Jack London - The Call of the Wild
Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2009 8:20 pm
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.
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.