The Call of the Wild

I About Jack London

Jack London (born Jan. 12, 1876, died Nov. 22, 1916) was born in San Francisco and became the most successful writer in America in the early 20th century. He was deserted by his father, "Professor" William Henry Chaney, an itinerant astrologer and raised in Oakland by his mother Flora Wellman, a music teacher and spiritualist. His stepfather John London, whose surname he took, was a failed storekeeper. London's youth was marked by poverty. He is an illegitimate child, he passed his childhood in poverty in the Oakland slums. At the age of 17, he ventured to sea on a sealing ship. The turning point of his life was a thirty-day imprisonment that was so degrading it made him decide to turn to education and pursue a career in writing.

He is best known for his books and a few short stories. He experimented with many literary forms, from conventional love stories and dystopias to science fantasy. His noted journalism included war correspondence, boxing stories, and the life of Molokai lepers. A committed socialist, he insisted against editorial pressures to write political essays and insert social criticism in his fiction. He was among the most influential figures of his day, who understood how to create a public person and use the media to market his self-created image of poor-boy-turned-success. London's great passion was agriculture, and he was well on the way of creating a new model for ranching through his Beauty Ranch when he died of kidney disease at age 40. He left over fifty books of novels, stories, journalism, and essays, many of which have been translated and continue to be read around the world.

II about the call of the wild

In this

This story describe a dog Buck, who leads a comfortable life in a California ranch home with his owner, a judge, until he is stolen and sold to pay off a gambling debt. Buck is taken to Alaska and sold to a pair of French Canadians who were impressed with his physique. They train him as a sled dog, and he quickly learns how to survive the cold winter nights and the pack society by observing his teammates. Buck is later sold again and passes hands several times, all the while improving his abilities as a sled dog and pack leader.

Eventually, Buck is sold to a man named Hal, his wife, and her brother who know nothing about sledding nor surviving in the Alaskan wilderness. They struggle to control the sled and ignore warnings not to travel during the spring melt. As they journey on, they run into John Thornton, an experienced outdoors man, who notices that all of the sled dogs are in terrible shape from the ill treatment of their handlers.

Thornton warns the trio against crossing the river, but they refuse to listen and order Buck to mush. Exhausted, starving, and sensing the danger ahead, Buck refuses. Recognizing him as a remarkable dog and disgusted by the driver's beating of the dog, Thornton cuts him free from his traces and tells the trio he's keeping him. After some argument, the trio leaves and tries to cross the river, but as Thornton warned the ice gives way and they drown.

As Thornton nurses Buck back to health, Buck comes to love him and grows devoted to him. Thornton takes him on trips to pan for gold. During one such trip, a man makes a wager with Thornton over Buck's strength and devotion. Buck wins the bet by breaking a half-ton sled out of the frozen ground, then pulling it 100 yards by himself. Thornton and his friends return to their camp and continue their search for gold, while Buck begins exploring the wilderness around them and begins socializing with a local wolf pack. One morning, he returns from a three-day long hunt to find his beloved master and the others in the camp have been killed by some Native Americans. Buck finds some of them in the camp and kills them to avenge Thornton, later finding other members of the tribe, then returns to the woods to become alpha wolf of the pack. Each year he revisits the site where Thornton died, never completely forgetting the master he loved.

III about characteristics of Buck

The protagonist of our story, Buck is part St. Bernard, part Scotch shepherd. Buck's characteristic was changing throughout his way of returning wild. At the beginning of the story, Buck is a domesticated, but atypical dog who lives in the home of Judge Miller in California. He was gentle and sluggish before he had been sold. After being kidnapped and taken to Alaska to become a sled-dog, Buck's wild nature is reawakened, he learned to become cunning, crafty and resolute. He fell in love with John Thorton who saved his life several times. However, a sort of violent desire which was attracted by the wild urged him to return to deep forests more and more frequently and he slowly returns to the ways of his ancestors.

III My Opinions on the call of the wild

The dogs in the book are all loyal to their masters. For example, a man makes a wager with Thornton over Buck's strength and devotion. Buck wins the bet by breaking a half-ton sled out of the frozen ground, then pulling it 100 yards by himself. In addition, all dogs have sense of honor. They are all proud of being sled dogs, and devote themselves to the work. For example, Dave, who is going to die, still insists on working. “Sick as he was, Dave resented being taken out, grunting and growling

while the traces were unfastened and whimpering when he saw Sol-leks (another dog) in the position he had held and served so long. For the pride of trace and trail was his, and, sick to death, he could not bear that another dog should do his work.”

Both loyalty and honor are based on love which is what touches me deeply. Because of love to Thornton, Buck does such thing that seems impossible to accomplish. Because of sense of honor, Dave insists on working till he dies.

As we know, Buck answers the call of and returns to the wild finally. In my opinion, the call is not from the wild though Buck often hears the howl of the wolves. Instead, it is from the bottom of Buck’s heart. The call is the will or the instinct which makes him want to be himself: A wolf.

I think every one of us has a call in our hearts. The call is our dream, goal or something we really want to do. However, under the pressure of society, we often have to give up our dreams or goals, and do things we are unwilling to do. So we should learn something from Buck: Just follow the call, and be yourself!

 

第二篇：《野性的呼唤》英文书评

Jack London ---The Call of The Wild

Jack London whose life symbolized the power of will, was the most successful writer in America in the early 20th Century.

(born Jan. 12, 1876, died Nov. 22, 1916),An illegitimate child, London passed his childhood in poverty in the Oakland slums.With limited formal schooling, he educated himself in the public library and seized every opportunities to learn. He died at age 40 of various diseases and drug treatments in his ranch. His vigorous stories of men and animals against the environment, and survival against hardships were drawn mainly from his own experience.

He is best known for his books The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea-Wolf .Also, Jack London is the founder of psychological realism, a prolific writer and is best known for his books The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Sea-Wolf. The Call Of The Wild is London’s most popular and philosophical novel.It is about a story of a dod named Buck, kidnapped and sold to a man heading for Yukon.On his journey, Buck suffered various maltreatments and bloody fights with the other dogs.Only the fittest will survive.Meanwhile, he discovered that there is a wild animal in him and it grows stronger and stronger.Buck has been torn between his loyalty to his master and his natural desire for the wild.When his master was killed, Buck answered the call of his natural call and finally followed the wolf pack into the forest. Although it is a story of a dog that decivilized into a leader of a wolf pack, it is, in a sense, a story of human beings as well.By using personification and other rhetorical devices, London draws a vivid picture of the dark world.For London, there is actually no essential difference between man and animal since they both must abide by the law of the survival of the fittest.The dog can also be considered as a man in fur.In order to obtain a place in society, one must learn to kill or he will be killed.