Call of the Wild: Overview

Zach Maes English 2 8-30-2011 Call of the Wild 1. Some readers see the hardships and suffering of the dogs in the sled team as symbolic of workers in a Capitalistic system. Identify and explain these similarities. “He had killed man, the noblest game of all, and he had killed in the face of the law, of club and fang” (ch. 7) Capitalism is an economic system in which the workers only are paid enough to eat and survive. The dogs in the sled team have to work hard and are only fed enough to survive.
The workers in the Capitalistic system are treated the same as the dogs, in which they are given the bare minimum to live, and only to live, they do not receive enough money to do more then eat. The sled dogs have to work hard like the workers, and are rewarded with food. They relate because the bare minimum is given whether it is the sled dogs or the Capitalistic workers. 2. Trace Buck’s development from a “monarch” to a working dog to a “free” dog.
Specifically, how is Buck’s transitional experience a “Call of the Wild”? Consider such quotes as Pete’s: “When he was made, the mold was broke. ” “His eyes turned bloodshot, and he was metamorphosed into a raging fiend. So changed was he that the judge himself would not have recognized him” (Ch. 1) Buck starts the novel as a ruler of his household. His experience becomes a “Call of the Wild” because he is an animal and that is where he naturally came from.

He goes through several stages of life from living in a royal palace to working hard pulling a sled for the Canadian Government. And then to falling in love with someone that he belongs with, and then getting it all ripped away from him again. He was bred to fight, and bred to be a leader and to be alone in the wilderness, and to conquer the wilderness and to answer the “Call of the Wild”. 3. Compare Buck at the beginning of his journey with Buck at the end of his journey. What are the changes and what causes them?
Would you call him a hero? Why or why not? What is the most valuable lesson learned? “He was older than the days he had seen and the breaths he had drawn. He linked the past with the present, and the eternity behind him throbbed through him in a mighty rhythm to which he swayed as the tides and seasons swayed. ” (Ch. 6) At the beginning of Bucks journey he didn’t know a lot about himself, but as his journey continued he slowly began to learn more about himself, like how much pain he could handle, and how much fight he had.
He learned that he could withstand anything, and he learned a lot more about himself then he could of he spent the rest of his life at the Judge’s house. He learned that he could live by himself in the wild and that he needed to kill and he needed to eat fresh meat to live. Living in the wild was what he was made to do, it was in his blood, passed down from generation to generation from his parents, and all that was needed was to be introduced to the wild, and when given that opportunity he flourished. ? London, Jack (1903). The Call of the Wild.