A lost world of life
—— About The Call of the Wild
Could you remember the excerpt of The Call of the Wild in our Extensive Reading I ? Could you still remember the plot? Do you know where the call is from? That’s the very beginning of the Call of the Wild.
I choose this book for two reasons, that the beginning attracts me and that I once read a book about wolf family of three generations, which is an interesting story about the nature.
About the author, Jack London (Jan 12, 1876—Nov 22, 1916)
Jack London (1876-1916) is an American worldwide renowned novelist, journalist and social activist. His representative works include the Call of the Wild, Martin Eden, Son of the Wolf, White Fang, etc.
He is said to be a natural child. In 1889, he began working 12 to 18 hours for a day at Hickmott ’s Cannery. In 1894, he spent 30 days for vagrancy in the Erie County Penitentiary at Buffalo. After many experiences as a hobo and a sailor, he returned to Oakland and attended Oakland High School. He contributed a number of articles to the high school's magazine. His first published work was an account of his sailing experiences.
His novels successfully reflect the contradictory views of man ’s nature and destiny in and against the wild.
The Call of the Wild (1903)
The Call of the Wild is London ’s most-read book, and generally considered his best, the most masterpiece of his so-called “early period”. The story was set in 19th -century Klondike Gold Rush, in which sled dogs were bought at generous prices.
Buck was a domestic dog in Judge Miller ’s home and living a comfortable life until he was sold secretly by the poor gardener and became a sled dog. Buck was a Bernard dog weighed one hundred and forty pounds, tall, strong, and heavy muscled. He couldn’t accommodate to the harsh condition at first. And he wanted to fight, to escape, to go back to his cozy home, but in vain.
The man in red taught him the law of stick and club—one must first adjust himself to his surroundings and learn the rules, and only after that he can do what he wants to do. The club of the man in red called back Buck’s nature as a dog.
When he firstly served for François and Perrault, two couriers, he showed his superior ability to adapt to the environment and his smartness to learn everything he wanted to learn. Curly’s death astonished him and taught him to be cautious. And before he had recovered from the shock caused by the tragic passing of Curly, he was harnessed as a sled dog and step by step wanted to be the leader. But the leading dog, Spitz, was
already an excellent one, who also considered Buck as enemy and potential competitor. At last, when Spitz once punished him, hurling backward Buck, he knew the time had come. He killed Spitz and took his place.
When they pulled into Dawson, Buck was sold as useless thing to three gold diggers, who weren’t veteran in sledding and even didn’t know how to get to their destination. Food was eaten up half way. So Charles, one of the three, decided to kill Buck when he couldn’t get up. However, when he aimed at Buck, John Thornton sprang upon him, knocked him down and told him that if Charles stroke Buck, Thornton would kill him.
Thus, Thornton took Buck away. He was the only true friend of Buck. But Buck was a thing of the wild, especially when the calling of wolf from the hills. Once when he came back from hills, he found that Thornton was killed by Indians. What would you do if you were Buck when your beloved friend was killed? Buck became a nut and killed those headsmen and stayed with Thornton for two days and nights, never leaving Thornton out of his sight. And then a nearby wolf howl captures his ears, and he follows the sound to an approaching wolf pack, battling several of these creatures to prove his worth.
Beautiful Language
It was beautiful spring weather, but neither dogs nor humans were aware of it. Each day the sun rose earlier and set later. It was dawn by three
in the morning, and twilight lingered till nine at night. The whole long day was a blaze of sunshine. The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life. This murmur arose from all the land, fraught with the joy of living. It came from the things that lived and moved again, things which had been as dead and which had not moved during the long months of frost. The sap was rising in the pines. The willows and aspens were bursting out in young buds. Shrubs and vines were putting on fresh garbs of green. Crickets sang in the nights, and in the days all manner of creeping, crawling things rustled forth into the sun. Partridges and woodpeckers were booming and knocking in the forest. Squirrels were chattering, birds singing, and overhead honked the wild-fowl driving up from the south in cunning wedges that split the air. (Chapter V the Toil of Trace and Trail)
He was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken. He saw, once for all, that he stood no chance against a man with a club. He had learned the lesson, and in all his after life he never forgot it. (Chapter I into the Primitive )
His cunning was wolf cunning, and wild cunning; his intelligence, shepherd intelligence and St. Bernard intelligence; and all this, plus an experience gained in the fiercest of schools, made him as formidable a creature as any that intelligence roamed the wild. (Chapter VII the Sounding of the Call)
My understanding
Buck is a cruel, cunning and intelligent image in the Call of the Wild. He killed Spitz to take the leadership, learned apace to sleep under snow and learned fast to steal food without being punished. But in my opinion, Buck in the wild, just as a man in the society, must do what he had done for survival. Jack London compared human to Buck and told us that we must adapt ourselves to the society ——learning the rules, learning the necessary knowledge and keeping forging ahead, otherwise we ’ll lag behind and be obsolete. That is the life.
The Call of the Wild conjures up a lost world, filled with people and place names that were so common at the turn of the twentieth century, but which have since faded away into history, lost and forgotten. It is by reading Buck's story that one can once more remember life as it was, digging up this hidden wealth from deep caves of time.
A lost world of life
—— About The Call of the Wild
Could you remember the excerpt of The Call of the Wild in our Extensive Reading I ? Could you still remember the plot? Do you know where the call is from? That’s the very beginning of the Call of the Wild.
I choose this book for two reasons, that the beginning attracts me and that I once read a book about wolf family of three generations, which is an interesting story about the nature.
About the author, Jack London (Jan 12, 1876—Nov 22, 1916)
Jack London (1876-1916) is an American worldwide renowned novelist, journalist and social activist. His representative works include the Call of the Wild, Martin Eden, Son of the Wolf, White Fang, etc.
He is said to be a natural child. In 1889, he began working 12 to 18 hours for a day at Hickmott ’s Cannery. In 1894, he spent 30 days for vagrancy in the Erie County Penitentiary at Buffalo. After many experiences as a hobo and a sailor, he returned to Oakland and attended Oakland High School. He contributed a number of articles to the high school's magazine. His first published work was an account of his sailing experiences.
His novels successfully reflect the contradictory views of man ’s nature and destiny in and against the wild.
The Call of the Wild (1903)
The Call of the Wild is London ’s most-read book, and generally considered his best, the most masterpiece of his so-called “early period”. The story was set in 19th -century Klondike Gold Rush, in which sled dogs were bought at generous prices.
Buck was a domestic dog in Judge Miller ’s home and living a comfortable life until he was sold secretly by the poor gardener and became a sled dog. Buck was a Bernard dog weighed one hundred and forty pounds, tall, strong, and heavy muscled. He couldn’t accommodate to the harsh condition at first. And he wanted to fight, to escape, to go back to his cozy home, but in vain.
The man in red taught him the law of stick and club—one must first adjust himself to his surroundings and learn the rules, and only after that he can do what he wants to do. The club of the man in red called back Buck’s nature as a dog.
When he firstly served for François and Perrault, two couriers, he showed his superior ability to adapt to the environment and his smartness to learn everything he wanted to learn. Curly’s death astonished him and taught him to be cautious. And before he had recovered from the shock caused by the tragic passing of Curly, he was harnessed as a sled dog and step by step wanted to be the leader. But the leading dog, Spitz, was
already an excellent one, who also considered Buck as enemy and potential competitor. At last, when Spitz once punished him, hurling backward Buck, he knew the time had come. He killed Spitz and took his place.
When they pulled into Dawson, Buck was sold as useless thing to three gold diggers, who weren’t veteran in sledding and even didn’t know how to get to their destination. Food was eaten up half way. So Charles, one of the three, decided to kill Buck when he couldn’t get up. However, when he aimed at Buck, John Thornton sprang upon him, knocked him down and told him that if Charles stroke Buck, Thornton would kill him.
Thus, Thornton took Buck away. He was the only true friend of Buck. But Buck was a thing of the wild, especially when the calling of wolf from the hills. Once when he came back from hills, he found that Thornton was killed by Indians. What would you do if you were Buck when your beloved friend was killed? Buck became a nut and killed those headsmen and stayed with Thornton for two days and nights, never leaving Thornton out of his sight. And then a nearby wolf howl captures his ears, and he follows the sound to an approaching wolf pack, battling several of these creatures to prove his worth.
Beautiful Language
It was beautiful spring weather, but neither dogs nor humans were aware of it. Each day the sun rose earlier and set later. It was dawn by three
in the morning, and twilight lingered till nine at night. The whole long day was a blaze of sunshine. The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life. This murmur arose from all the land, fraught with the joy of living. It came from the things that lived and moved again, things which had been as dead and which had not moved during the long months of frost. The sap was rising in the pines. The willows and aspens were bursting out in young buds. Shrubs and vines were putting on fresh garbs of green. Crickets sang in the nights, and in the days all manner of creeping, crawling things rustled forth into the sun. Partridges and woodpeckers were booming and knocking in the forest. Squirrels were chattering, birds singing, and overhead honked the wild-fowl driving up from the south in cunning wedges that split the air. (Chapter V the Toil of Trace and Trail)
He was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken. He saw, once for all, that he stood no chance against a man with a club. He had learned the lesson, and in all his after life he never forgot it. (Chapter I into the Primitive )
His cunning was wolf cunning, and wild cunning; his intelligence, shepherd intelligence and St. Bernard intelligence; and all this, plus an experience gained in the fiercest of schools, made him as formidable a creature as any that intelligence roamed the wild. (Chapter VII the Sounding of the Call)
My understanding
Buck is a cruel, cunning and intelligent image in the Call of the Wild. He killed Spitz to take the leadership, learned apace to sleep under snow and learned fast to steal food without being punished. But in my opinion, Buck in the wild, just as a man in the society, must do what he had done for survival. Jack London compared human to Buck and told us that we must adapt ourselves to the society ——learning the rules, learning the necessary knowledge and keeping forging ahead, otherwise we ’ll lag behind and be obsolete. That is the life.
The Call of the Wild conjures up a lost world, filled with people and place names that were so common at the turn of the twentieth century, but which have since faded away into history, lost and forgotten. It is by reading Buck's story that one can once more remember life as it was, digging up this hidden wealth from deep caves of time.