Jack London - The Call of the Wild

[admin]

Jack London - The Call of the Wild

My inspiration to read this book came from Chris McCandless.

I am quite sure that I have not read a book where the main character is an animal. Very quickly I forgot this fact and
viewed the story through the eyes of the strong and powerful 'Buck'.

While reading it often I thought of Chris and what would have been going through his head as he read it. I think - getting ideas for solo adventures and separating himself from the realms of society.

To those that have not read the book, it is story written by Jack London in 1903 about a dog. The story is seen through the eyes of this large, strong St Bernard and shepherd cross mut called Buck.

Buck was stolen from his relatively wealthy family in California and sold as a snow sledding dog which were in high deman at the time due to the gold rushes in Alaska. He was sent to Alaska where he very quickly learns the ways of the wilderness, snow and in particular the way of life, or as London puts it, the law of 'club and fang'. Meaning that men use a club to force a dog into submission and dogs use their fangs. Buck changes several owners during the story and very quickly becomes the leader of the sled team by bullying and eventually killing the old leader.

Buck almost resigns himself to the fact that there are no good men, but selfish and cruel men until his life is saved by a stranger. This stranger 'John Thornton' helps Buck recover from his injuries sustained whilst overworked and beaten and in return Buck loves this man and protects him with his life. Complete devotion. During his time with Thornton, Buck begins to discover the wilderness on his own going for journeys for days and weeks. At one point he meets and befriends a wolf. Shortly after this, Thornton is killed by Indians and eventually Buck joins this wolf pack and becomes its leader.

There are some entries in the book that I believe inspired Chris -

'John Thornton asked little of man or nature. He was unafraid of the wild. With a handful of salt and a rifle he could plunge into the wilderness and fare wherever he pleased and as long as he pleased'

I really think this was the pivotal line that stirred up the emotions in Chris to start his adventures.

This portion took me back to when Chris's body was discovered. This passage is when Thornton and Buck are searching for the secret location
of a gold mine -

'Another time they chanced upon the time graven wreckage of a hunting lodge and amid the shreds of rotten blankets John Thornton found a long barrelled flink-lock rifle. He knew it for a Hudson Bay Company gun of the young days in the Northwest, when such a gun was worth its height in beaver skins packed flat. And that was all - no hint as to the man who in early day had reared the lodge and keft the gun amongst the blankets.'

After Buck discovered John Thornton's body, London writes -

'John Thornton was dead. The last tie was broken. Man and the claims of man no longer bound him.'

I guess as John Krakuer wrote, after college Chris felt that he had served his 'duty' to the modern way of life and society and took off into the wild. This in the same way that Buck no longer needed to have any sort of relationship with man. He could survive on his own.

This is a picture of the gold rush in dyea beach Alaska at the time of the story.

Dyea Waterfront Alaska 1898

Dyea_Waterfront_March_1898_(Maslan)_1.jpg (200.23 KiB) Viewed 17220 times

[lisachat]

Thanks for that insight, that's fascinating! Could very well be the inspiration, or just the validation of the way he felt- he needed to cut off his family, the last ties that bound him to what he despised in the world.

[Mr Verdant Green]

Good synopsis, admin. I also like your insight on how the story inspired McCandless and thanks for including the photo.

I just wrote a review of The Call of the Wild audiobook for my blog. It’s independent of your synopsis.

This is another one I picked up from the limited audiobook selection at the local library. I thought I had read it before in elementary or middle school, but the story did not seem familiar. I believe it’s the most famous classic book by Jack London, though after reading it I’m not sure I’d call it a classic. It has good writing, but I’ve read better non-classics. It’s probably all just a matter of personal taste. Of course, I’d heard of The Call of the Wild and White Fang. My mom told me once that she read that Jack London would always try to write for an hour every day after getting up in the morning. Chris McCandless, the subject of the book and film Into the Wild was a big fan of Jack London.

The main character is a dog named Buck. Though it’s told in the third person, the story is told from Buck’s point of view. He seems very anthropomorphic, able to understand what people say and grasp human characteristics. He also interacts with other dogs. Buck is a big dog, a St. Bernard mix who weighs 140 pounds, as much as some adult humans. His weight actually fluctuates between 115-150 pounds depending on his living conditions. The story is about his journey from a large, rich estate in northern California to the Klondike gold fields of the Yukon during the gold rush of 1898. There’s much mention of places I’ve visited or at least heard of: Seattle, of course, a city that grew very large as a “casting off” point to Alaska and the Yukon; Skagway, the small mining town where my dad lived as a child and youth; Dyea, the former town that’s now just a campground that my family pronounces as “dye-ee” but the reader of the audiobook pronounces as “dye-eh-ah”.

London really captures the setting, the environment, and the life in the Yukon at the turn of the last century. He’s done his research on how the seasons change from icy and dead winters to gorgeous and living summers. Alaska and western Canada were like the wild west with saloons, miners from all over the contiguous U.S. (CONUS) pouring in and not knowing what they’re in for. As a dog, Buck’s life is ruled by “The Law of Club and Fang”: the fangs of the other dogs and wolves and the clubs of humans forcing the dogs into submission when necessary (or not). There are great descriptions of the terrain: the ice and snow that require breaking out dogsleds frozen to the ground; the creeks, rivers and frozen lakes that can make for easily or perilous crossing depending on the time of year, the deep forests, and the wild animals. All seem fairly accurate except the description of Indians that use bows and arrows: harpoons may be more accurate. I guess we didn’t cover native warfare when we learned about Alaska history in elementary school.

What’s very interesting are the dynamics of the sled dog team of which Buck is a part. The other dogs are mostly huskies and often have human names. One of them, called Dave, is very sullen and doesn’t associate with the others. He’s very hard working, though. There’s the struggle to be the alpha dog, the conflict between taking care of oneself and supporting the team. Though they don’t seem to speak to one another, the dogs all have different personalities and communicate through their actions.

London’s descriptions are always intense and epic: the beauty of the landscape contrasting yet coexisting with its perils; the extreme suffering, hunger and desperation, the great love of a loyal master, . . . It’s almost too extreme like some kind of bipolar disorder: great joy followed by excruciating pain followed by epic conflict and on and on. There’s no leveling off, no mundane times, or perhaps they’re just omitted. Buck seems almost too perfect: strong, enduring, adaptable, almost supernatural. He seems to have no weaknesses, is able to perform just about any feat of strength, speed or bravery and is unyielding to anyone or anything. I guess he needs to be that way to survive the whole story.

[aj1560]

Jack London's biography by Irving Stone - "Sailor on Horseback" gives an insight into the mind of Chris Mcandless. This is a very powerful biography and when read during the late teens and early twenties leaves a great impression on the mind. It is not easy to look at this from any other angle - to be in that frame of mind where you are questioning the purpose of Life - those moments have to be felt to scratch the reasoning of Chris McCandless.

[bobenns]

"The Call Of The Wild" was on the reading list in Elementary School. Everyone read it and loved it. None that I know of were so inspired that they headed for Alaska. Alaskans hate Jack London for the most part. They know the story is fiction and does not reflect the harsh reality of the landscape and climate. Alaskans are hardy folk with strong character and an iron will, but they are not fools, or at least not for long. They grow tired of the foolish people who come inspired by Jack London or Christopher McCandless and need to be rescued or recovered from their foolish adventure.
The wilderness is great, wonderful in fact. The beauty and solitude can bring such a sense of peace. I grew up in a community surrounded by wilderness, we played on the edge of it, learned to respect it, heard about those who got lost. I still live in a part of Canada where rugged wilderness is a short distance away. I go out there often, but its so nice to come home to a hot shower, a good meal and a warm comfortable bed. If I had a cabin out there somewhere I would probably go and stay longer. I doubt I would ever attempt to live off the land as Chris did unless it was in survival mode.
We are all looking for something, we are usually looking for ourselves for our place where we feel right. Many of us have had a similar journey but survived the jungles we encountered. I feel bad for Chris, like I knew him, I would have loved to read the novel he would write after his Alaskan adventure.
We make decisions every day of our lives, each decision influences our path, opens or closes a door, sends us in a new direction. Each decision can eliminate some other possibilities, put us in harms way or open a whole new world. The decision to experiment with drugs for example can be the beginning of the end for some. The decision to quit a job can lead to hunger or future opportunities and riches. Some decisions cannot be undone, we cannot go back and change it. Like robbing a bank, its done and now you are a criminal, forever. We don't always know exactly how things are going to turn out, but we can make decisions based on sound reasoning, calculation and the experience of others rather than just feelings. Deciding to be a Jack London character is not sound decision making, especially when we are not that character. I could have decide to be like Mohamed Ali when I was young, it would have been a poor decision and probably a painful one.

[hotelgirl]

I think Chris's interest in Call Of The Wild was more about the genre that Jack London emersed himself. Jack London was all about the wilderness and wrote alot of stories set in Alaska and the wilderness. Call Of The Wild was really one of the lesser meaningful stories, its was popular because it was about a dog. Some of his other stuff was far more powerful, and many stories involved people dying in the alaska wilderness.

Jack London was also interested in people that survived off of the land. Most of his stories are about gold miners and the Alaskan gold rush, as well as pearl divers. The sense I was left with was that Jack London had a penchant for living off the land and getting rich off of the land whether it was pearl diving or the gold rush. Of course theres MArtin Eden, the story of a lost child, the parrallels are unnerie. Its one of the most powerful stories I have ever read. The ending is very sad.

All i can say is that the story of Chris is heart breaking, but to be quite honest in some regards its pretty good. If he had of survived it would never have become legend. Its sad to say but he has immortalised himself by doing what he has done.

Further, i hate tramps, i always say to people, if they really want to break away from society, why dont they do go into the wilderness? Chris has brought honour back to the notion of being a tramp. A SuperTramp.

[pezar]

Further, i hate tramps, i always say to people, if they really want to break away from society, why dont they do go into the wilderness? Chris has brought honour back to the notion of being a tramp. A SuperTramp.

The weird thing is, at one point in American history there was a whole tramp subculture and hundreds of thousands of men and women who lived the tramp or hobo life. During the 1930s it was considered honorable to be a hobo, if it meant not sitting around and starving, as would have been the case if the hobos had stayed in the cities. Back then it was considered a good thing to work for your supper in any way possible, and if you had to travel the country or move hundreds of miles from home to feed yourself and your family, then more power to you.

I think we've lost some of that work ethic in America, and many people seem content to sit around, play video games, and collect welfare all their lives rather than take a chance. The tramps that Chris encountered were colorful, but lived in a world that had atrophied greatly from what it was before 1940. If you go to wikipedia and look up "tramp" and "hobo" you can get a good idea of the wandering life in American history. Wiki classifies Chris as a hobo, incidentally, and not a tramp. The difference: a "bum" can't be moved to work, a "tramp" only works when he needs money, and a "hobo" is a willing worker. That's according to wiki.

Another interesting read is Chris's profile at a site called digihitch.com that's dedicated to those who "ride their thumbs". I don't have the exact url, but it's under profiles of modern hitchhikers. That site notes that after Into the Wild came out that there was a sudden jump in young people living as wanderers, something not seen since the 1960s. In large part due to Chris, being a wandering laborer is becoming respectable once again.