Introduction to the Novel
The hero of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild (1903) is Buck, a St. Bernard/Scotch Shepherd dog. Late one night in 1897, a poor farm-worker steals Buck from his comfortable Northern California home and sells him as a sled dog. Set mostly during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 - 98 in Canada’s Yukon Territory and Alaska, the novel chronicles Buck’s struggles and successes as he learns “the law of club and fang.”
Four years as a domesticated pet have not extinguished Buck’s primordial instincts or imagination. He courageously survives brutal cruelty from humans and the wilderness, and he becomes the leader of his dogsled team. He endures hunger and fatigue, learns to scavenge for food, and fights with a rival dog. Despite all this hardship, Buck is “mastered by the sheer surging of life” for the first time. Ultimately, Buck struggles between his love for his last master, John Thornton, and his desire to answer the mysterious call of his ancestors.
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