a being in perfect
harmony with his environment. The key to this harmony is, of course, the fact
that the new world Buck needs to adapt to is a primitive, primordial world, and
that in order to adapt to it, he needs to listen to the instincts he has inherited
from his forefathers. Throughout most of the story, Buck’s persona and shadow
are in equilibrium.
In the essay, Salvation through Socialism, Caroline Johnston says, “In,
The Call of the Wild, Jack London casts his version of a superman as the
protagonist in animal form. Buck is a strong, individualistic character who
demonstrates the power of comradeship based on love and solidarity against
environmental forces” (81). Though Buck is turned to be a primordial beast,
London makes him a living legend. Despite his gorgeousness and romantic
appeal, Buck has acquired qualities such as courage, endurance, leadership,
loyalty, a passionate ability to love, and a total disregard of danger in romantic
defending or avenging those he loves. These above qualities he possesses due to
the environment. Heredity and environment, though important, are not only the
sole determinants of animal and human behaviour, but also their love of
freedom. After Thornton’s death, Buck answers the call again and this time he
fights with the whole wolf pack and wins the hero’s decisive victory. Buck does
not return, as the hero should; he remains in the wild and he should be left
running with the pack in the dark of the northern winter. If the self-attainment is
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consciousness, Buck is left in the depth of the consciousness. When he receives
a familiar call from the forest, he looks at the sky and howls as a wolf. He treads
along with the timber wolf, to the forest friendly and steadily. If he had been a
dog only, he would be afraid of the wolf. His killing of the bear resembles the
presence of wolfishness predominantly. He feels proud of his muscles and
communication with the wolverines. His physical appearance is also changed in
the course of time. His muzzle is the long wolf muzzle of any wolf; his broader
head resembles a wolf. Not only his external appearance, but also his internal
characteristics get changed. His cunningness and shepherd intelligence make
him formidable. “His cunning was wolf cunning, and wild cunning; his
intelligence and St. Bernard intelligence; and all this, plus an experience gained
in the fiercest of schools, made him as formidable a creature as that roamed the
wild” (534). There is a quick change in him, due to his visit to the forest. He
becomes a thing of the wild, steals along softly, cat-footed, a passing shadow,
that appears and disappears among the shadow. He crawls like a snake and hunts
live meat as a wolf. His killing of the moose is very much similar to that of a
wolfs deed. After being free from any human bonds, he selects the path of a
wolf. He becomes an incomparable leader of the pack of wolves. If heredity
factors are of blending type, it is impossible for the Darwinian natural selection
to work because the available variation is halved in every generation. As the
heredity factors remain constant, despite he has the worst environment around
him, his wolfishness turns him up to be a wolf and remains the same the rest of
his life.
Intellectually and rationally The Call of the Wild is satisfying because
of its successful Naturalism. Buck is genuinely fit for survival. As he is
adaptable to the core, he consumes the meal of raw meat, chunk by chunk. If he
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had protested the man in red sweater in the beginning itself, he would have died
and there would not be a development of the plot. Buck has seen a dog that
would never conciliate nor obey, finally being “killed in the struggle for
mastery” (497). His wisdom teaches him to obey. Buck learns stealing of food
only from Spitz. There has been no necessity for Buck to steal food, as he has
lived the life of a sated aristocrat in the Judge Miller’s house. Buck practices the
stealing of food due to scarcity. He knows well that he is degrading gradually.
As he has been a trained and civilized dog, he finds that the other dogs and men
around him are not town dogs and town men. “They were savages, all of them,
who knew no law but the law of club and fang” (499). He has seen horses set to
work for hauling. This is the first time he sees that dogs are harnessing. When
Francois fastens him to a sled, he gets bewildered in the beginning but he fights
for mastery in dragging the sledge, in the later part of the plot. He understands
that Francois demands “instant obedience” (499) from him. Buck faces the
great problem of sleeping, as the entire land is engrossed with snow. When he
touches the snow very first time, it bites him like fire. But he is to sleep in snow
for the whole night. When he finds all the other dogs have made holes under the
snow, he learns a new lesson. “Buck confidently selected a spot, and with much
fuss and wasted effort proceeded to dig a hole for himself’(500). In a trice, the
heat from his body occupies the hole and he feels asleep. Buck has been
purposely placed between Dave and Sol-leks so that he might receive
instruction. “Apt scholar that he was, they were equally apt teachers, never
allowing him to linger long in error, and enforcing their teaching with their
sharp teeth” (501). It is easier for Buck to obey than to disobey the instruction.
“Buck found it to be cheaper to mend his ways than to retaliate” (501). Perhaps,
Buck loves to lie near the fire, hind legs crouch under him, forelegs stretch out
in front, head raises, and eyes blinking dreamily at the flames. Though he recalls
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the above experience he had quite often experienced in the Judge Miller’s house,
he knows well that sort of memories have no power over him. While hunting the
animals, Buck is merciless. He knows well about the law of club and fang. He
must master or be mastered. If he shows mercy, it will be his weakness. Since
mercy has not existed in the primordial life and is understood for fear and death.
After the death of Thornton, Buck follows the motto: eat or be eaten, kill or be
killed, which become mandatory for him to live. In order to survive, his body
accepts the changes. He becomes white-fanged, and his muzzle also grows
broader, like a wolf. Eventually he becomes a legend of the pack of wolves.
Ownbey remarks, “While the final outcome of the story argues not for a victory
for the “dominant, devolved race”, London still asserts that the Anglo-Saxon
species has evolved, to its superiority through its struggle for survival” (Ownbey
86).
One must wonder whether he fully understands the spiritual dimension
of Nietzsche’s superman and his self-mastery, because London uses superman
and blond beast interchangeably. The blond beast is the opposite of the
superman, and is the one who represents unevaporated animal passion.
In The Call of the Wild Jack London casts his
version of a superman as the protagonist in animal
form. Buck is a strong, individualistic character who
demonstrates the power of comradeship based on love
and
solidarity
against
environmental
forces.
Individualism must be harmonized with cooperation.
Buck is kidnapped from his home in the Santa Clara
Valley of California and taken to Alaska to become a
sled dog. Through various experiences Buck is
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initiated into the universe of the “survival of the fittest.
(Johnston 81)
Buck is amoral, unlike London’s human characters. Buck’s adaptation
to the hostile Northland environment means the deterioration of his moral
nature, as he learns to steal and kill in order to survive. At the very time, Buck
transforms from civilization to the primitive and vice versa due to the love of
John Thornton. His master John Thornton lavishes affection on him after saving
him from a cruel master. London seems to be arguing that cooperation, as
exemplified by Thornton and Buck, and by Buck and the pack of wolves, is
essential for survival, and that the struggle itself gives the participants nobility.
London’s message is intended to be that survival depends on cooperation and
adaptability, and that love is the ultimately self-justifying value. Love alone
frees a person from the entrapment of self, reason and loneliness. “London
associated love of man with socialism, which could provide salvation from
ruthless individualism” (Johnston 85).
London’s The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Batard are known for
the naturalistic theme of hereditary and environmental determinism. In a sense
the three works might be regarded as two sides and the edge of the single coin. It
is clear that the protagonists -such devils -“are not merely born; they are also
made” (Tavernier and Courbin 116). The conflict of Buck reaches its apex,
when he finds himself unable to choose between the civilizing influence of John
Thornton and the increasingly insistent call of his primitive brothers. The
conflict is resolved when Thornton dies and Buck leaves civilized life for good,
but that departure is only the culmination of a movement toward the wild that
has been taking place throughout the book. The movement is not steady,
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sometimes Buck will advance one step towards the wild only to be cast back
again towards civilization. These two are seemingly opposite perspectives. His
cunningness in stealing of food and leadership for survival, and killing of the
tribes as reciprocation for his love on Thornton are showing his immoral
qualities as a wolf and good qualities as a dog. Besides, the “Call” also reminds
the depth of his unconscious strength and knowledge that have been forgotten by
his civilization. The repetition of the calls intensifies his strength and gives up
civilization. Though Buck is incarnated into a beautiful and admirable devil, the
region where he lives is a place filled with treasure and dangers. He is an
archetypal hero to protect the wealth of Nature.
These resemble the assumptions of Zolasquean naturalism, which is
about atavism, i.e. a reversion to savagery, a process of degeneration. The result
for all of these naturalists like, Zola and other novelists is a fruitful tension
between the naturalistic impulse, with its emphasis on society and environment,
and the romantic impulse, which emphasizes the power of the exceptional
individual to act on his own. The key themes of naturalism in this work are very
lucid. As an individual Buck struggles a lot for survival, in different climates
and under different masters till the end. He overcomes all the hurdles
successfully, till he understands what he really is. The taboos in the fiction are
amoral qualities of Buck: stealing the fish of Pike slyly, driving Spitz away
cunningly in the encounter for obtaining the leadership and ignoring the
command of his masters Hal and Charles, deliberately. The gardener’s selling of
Buck for a few butts, in order to gamble shows an immoral trait. The greediness
of hunters of Gold who force him to trail without food is an amoral quality.
Buck is very passionate in meeting the challenges. Trailing the sled for days and
nights in the frozen land without adequate food, when all his team mates fled
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away, dragging the sled loaded a thousand pounds for a hundred yards, rescuing
John Thornton from the water fall and hunting the moose down as a leader of
the pack of wolves are his challenges. Violence in the fiction is: Shooting Dave
down as he was unfit for trailing by the Scotsman, chasing a live meat and
defeating Spitz, Hunting a moose down and at the core, killing the Yeehats
brutally. Hence his adaptability in order to survive has been a reason for his
mutation. Buck is expanded in a defense of atavism, of the notion that one’s
adaptability depends upon one’s nearness to a primitive state. Soon he begins to
feel some savage atavism stirring his depths, and with the aurora borealis
flaming overhead, he joins in the old mournful song of the huskies. Imagination
is a necessity in London’s world, for his characters to survive. In his work, To
Build a Fire, he dies because of his arrogance, but also perhaps most
importantly, due to his lack of imagination. “But Buck possessed a quality that
made for greatness -imagination. He fought by instinct but he could fight by
head as well” (508)
For Buck the club in the man in red sweater “was a great revelation”
(497). The club is a law-giver. Buck has lived in Santa Clara Valley for four
years. Hence he must have reached his maximum growth. He also has growth in
the Northern land. “His muscles became hard as iron, and he grew callous to all
ordinary pain” (502). As his instinct of beastliness starts growing, he disobeys to
his masters Charles and Hal. When they command him to get up, he deliberately
does not listen to their words. “Like his mates, he was barely able to get up, but
unlike them, he had made up his mind not to get up” (521). The life instincts
operate a man primarily for his survival. The life instinct of Buck instructs him
only about survival, but not dogliness. Buck’s life instinct tells him not to toil
any more without meeting his basic needs, whereas, the people around him not
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bother about his miserable condition but they demand him to haul the
overloaded sled more. Buck’s movement is regressive. Evolution moves society
towards good life. But the devolution brings a good and free life for Buck.
Perfection is the final outcome of the change. Human nature improves with its
improving environment. Similarly for Buck but it is reverse. If a civilized dog is
mutated into a wolf, the movement is regressive. When the forward movement is
interrupted by a frustrating circumstance, the backward movement takes place.
Buck is motivated more by his expectations of the future than by experiences of
the past. The Call of the Wild is purely aesthetic and transitive, engaging the
reader in a rapt attention for no other purpose than the unique experience of art.
It stresses more subtly something marvelous within man, which makes the
fiction a world classic
As Buck has been introduced as a civilized dog, he does not display his
primordial beastliness in the beginning, when he is put into a crate and badly
struck by the man in red sweater. His life instinct reminds him to give up
civilization for living happily as a wolf only in the end of the fiction. Freud
further stresses in Civilization and Its Discontent, “It was discovered that a
person becomes neurotic because he cannot tolerate the amount of frustration
which society imposes on him in the service of its cultural ideals, and it was
inferred from this that the abolition or reduction of those demands would result
to possibilities of happiness” (91). As Buck gave up all his demands from
Charles and Hal, he ignores their commands. His ignoring of their words may
seem to be uncivilized, but his disobedience only leads him to live happily. In
order to live civilized, one is to hold back his urges and repress his impulses.
These urges may be released through dreams. As a result of the above factors,
the personality of the protagonist is changed.
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At first glance The Call of the Wild seems to be entirely outside any
traditional society and therefore free from its tensions, but in fact the narrative
reveals various sorts of relations to the patterns of such a society. The values of
love and fair play are central to the story; these are traditional and even heroic.
Buck begins to feel happy and satisfied in a setting of comfort and love.
Standard justice is betrayed when he is stolen and sold into bondage, but he rises
to the challenge by drawing upon qualities of courage and leadership. They are
presented as atavistic, but they are also “moral” qualities, which are respected in
the Western literature. And they are given new dignity when Buck responds to
the love of John Thornton: the subordination of strength and courage to kindness
and love is profoundly rooted in chivalry -which comes from the deep heart of
Europe. Buck’s vengeance on the inhuman Indians for the killing of his lovable
master Thornton is chivalric and Buck reaches back to the Crusades and beyond,
These appeals are very strong but abandoning the human society is a regretful
one. A civilized man, especially an American listens to the call, which liberates
him for freedom and represents the yearning toward freedom and purity that is
an aspect of any human involvement; but one retreats in order to return with new
strength.
Buck represents the human qualities that are always somewhat sullied in
the actual world; he represents revolt and escape; and he enacts his qualities in
the story. Running at last, full-throated through the pale moonlight, exulting in
his freedom and strength, he “sings a song of the younger world”, which is the
song of the American dream of innocence and Academic purity, when man was
fresh-minted and society had not bowed him down under its load of falsity. In
this light, The Call of the Wild shines almost as a lyric rather than a novel. In
any event, London here achieves an ideal fusion of form and subject. Buck is an
Ill
individualist who defies society and finally rejects it completely. Since perfect
escape is inhuman, it is not so extraordinary that his hero should be a dog.
If Buck had not devolved into a wolf, he would remain to be a dog and as a
result, he would return to the world of men and become a boon-bringer. Such a
return would have been a fall from the superior Godlike position he has
achieved.
There is no grandeur or glory in being a pampered pet,
while there is grandeur in being a gloriously coated
wolf running at the head of the pack and singing the
song of a primeval world. Unlike Marlow or Kurtz in
Heart of Darkness, Buck has found no horror during
his trip into hell and has therefore no reason to return.
Much to the contrary, he has been able to tap into an
unknown source of power that had been buried for
centuries and to find regeneration within himself by
retreating into “the everlasting realm that is within”.
He has fulfilled all his latent potentialities and is at one
with his inner yearning and the past of his breed. Buck,
being an animal makes this identification easier to
accept by human consciences. While Kurtz is
essentially the same thing, he is racked by guilt and
destroyed because his moral nature cannot cope up
with the things his instincts and desires force him to
do. For Buck, there is no such dilemma. (Tavernier
and Courbin 89)
112
When a trained and civilized dog is turned into a wolf, his movement is from the
best to the worst. His mutation is inevitable. But he is turned in order to meet the
above needs only. His turning up of primitivism from civilization is due to the
situation. Buck is expanded in a defense of atavism, of the notion that one's
adaptability depends upon one’s nearness to a primitive state. London’s reading
of books of Spencer and Haeckel, has brought a great impact on him to create
such a legend Buck. As a token of loyalty, Buck decides to take revenge on the
Yeehats, who are the killers of his lovable master John Thornton. On seeing the
corpse of Thornton, he cries loudly. This is his acute transition from a dog into a
wolf. “Then he sat down, pointed his nose upward, and howled. It was a
mournful howl, and as Buck held steadily on his way he heard it grow faint and
fainter until it was lost in the distance” (533). After killing Thornton and his
friends, the Yeehats are in the merriment.
The Yeehats were dancing about the wreckage of the
spruce-bough lodge when they heard a fearful roaring
and saw rushing upon them an animal the like of
which they had never seen before. It was Buck, a live
hurricane of fury, hurling himself upon them in a
frenzy to destroy... Then a panic seized the Yeehats,
and they fled in terror to the woods, proclaiming as
they fled the advent of the Evil Spirit. And truly Buck
was the Fiend incarnate, raging at their heels and
dragging them down like deer as they raced through
the trees. (536-537)
When the other wolves howl, Buck also joins them and howls, “the call came to
Buck in unmistakable accents” (538). This shows his fitness for the
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transformation, perfect matching of his call with the wolf and his reaching of
self-realization.