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    The Call of the Wild
    The Call of the Wild
    The Call of the Wild
    Ebook184 pages3 hours

    The Call of the Wild

    By Jack London

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Enriched Classics offer readers accessible editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and commentary. Each book includes educational tools alongside the text, enabling students and readers alike to gain a deeper and more developed understanding of the writer and their work.

    The Call of the Wild tells the story of the magnificent dog, Buck, who’s loyalty is tested by cruel men in search of gold in the Klondike. Brutally treated, Buck finds the blood of his wolf ancestors rising within him and breaks free to roam the Alaskan wilderness as leader of a pack instead of as a pawn in his owner’s ruthless mission.

    Enriched Classics enhance your engagement by introducing and explaining the historical and cultural significance of the work, the author’s personal history, and what impact this book had on subsequent scholarship. Each book includes discussion questions that help clarify and reinforce major themes and reading recommendations for further research.

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    Editor's Note

    Wild and free…

    Jack London’s classic story of a domestic dog named Buck who sheds his civilized habits once he becomes a sled dog in Alaska is no stranger to the big screen. Still, it’s an interesting choice to join the slew of recent dog movies adapted from other books (“The Art of Racing in the Rain,” “A Dog’s Purpose”). Harrison Ford is stars as Buck’s favorite human, John Thornton.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateJul 21, 2014
    ISBN9781451685428
    Author

    Jack London

    Jack London was born in San Francisco on January 12th 1876, the unwanted child of a spiritualist mother and astrologer father. He was raised by Virginia Prentiss, a former slave, before rejoining his mother and her new husband, John London. Largely self-educated, the teenage Jack made money stealing oysters and working on a schooner before briefly studying at the University of Berkeley in 1896. He left to join the Klondike Gold Rush a year later, a phenomenon that would go on to form the background of his literary masterpieces, The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906). Alongside his novel writing London dabbled in war reportage, agriculture and politics. He was married twice and had two daughters from his first marriage. London died in 1916 from complications of numerous chronic illnesses.

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    Reviews for The Call of the Wild

    4/5

    103 ratings114 reviews

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    • 5/5
      It's pretty hard to find fault with this story or the way it's told. It was particularly engaging to read while my family is in the process of rehabilitating a very fearful rescue dog. Jack London is among the go-to authors for perspective on how we think when you pare away frivolous comforts - and that's exemplified in CotW.
    • 3/5
      When I initially read this American classic, I was in either elementary or high school. It had all the elements to entice a young boy. It is an adventure which occurs during the Yukon gold rush. The story's protagonist is Buck, an 140 lb St. Bernard and Scotch Collie mix, who is abducted from an easy life as the pet in St. Clara, California, and sold to dog traders who eventually sells him to mail couriers as a sled dog in the Yukon Territory. Buck will need to tap in to his more primeval instincts if he is to survive the harsh northern conditions. The third reason I chose this book is that it was short at less than 100 pages. I had recently read Moby Dick and I needed a break!It has been good revisiting some of the classics I read as a youth. They become more enjoyable when you understand better literary themes and metaphors.
    • 2/5
      Believe it or not, I've never read The Call of the Wild (1903) by Jack London, which one would think is a requirement of being a kid in America. And I still haven't read it, although on a whim I listened to my library's audiobook copy, albeit not very carefully. Narrated in an appropriately macho fashion by Frank Muller, The Call of the Wild tells the story of Buck a farm dog who is kidnapped from Northern California and forced to pull sleds for for miners in the Yukon gold rush. A cushy pet learns to fight for food and compete for leadership of the pack through fighting and violence, and eventually becomes alpha dog in a wild wolf pack after his owner dies.Yes friends, before I read this book I knew it had something to do with Alaska and dogs, but I had no idea that the entire book is about a dog from a dog's point of view. Granted, the book is very symbolic in that we humans sit very tenuously on the edge of civilization and brutality and savageness (and London wrote this before the World Wars, the Holocaust, and all the horrors of the 20th century that tested humanity). Still, as a book about dogs it's a very good and accurate look at what may be going on in a dog's mind.
    • 4/5
      I read this book a few pages at a time (distracted by Facebook, Instagram & Twitter - the usual suspects). When I finally finished it I felt I had read a wonderful, though quite violent, story. Yes, despite flaws, a great tale.
    • 4/5
      Trust, betrayal, loyalty and animal cruelty. A heart wrenching story about the life of dogs during the gold rush from an animal POV. I am not always a fan of such an approach but it worked well here. Highly engaging (worked well for an audiobook) but not black and white, as I could relate even to the most "evil" characters. I guess that's why it's a "classic" (mental note: "Read more classics"=).
    • 4/5
      Synopsis.......The story takes place in the extreme conditions of the Yukon during the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rush, where strong sled dogs were in high demand. After Buck, a domesticated dog, is snatched from a pastoral ranch in California, he is sold into a brutal life as a sled dog. The novella details Buck's struggle to adjust and survive the cruel treatment he receives from humans, other dogs, and nature. He eventually sheds the veneer of civilization altogether and instead relies on primordial instincts and the lessons he has learned to become a respected and feared leader in the wild.Published back in 1903 after the author had spent sometime in the aforementioned Yukon.I was looking for something a little bit different and quick to read after getting bogged down by another book which I wasn't enjoying. I had previously heard of this book, hasn't everyone(?) but can't recall reading it ever during my near half-century of years, not even in the dim and distant days of school. Glad I made the effort though.Gripping, exciting, moving.......a testament of an indomitable spirit, bravery, determination, loyalty, fearlessness, and probably another dozen or so admirable attributes. Sad in places, but ultimately an uplifting and rewarding read.I wouldn't put it past me finding more from London in the future.4 from 5Down-loaded free from the internet.
    • 4/5
      It's great juvenile literature, however, adults could also enjoy it for its so many fine qualities. Dog lovers and nature lovers in general will share more than one state of mind with Buck and the general description of the wilderness. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Great book!
    • 1/5
      Horrid book.
    • 3/5
      It's hard to believe, that with 82 years of reading all sorts of books, this the first American Classic from an American Classic author that I''ve read. I'll try more of the classics but this work is no where near the top of my list of books. Yes, it is quite an adventure for this dog and he certainly had very many experiences but I can't get to the level of classical literature.
    • 3/5
      The story is written from the perspective of Buck, the dog. He is large, he is faithful and pragmatic, and he is kidnapped by a worker on the ranch he lives on, and sold to a trader who sends him north to run with a team dragging sleds. Poor Buck is mistreated, and faces a hard run. It is not just humans who are cruel to him, other dogs resent his size and presence, and battles for position as alpha male take place. The dog team are run to the ground, and Bucks saving grace is his size, strength and stamina. He is passed to and from inept and cruel owners until he finally meets an owner he can trust and bond with.It's a nice, if somewhat violent, story. Nothing too deep, but a read that carries you along.
    • 4/5
      The Call of the Wild by Jack London is a book I have long wanted to read, somehow missing this classic as a younger reader. Now that I have read it, I am glad that this was missed in my younger days as I don’t know if I would have been able to handle the animal cruelty that plays such a large part of this story. Maybe we were tougher years ago as many of the great animal classic stories like this one, Black Beauty and Beautiful Joe have many scenes that today would not be accepted in a children’s story.The story of Buck, being snatched from his easy life in California and being taken to work in the gold fields, shows him to be a special dog, dominant and intelligent, and, after finding out how cruel man can be, he learns to read both people and the situations that arise in his life. The story follows Buck as he is passed through various owners, some cruel, some indifferent and one that Buck learns to love. All the while, deep inside Buck comes a call, a desire to run free in the wilderness.At my much advanced age, I can now appreciate Jack London’s writing, especially when describing the Alaskan wilderness. The story is fast paced with excellent action sequences and overall I would class this a great read, if, and it’s a big if, you can face the brutality of what Buck goes through. The themes of like natured beasts calling out to each other, and the luring back to the primordial life that exists deep in memory are a little dated but overall this is a compelling read. London uses language like a poet, simple, at times savage but always rich in imagery.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this story. The writing was clever and well-crafted, the dog's story was interesting, and the themes of the power of instinct and love - in nature and in between a human and an animal - this was all well-done. It was a very different book from what I usually read. The voices and the characters are all male; the story seems to be targeted at young men or boys. It certainly wasn't a favourite. Even so, it is hard to deny that this is a classic, and I am glad I took the time to read it.
    • 4/5
      A terrific dog story, though hard to read at times because of all that Buck endures. I read it in the Library of America edition. Had never read it as a child as far as I recall; I note that some film versions are geared towards children and I can only assume (hope?) they have been bowdlerized; I wouldn't recommend this for children under 10 or 11 no matter their reading level.
    • 4/5
      Very enjoyable. I felt like Buck's dreaming of prehistoric man was unnecessary and I think it would have been better without that.
    • 4/5
      Another one of those books that seems to have gotten past me in my school days, I just recently read The Call of the Wild for the first time. Like many of these books that I'm discovering pretty much everyone else has read except me, I think I'm glad that I came at them as an adult, as I don't think I would have revisited them had I read them earlier, and I don't think I would have taken away as much when I was younger. Jack London's story about Buck, a St. Bernard-Scotch Shepherd who is kidnapped from his idyllic southern California home to be a sled dog in the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush is a powerful tale. We follow Buck's journey as he discovers that not all men are kind like his previous owners, learns to navigate the ins and outs of the sled dog's pack pecking order, and finally as he discovers the primal nature of his being as he eventually starts to venture out into the wilderness on his own. The imagery that London uses in describing Buck's discovery of that primal nature is remarkable; I think of anything else in the book, I enjoyed these sequences best.
    • 5/5
      One of those classics that's definitely no chore, and one assessable even when I read it as a child. I'm not about to forget Buck, a dog who hears the call of the wild. And as is the case with a friend who also loves this book, the sledge hauling contest is indelibly impressed into my mind. How many books can you say leave that kind of impression decades later? One of those stories that can make an animal protagonist come alive. (And the same can be said for London's other novel with a dog protagonist--White Fang).
    • 5/5
      This is a timeless classic that should be a must read for everyone. It's on the list of books my children will read and one of those I make sure the local library has a good copy of. The author knows what he's writing about and it shows as you read through a touching story about a dog growing up and the troubles he endures.
    • 4/5
      I followed up my recent reading of 'White Fang' with rereading of this earlier Jack London novel, and they made an interesting comparison. There was something slightly more anthropomorphic about 'Call of the Wild' and certainly more emphasis on the bond between Buck and his various human owners (especially his last owner John Thornton). The climax of this novel, where Buck finally answers the 'call' and joins the wild wolves, anticipates the 'White Fang' story which is darker and closer to nature. I would say that the writing is richer and more mature in 'White Fang' but some of the set-piece incidents here - such as Thornton's wager that Buck could singlehandedly break out a thousand pound sled load and pull it one hundred yards - are as exciting as I remember them as a boy reader.
    • 4/5
      The Call of the WildYamamoto, MitsuAR Quiz # 30529 EN FICTIONIL: MG - BL: 5.5 AR Points 2.0AR Quiz Types RP, VPThoroughly enjoyed this retelling of the classic Jack London novel about Buck, part St. Bernard, part wolf and part super hero. I give it 4 stars and would recommend this book to all students and adults alike.I thought the graphics on each page were well done and helped readers visualize the rugged and difficult life Buck is thrown into without warning. He is abducted from a world of comfort on Judge Miller's farm, to a world where his survival depends on his instincts, guile and ability to adapt quickly to his changing circumstances.Fascinating that Mr. London could have written this novel in the early 1900's and the novel remains so timeless. I would hope that students today can still relate to such a beloved dog and the people and animals he meets along his journey to finding his true nature. It was fun to reread this inspirational story once again.I love the way good and evil are portrayed through both men and animals. I particularly liked watching Buck overcome these evils through both patience and his persistence until ultimately becoming a leader among the sled dogs.When Buck is befriended by John Thornton, we get lulled into a false sense of security thinking Buck will now be forever protected by this great man. But the greatest test of Buck's life is yet to come, and in the final climactic chapters, Bucks true superhero nature comes out as he defends his companion to the end.
    • 3/5
      This is one of those books that I might have read before and forgotten about it. This was a pretty good book, I think my favorite part was that I picked up a new vocabulary word because the author over used it... "virility."
    • 5/5
      Both of these tales (White Fang & Call of the Wild), one of a civilized dog who embraces the wild after he is stolen and one of a wild dog tamed by the love of a man...are both masterpieces that embrace the animal and flawed humanity in man and the the beasts that show us so and brave so much. Both are raw, emotional tales told in sparse, beautiful language that gnaw at you long after you put them down. First read at age 12, and enjoyed again as much at 41.
    • 5/5
      I never read this as a youngster though it seemed to be "unofficially required" reading in elementary school. I always assumed it was man and his dog story, but it turned out to be civilized dog returns to wilderness story told from the dog's point of view. And it worked well. Very well written and engaging.
    • 4/5
      London is the master of adventure and Call never disappoints for when I need to escape for an afternoon through the eyes of Buck. I usually read it every few years.
    • 4/5
      I vaguely remember reading The Call of the Wild while I was in elementary school. I remembered it being a story about a sled dog in the cold wilderness of Alaska. Beyond that, I had forgotten nearly all of the plot and most of the characters and so it was with fairly fresh eyes that I reproached this book.The first thing I noticed that the book was told from a close 3rd person view of the DOG's perspective. I'm sure this point of view is one of the characteristics that made this book initially interesting to critics and educators. Fortunately there is a lot more to the book than a novel or quirky idea of telling the story from a dog's point of view. The perspective change didn't come off as cheesy or manipulative. Rather the narrative choice allowed us to see the story in a new mindset and brush away stereotypical thoughts and ideas. By stripping away our human perspective it leaves us open to seeing ideas and principles in a new light. Even though we are tied very closely to the dog Buck and his cohorts, the story doesn't become an animated cartoon or other scenario where the animals are humanized and given thoughts or speech. This choice was surprising but as I thought about it I found myself really appreciating the fact that even though the story is being told "through" Buck, we don't find Buck as fully anthropomorphized as you might see in other stories. While we read some of his general thoughts we don't "hear" him thinking or speaking in a human sense. I really liked this distinction as it keeps his animal self a bit more distance and less invaded by human traits seen in something like Animal Farm or other animal fiction tales. Still I can see the argument that we really can't know what an animal is thinking or feeling and so it is still certain that London has placed some human thoughts and motivations onto Buck that may not be wholly natural.As to the high level plot, we follow the life of Buck the dog from the time he is stolen from his warm, comfortable home in California and taken to the Yukon to be a sled dog during the gold rush. He is confused, angry and belligerent but he also quickly realizes the nature of the situation and the reliance on the humans for food, protection and care. Buck learns which humans to trust and how to behave around them and he also gets to know the other dogs on his team and in his camp. Over time Buck works in a variety of teams and for a variety of different people but the more and more he lives in the cold wilderness, the more he realizes there is something out there calling to him.I really enjoyed seeing Buck learning to navigate the harsh new world he'd been thrown into. Not only did he have to learn how to manage the cold snow (which he'd never seen before) and the bitter environment but he also had to deal with men and dogs who didn't respect him or care for him in the same way he was used to. He had to learn the ins and outs of a whole new social structure. by dealing with the new pack mentality of fighting for food and learning which dogs were leaders, which were followers and which would stand by neutrally. It also showcases his struggle between domestication or subservience to humans and the fight to return to his primitive nature and animal instincts.Overall I really enjoyed this story and can see why it's recommended reading for younger readers, especially younger boys. The story is fast paced and has some exciting action sequences. It deals with the life of dogs, adventurers and the unknown wilderness. Beyond its basic appeal to the readers, the book does a good job teaching about different aspects of the world. Even though it focuses on the life of a dog it can teach readers a lot about the nuances of social interaction, dealing with hardship, making difficult choices, loyalty, trust and love. There are some violent scenes that could trouble younger readers, especially animal lovers, but otherwise I see this as a great book for elementary kids or middle graders to read and I think adults can have a lot of fun with this as well.****4 out of 5 stars
    • 4/5
      A sad, wonderful tale.
    • 3/5
      I read Call of the Wild. In the book, Buck (the main character), was a domesticated dog who lived on a farm. He was sold to be a sled dog and his life changed forever. Buck was put in a cage for many days until someone would buy him. He was beaten to show that the master had power over him. When someone bought him he was hooked up on the sled. Buck and Spitz (another sled dog) didn't get along from the beginning. When Buck became stronger and more powerful, Spitz was afraid that Buck would overpower him. When they had enough of each other Buck killed Spitz and took the role of lead dog. Then three people bought all of the dogs from the other owners. The three people didn't bring enough food for all of the dogs so the dogs became tired and couldn't pull the sled. Eventually Buck gave up and Jonathan (one of the men) was stabbed. They were left and on the side of the road while the sled left them. The sled broke through the ice and all the dogs and men died. Buck and Jonathan became good friends and went on many adventures together. Buck wanted to go with wolves but loved his new owner too much. When Jonathan died, Buck left and joined the wolves.The book was rated a four. I would rate this book a three because for me it was hard to understand. I couldn't tell if it was being told from the dogs view or third person but about the dog. I would recommend it because it is a classic, but not for young kids. I definitely think it is a good book. I thought the ending was good because throughout the book he said that the wild was calling for him. I watched the movie and it was nothing like the book. I would recommend the book over the movie any day.
    • 3/5
      3.5 stars.This is the story of Buck, a dog who lives with a family, but is then taken and sold and trained to work alongside sled-dogs in the Yukon during the gold rush. Buck is sold a few times to masters who all treat him differently, some kindly, some not-so-kindly. The story is told from Buck’s point of view. The edition I read has a foreword by Jean Craighead George, who wrote the Julie of the Wolves trilogy. There is an “About the author” at the end as well. It took me a little bit to get into the book, but once I did I quite enjoyed it. I like reading the dog’s perspective. The information about Jack London I also enjoyed – it seems he had an interesting life.
    • 5/5
      I wan't sure I was going to like a book like this but ended up reading it in one day. I'm still amazed how he wrote this incredible yet credible story which felt pretty much from the dog's POV and yet, not. The omniscient. I learned quite a bit from this story about mushing, the dogs, Alaska, and the period. Society conveniently forgets that our dogs descended from wolves and even though Buck was violently deprived of his posh former life, his regression to the wild was spiritually liberating. It was a gruesome story and I hate suffering in animals but I still appreciated it for the brilliant writing and look forward to more of London's writing.
    • 4/5
      One I haven't read, but plan to. It has several pastel colored illustrations.

    Book preview

    The Call of the Wild - Jack London

    Cover: The Call of the Wild, by Jack London

    Enriched Classic

    The Call of the Wild

    Jack London

    Includes detailed explanatory notes, an overview of key themes, and more

    CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP

    The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, Simon & Schuster

    INTRODUCTION

    The Call of the Wild:

    A DOG’S ADVENTURES BEYOND CIVILIZATION

    The Call of the Wild is a story about a dog named Buck, told from that canine’s point of view. It is also a thrilling adventure set in an exotically harsh land of ice and snow, a meditation on what lurks within a supposedly civilized heart, a working out of theories on evolution, and a tone poem on work and freedom. In the past one hundred years, Jack London’s star has risen and fallen and risen again in the world of tastemakers and literary judges. Many of his other forty-nine books have fallen into obscurity, then begun to shine anew. Through it all, The Call of the Wild has remained in print, and in the hands of thousands of readers. Today it is celebrated both for its perennial popularity and its importance to American literature.

    The Call of the Wild is one in a series of stories and novels Jack London wrote about the Klondike, including his other great dog book, White Fang. According to his daughter Joan, London wrote The Call of the Wild in one long thirty-day writing stint. It had originally been planned as a short story, a companion to his earlier story Bâtard. London felt he had to redeem the canine reputation slighted by his hell-spawn devil dog. The majestic Buck did that work, and then went on to do more. He became both a flesh-and-blood dog and an allegorical figure of mysterious depth. Through Buck, London’s passionate, contradictory ideas come together.

    Jack London was a self-taught writer, orator, adventurer, and thinker. He loved big ideas, and he aspired to write about them, but he also wrote to make money. And though he worked hard to escape what he considered the nightmare of manual labor, he never forgot the tastes of the working-class people with whom he grew up. Neither was he afraid to cater to the mainstream reading public. He wanted, he said, for nothing to come between him and his reader. Instead he hoped to find, as he put it in his broadside Eight Great Factors of Literary Success (1916), the symbols that would require the expenditure of the minimum of my reader’s brain energy, leaving the maximum of his brain energy to realize and enjoy the content of my mind as conveyed to his mind.

    In The Call of the Wild, London finds those symbols in the insistent physicality of a dog’s life in the Yukon. He lets us feel the ice biting between his protagonist’s toes and the hunger and sore-tired muscles of the dog at the end of a hard day’s pulling through the snow. He shows us Buck’s terror and disgust as he witnesses his first wolf-style canine attack, and later describes his fierce joy when he, too, acquires a taste for fighting and for blood. He finds them in the weird majesty of the Arctic landscape, and in the rough urgency of the humans who rushed there to look for gold. All he asks of his readers is that they open their minds to the stark beauty and violence of the Klondike riches he has gathered for them.

    The Life and Work of Jack London

    Jack London’s life was so crammed with picturesque detail that it has often overshadowed his work. On January 12, 1876, London was born John Griffith Chaney in San Francisco to Flora Wellman. Wellman, an astrologer, named fellow astrologer William Chaney as London’s father—it later turned out that she was one of six women he had married. Before the year was over, she married John London and changed her baby son’s surname. Twenty-one years later, London would confront Chaney. Chaney’s denial that he was London’s father was one of the great hardships of London’s life. The other was the death of his beloved stepfather the same year, while London was abroad in the Klondike.

    By the time he left for the Klondike, London had already achieved several lifetimes of work and adventure. He began working a variety of jobs to help support his family at age ten. At fifteen he bought a boat and pirated in oysters in San Francisco Bay before turning around to work for the California Fish Patrol. He went on to work as a laborer and a shipmate on a sealing vessel before taking off to tramp around as a hobo. (He was once picked up on vagrancy charges and served a thirty-day sentence.) At age nineteen he returned to Oakland to go to high school, which he completed in eighteen months.

    London was already reading voraciously on his own. His early life of poverty and hard labor would haunt him even after his success. At twenty he joined the American Socialist Labor Party. He gave stump speeches on the corner and rapidly gained notoriety as the Boy Socialist of Oakland. London’s politics were later complicated by his interest in social Darwinism and Nietzschean ideas about the power of the individual. However, he remained a lifetime spokesman for the Socialist party and wrote both fiction and nonfiction in which he explored the plight of the working class, including The People of the Abyss for which he did six weeks of dangerous research, living in London’s East End.

    In the summer of 1897, London caught Klondicitis and became one of the thousands of men to try their luck looking for gold in the Yukon. His unsuccessful year there would furnish the material for the Northland stories that made his reputation, including The Call of the Wild. Before success, though, came a hard year or so of constant rejection and learning to write. During this period, London developed the strict writing regimen of a thousand words every morning that, along with his incredible drive, would allow him to publish fifty books over the next sixteen years in genres that included journalism, sociological reports, sea stories, animal stories, horror, and science fiction.

    Within the same sixteen years he married twice and traveled almost continually, often giving lectures along the way. His first wife, Bess Marden, was an old-fashioned Victorian woman whom he did not love, and to whom he was cruel, demanding, and unfaithful. They had two daughters, from whom London was estranged. His second wife was the liberated New Woman, Charmian Kittredge, his mate-woman who adventured alongside him, even boxing with him (Jack won all the matches). Together they traveled in the Snark, a boat London built himself, to Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, the New Hebrides, and the Marquesas, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. They also traveled in a horse-drawn wagon from California to Oregon and back, and sailed from Baltimore to Seattle around Cape Horn. On his own, London traveled as a journalist to cover the Russo-Japanese and the Mexican Revolution. In between trips, the Londons lived on Beauty Ranch, the land outside Glen Ellen, California, where London experimented with different farming techniques.

    By the time he reached his late thirties, London’s body bore testament to years of manic activity and productivity, and to his equally voracious appetite for food and drink. He suffered great pain from severe rheumatism and kidney disease, for which he took morphine and other pain relievers. The circumstances of his death, at age forty on November 22,1916 at Beauty Ranch, are much debated. Early biographers claimed that London committed suicide, others that his abuse of drugs and alcohol caused his death. However, recent evidence has contradicted these theories, and suggests that London died either from complications of his kidney disease or from an accidental overdose of medication.

    Historical and Literary Context of The Call of the Wild

    The Gilded Age and the Klondike Gold Stampede

    At the turn of the nineteenth century, the rise of industry, new technologies, unprecedented waves of immigration, political corruption, the closing of the frontier, and the rapid growth of both urban centers and the newly settled West created huge amounts of wealth for a few people and terrible hardship for many others, whose labor and lives were exploited. Early on in the era, Mark Twain termed it the Gilded Age: poverty hidden by a thin flash of gold. Twain’s metaphor was especially appropriate since this was also the era of the gold standard. All paper wealth was tied to the value of gold. By the time ships bearing gold from the Klondike strike were greeted in Seattle and San Francisco by huge, excited crowds, the country had endured a seven-year depression (1873-1879) followed by several smaller downturns and was still dealing with the economic fallout of the Panic of 1893. Judge Miller’s gardener was not the only one, as London puts it in The Call, whose wages did not lap over the needs of his wife and divers small copies of himself.

    Nor was London the only one willing to gamble for wealth. Between 1897 and 1898, more than a hundred thousand stampeders rushed to the Yukon to try their luck. However, the economic split in the United States was merely replicated in the North. Huge numbers of prospectors perished of cold, starvation, illness, or fatigue. Of the rest, most spent far more than they made. Only those who had jumped their claims the year before news spread of the strike were able to cash in on their findings by renting accommodations and selling food, liquor, and supplies to the newcomers.

    Social Darwinism, Eugenics, and Nietzschean Supermen

    Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species was first published in 1859, but its impact continued to grow over the succeeding decades as other evolutionists interpreted, and misinterpreted, Darwin’s ideas. London was greatly influenced by English philosopher Herbert Spencer, one of the leading proponents of social Darwinism. This theory claimed that natural selection (an idea developed by scientist Thomas Huxley, also important to London) could explain not only the survival of certain species, but the success or failure of people.

    Social Darwinism justified many repugnant ideas including the eugenics movement. Founded by Francis Galton, one of Darwin’s cousins, this pseudoscience of eugenics claimed the ability to identify superior genetic material (meaning people) and sought to keep that material pure. These ideas were later employed by Adolf Hitler to justify the systematic killing of millions of people he deemed genetically undesirable. London had inherited a belief in the supremacy of so-called Anglo-Saxons from his mother, and social Darwinism seemed to provide a scientific basis for his racism. However, his beliefs were eventually complicated by his dismay over the white man’s despoiling of the wilderness, his travels, and a fascination with the hardiness of mixed breeds, which can be seen in The Call of the Wild.

    London’s belief in white supremacy was also supported by a too-literal interpretation of writings of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In the influential work Thus Spake Zarathustra (1891), Nietzsche writes of supermen and blond gods who had evolved from mere mortals by the exertions of pure individual will. Though London later claimed he had rejected Nietzsche, traces of his initial infatuation can often be seen in his heroes. For example, Buck, the hero of The Call, becomes more and more glorious as he regresses, finally surpassing the wolves themselves in size, strength, skill, and ferocity.

    Naturalism, Romanticism, and Animal Stories

    London’s fascination with social Darwinism was partly a result of his faith in science, and his desire to find the set of laws that governed human behavior. These ideas are part of what place The Call of the Wild and much of London’s other work in the category of American literary naturalism. Naturalists believe in a deterministic world, that is, a world in which the individual is helpless before the laws of the universe, and human emotion merely ingredients in a series of predictable interactions. Naturalistic fiction aspires to (but does not always achieve) a kind of science experiment: it tries to set its characters in motion with these laws and objectively report the results. Often, but not always, naturalistic books focus on poor or otherwise alienated people. Much of naturalist literature sees itself as committed to bringing to light the harsh truths of life we generally wish to suppress. Its themes include violence, the struggle for survival, and the breaking of taboos, and it is pessimistic about the individual’s capability and the power of imagination. Famous examples of American naturalism include Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie (1900), Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1896), and Frank Norris’s McTeague (1899).

    Naturalism is often opposed to romanticism, a literary movement that valued the power of imagination and the individual, and a mysterious world beyond the one science could describe. However, naturalistic fiction is quite often impure, tainted, as many critics have observed of The Call of the Wild, with romantic impulses to let its protagonists be heroes, and to make sense of the world with stories.

    The Call of the Wild is also sometimes read as a beast fable, drawing on the tradition, reaching back to Aesop’s fables, to which Anna Sewell’s famous sentimental novel, Black Beauty, and Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli stories belong. However, other critics see London’s work as going in a very different direction from either of these examples. Some argue that saying The Call of the Wild is a story about a dog is like saying Melville’s Moby Dick is a story about a whale: true but incomplete to the point of silliness. Still others point to psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s ideas about archetypes and their influence on London, arguing that Buck is simply a classic hero in the form of a dog.

    CHRONOLOGY OF JACK LONDON’S LIFE AND WORK

    1876: Born John Griffith Chaney, January 12,

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