I would like to give a few ideas and opinions about the Call that Buck so vividly yeilds to at the end of the book, because I had a little difficulty understanding what it meant.
For my first idea, I thought that the Call represented nature in a way, where Buck eventually reverts to his primitive instincts and becomes more savage. In a way, he really starts to look out for number one. I think this may be the most powerful representation of the Call, because it only occurs in the end of the book, and it is hard to find any sort of reference before he is with the old man John Thorton, around page 65. I'm curious about why he heard the Call here rather than in other situations like when he was in the dog fight club or when he was a part of the family's sled team. I think that it may have been because in the end Buck went on a small journey by himself through the woods, for the purpose of exploring and thinking and taking in the world around him. In a way it's kind of like when you go on a walk by yourself through the woods, you notice more of nature because you have no task, and you are able to think clearly because there are no distractions. For those reasons the Call would be much more powerful and easy to reach Buck than if it were to try earlier on.
Another think that the Call could represent is the idea of revenge. I'm not sure if you thought of it this way but I think that when Buck went on his minor journey alone through the woods he seemed a little, edgy. When the Call occurred on his trek, he reminisced about how he was taken from his home, though he hardly remembered it. When he arrived back at camp with John Thorton and the rest of the party dead, he grieved and tried to control his emotions for several days. Finally, he went and killed all the Yeehats who massacred his party, the final step from his grieving. Though subtle, I think that this mean of using the Call would serve as a darker moral to the story, making it revenge or honor, perhaps even the value of an individual.
Finally, I think that the Call could represent his true home with the wolves. On pages early on in the novel (because I can't find it) Buck is described as a large saint Bernard which was really given free roam of his owners estate. My question is: Why would the Call of some wolves apply to him? I really had a hard time coming up with a conclusion, but it seems as though it has more to do with the inside of an animal than what breed they are. I.e. Buck has been a sled dog, fought off terrible mutts, battled in an arena, crated up and thrown around, and pulled a thousand pounds one hundred yards by himself. These experiences are what make him more equipped for the wild than any other dog, it makes him stand out. Because he stood out so much, it made him a very easy picture for the wolves to find and desire in their family.
Call of the Wild-Insubordination
ReplyDeleteIn this section I would like to talk about the big rivalry between Buck and Spitz in the middle of the section. Spitz was the leader of the sled dogs and so any act against him was technically insubordination. However with Spitz a bully of a dog and not even keeping the dogs in line, he wasn’t being a very good leader. Bucks response to his bullying was to start bullying Spitz back, who was actually a smaller dog and start making it impossible for Spitz to do his job leaving much hatred between the two (pg. 65). While Spitz may have been a problem, Buck’s actions were just feeding gas to the flame. Would you agree with this statement, or would you say that it was actually going fine even with Buck there until Spitz felt challenged by him? Buck and Spitz had minor confrontations back and forth over the amount of time they were harnessed together but their first major one was when the crazed dog Dolly that lost control after a wild dog attack from another camp attacked Buck creating enough confusion for Spitz to attack Buck (pg. 71). If not for the intervention of the sled driver Buck would probably have been killed by either Dolly or Spitz who was trying to take out Buck before Buck could return the favor. When they finally came to their fight near the end of this section, it is not Spitz who starts the fight (like all previous times) but Buck. However even though Buck is physically superior than Spitz, he cannot account for years of hard fighting experience that Spitz has and quickly starts to lose the fight. But even though Spitz is the better killer, Buck still wins and I think it’s because he had a better adaptation capabilities than Spitz, when he couldn’t win through brute force he changed his fighting style to best combat Spitz and so defeated him.