Abstract : The Call of The Wild is the most famous novel written by Jack London. In this novel, London depicts the story of a powerful dog called Buck, which happened in the Gold Rush Times when a great number of people came to Alaska to find gold. It tells us how Buck learns to struggle and strive, and how his wildness is aroused. By narrating Buck’s experience, London shows us some of the temporary social characters: the indispensable struggle for mastery and the nature of humanbeings ― wild etc. It reflects the major thoughts of that time. This essay will analyze this theme ― the indispensable struggle for mastery.
Key words: Gold Rush Wildness Mastery Struggle
Buck lived a comfortable and cozy life in Judge Miller’s estate in California’s Santa Clara Valley. But his cozy life comes to an end when the demand of strong dogs to pull sleds arises. Buck is stolen and sold to cold Klondike. After living there for a while, Buck recovers the instincts of his wild ancestors: he learns to fight, scavenge for food, and sleep beneath the snow on winter nights. At the same time, he develops a fierce rivalry with Spitz, the lead dog in the team. One of their fights is broken up when a pack of dogs invades the camp, but Buck begins to undercut Spitz’s authority, and eventually the two dogs become involved in a major fight. Buck kills Spitz and takes his place as the lead dog. Too heavy work makes the team weak and cannot walk on any further. His owner sold him to three young inexperienced men. They make the dogs do more work and these dogs are exhausted to the point. At this moment Thornton saved Buck, became his owner, and develops deep friendship with Buck.
While Thornton are searching for gold, Buck ranges far a field, befriending wolves and hunting bears and moose. He always returns to Thornton in the end, one day, he comes back to camp ,only to find that Yeehat Indian have attacked their house and killed his master. Buck attacks the Indian, killing several and scattering the rest, and then heads off into the wild, where he becomes the leader of a pack of wolves. He becomes a legendary figure, a Ghost Dog, fathering countless cubs and inspiring fear in the Yeehat. That’s the story of Buck.
The Call of the Wild is a story of transformation in which the old Buck―must adjust to the harsher realities of life in the frosty North, where survival is the only imperative. Kill or be killed is the only morality among the dogs of the Klondike, as Buck realizes from the moment he steps off the boat and watches the violent death of his friend Curly. The wilderness is a cruel, uncaring world, where only the strong prospers. It is, one might say, a perfect Darwinian world, and London’s depiction of it owns much to Charles Darwin, who proposed the theory of evolution to explain the development of competition for scarce resources. The term often used to describe Darwin’s theory, although he did not coin it, is “the survival of the fittest,” a phrase that describes Buck’s experience perfectly. In the old, warmer world, he might have sacrificed his life out of moral considerations; now, however, he abandons any such considerations in order to survive.
On the other hand, London embodied the sprit of American West, and his portrayal of adventure and frontier life seemed like a breath of fresh air in comparison with nineteenth century Victorian fiction, which was often overly concerned with what had begun to seem like trivial and irrelevant social norms. Although The Call of the Wild is first and foremost a story about a dog, it displays a philosophical depth absent in most animal adventures. It shows contemporary thoughts of that special time, the indispensable struggle for mastery. London’s special life experience helps him write so vivid story of Buck. In his adolescent years, London led a rough life, spending time as a pirate in San Francisco Bay, traveling the Far East on sealing expeditions, and making his way across America as a tramp. Finally, temporarily tired of adventure, London returned to Oakland and graduated from high school. He was even admitted to University of California at Berkley, but he strayed only for a semester. The Klondike gold rush (in Canada’s Yukon Territory) had begun, and in 1897 London left college to seek his fortune in the snowy North. The gold rush did not make London rich, but it furnished him with plenty of material for his career as a writer. It is that experience that helps London make a great masterpiece.
We can learn a lot from Buck’s life, and it will play a important part in our life span. Arouse our wild nature, cooperate with our partners and struggle for ourselves. That’s the way to survive in this furious competition world.
Bibliography：
[1]The Call of the Wild (Jack London ) Penguin Books Ltd (UK)(2007-07)
[2]The Selected Short Stores of Jack London by Tsinghua University Press
[3]崔光建《野性的呼唤》中人性和野性文学教育2009（6）