(英语毕业论文)野性的呼唤中巴克

An Analysis of the Nature of Buck in The Call of Wild

Abstract

The Call of the Wild is the most famous novel of Jack London. The novel,

revolving around the “gold rush” prevailing in the society at that time, performs the

world of a dog which struggles in the special environment incisively and vividly. This

paper tries to study the nature of Buck in The Call of the Wild from the perspective of

the nature of the character. The paper firstly introduces Jack London and The Call of

the Wild, and leads out a literature review to establish the theoretical foundation. On

this basis, several main characters in the nature of Buck are analyzed with texts,

including fighting spirit, the willingness of adjusting to new environment, love and

loyalty, and the eagerness of conquering. Then the mixture of dog and human nature

in Buck is explored, from the perspectives of reflections of human nature as well as

the society. Through all the analysis, this study purposes to contribute a little to the

further study of Jack London and The Call of the Wild.

Keywords: characters, Buck, The Call of the Wild, human nature

摘要

《野性的呼唤》是杰克·伦敦最为著名的小说。小说围绕在当时社会盛行的“淘金热”，淋漓尽致地展现了一只在特殊环境下奋斗的狗的世界。本文试图从性格本质的角度研究《野性的呼唤》中巴克的本性。文中首先介绍了杰克·伦敦和《野性的呼唤》，并进行文献综述以建立理论研究体系。在此基础上，以文本来分析巴克性格中的几个特征，包括斗争精神，适应新环境的意愿，爱和忠诚，以及征服的渴望。然后从人性的反应和社会的角度探究了巴克身上野性和人性的混合。通过这些分析，本研究期望对杰克·伦敦和《野性的呼唤》的进一步研究略尽绵力。

关键词：性格，巴克，《野性的呼唤》，人性

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CONTENTS

Ⅰ

1

1.1 An Introduction of Jack London and The Call 1

1.2 2

2 Several Main Characters in the Nature 3

2.1 3

2.2 The Willingness of Adjusting to 4

2.2.1 Doing A Great Job as 4

2.2.2 Fitting into the Herd well as 5

2.3 Love .6

2.4 The Eagerness 7

2.4.1 The Struggle in the Herd 7

2.4.2 The Thriving in 8

3 The Mixture of Dog and Human Nature .8

3.1 Reflections of 9

3.2 A Mirror 10

11

12

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1 Introduction

1.1 An Introduction of Jack London and The Call of Wild

Jack London, formally called John Griffith London is one of the greatest

American realism writers. He was born in San Francisco, and grew up in a bankrupt

peasant family. He had known human joys and sorrows when he was very young.

Although his family cannot afford school fees, London spent a lot of time in reading

and studying while working. It was because his unsmooth life that he was able to

create many brilliant works. Those works describe the life stories of the lower-class

people, exposing the evils of capitalist society. His life work is quite abundant, totally

leaving 19 novels, more than 150 short stories, a large number of literature reports,

three plays, and quite a number of essays and papers. The most famous of his works

are Martin Eden, The Call of the Wild, Love of Life, White Fang, and some other

novels. His novels brought a forthright, sharp and pure wind to the American literary

world in the early 20th century, and made the relationship between creation and life as

well as between literature and society become unprecedentedly close, which had

influence on the process of the development of American literature to some extent.

The Call of the Wild is the most famous novel of Jack London. The novel,

revolving around the “gold rush” prevailing in the society at that time, performs the

world of a dog which struggle in the special environment incisively and vividly. The

story mainly describes the process of “the hero” Buck‟s returning to the original life

with wolves from civilized human society. Buck who grew up in a greenhouse

environment was stolen and trafficked into pristine wilderness as a sled dog. Although

Buck had been edified by long-term human civilization, the harsh reality also touched

Buck‟s nature and consciousness of returning to the nature. Harsh living environment

steeled Buck and made him grow in continuous experience and toughening. At last,

through defeating Spitz, the king of the dogs, Buck earned a place at number one

among sled dogs. When atrocious Hal beat Buck black and blue, John Thornton

appeared to save Buck‟s dying body. His rescue made Buck feel worm and he decided

to fiercely loyal to the benefactor. But the death of the benefactor completely broke

Buck‟s nostalgia of human society, which prompted Buck to determine to go to the

wilderness resolutely and returned to nature.

In the creation of Buck, the author infused Buck‟s humanity with beastliness and

the beastliness of Buck also embodied humanity. Humanity and beastliness were

expressed on Buck, and eventually beastliness became dominant. Buck morphed into

a wolf. Through metaphorically describing the bankruptcy of humanity and the

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relapse of the beastliness, London revealed the nature of the intense infighting and

brutal struggle between man and man in the realistic society at that time.

1.2 Literature Review

After the publishment of The Call of the Wild, plenty of scholars and researchers

have studied Jack London and this brilliant novel. This paper mainly focuses on the

previous studies of The Call of the Wild in and out country.

The introduction and translation of Jack London and his works began from 1920s

in China, and culminated in 1930s. The Call of the Wild was one of the earliest works

of Jack London which were translated into Chinese. As his signature work and

representative work, this novel has been translated and researched again and again in

the following 90 years, which amply shows its importance.

In the early period, there were some studies focusing on the life of Jack London

and the appreciation of his works. The Call of the Wild occured in some research

books and textbooks. For example, The Studies of Jack London (Li & Wu,1988)

mainly anthologizes some essays that are concerned with Jack London and his works,

which embodies the temporal research situations. Also some textbooks (Zhu & Zhao,

1985: 501; Mu & Yao, 1984: 558; Fu, 1995: 62) take the ideas of "struggle for

existence and survival of the fittest" to illustrate the theme of The Call of the Wild,

which is the unitive views of most textbooks at that time.

Since 1997, there had been some researches making conclusive study. The studies

about the novel were mainly summary and critic from the perspectives of history and

society. Also this novel was compared with London's other works and analyzed

together.

From 2000, more and more researchers tried to take various western theories to

analyze The Call of the Wild from different perspectives. Among them, there are some

researches from the perspective of comparative literature. For example, Fang Yan's

The conflict between Civilization and Nature and its cultural implication-the

Comparison between The Call of the Wild and Yingning (2000) excavates different

cultural implication between the two works through the modelling of characters and

the description of the conflicts between civilization and nature; Li Ming's The Art of

Wolves and the Philosophy of Human-comparison Theory of the "Wolf" Novels

between Ja Pingao and Jack London (2005) proposes that Jack London reflected

human behavior from the aesthetic view of wolf to depict Social Darwinism and

"superman philosophy" with the criticism of human nature alienation and social

civilization as well as the calling of love and humanitarianism. These articles figure

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out the widespread literary significance of this novel.

Also some scholars strove to study the novel from the perspective of

psychoanalysis. For instance, A De e Ta Yi e‟s Collective Unconscious Theory of Jung

and The Call of the Wild of Jack London (2000) considers that this novel is

completely consistent with Jung's collective unconscious theory; Sun Ling‟s An

Analysis of Buck's Character from Perspective of Jung's Psychoanalysis (2012)

deconstructs the process of Buck's regression of wolf nature through self theory,

Individual unconscious theory and collective unconscious theory in Jung's

psychoanalytic theory, in order to reflect the prevailing social background.

Researchers also explore the novel from the perspective of ecology, such as On

Exploration of the ecologic theme of Jack London from The Call of the Wild (2006)

which analyzes the critism of civilization, the presentation of natural value, and the

thinking and exploring of the direction of human survival as well as the relationship

between human and nature.

The exploration of thematology is also made by some scholars. For example, Tan

Yanping's On Multiplicity of the Theme of The Call of the Wild (2002) dissects five

themes of the work: returning to nature, surviving of only the strong, reflecting of

social life, fighting spirit and humanitarianism, so as to reveal the multiple themes and

explore the its aesthetic charming.

Narratology is also utilized to analyze the novel, such as Zhao Linya's On the

Narrative Perspective of Jack London's The Call of the Wild (2004) which puts

forward that Jack London takes the third-person whole narrative perspective to tell the

story of Buck with both advantages and shortages.

In addition, reading education, hermeneutics, symbolism, profile analysis and

naturalism are all used to study The Call of the Wild. Meanwhile, the relationship

between humanity and beastliness is another respect for researchers to study.

The previous studies have obtained great results to analyze the novel and the

other works of Jack London, and some of them mention the nature of Buck. Some

studies only explore the character of Buck without the nature analysis about the

character. Some studies mainly presents the performance of the human nature of Buck

in contexts, but doesn‟t explains the nature of the performance. For instance, The Dog

Nature Performance of Human Nature by Criticizing The Call of the Wild discusses

the human nature embodied in the novel. But this research was carried out according

to the chapters of the novel, and there is no general summary about neither the dog

nature nor the human nature. This paper tries to study the nature of Buck in The Call

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of the Wild from the perspective of the nature of the character, leading out the mixture

of dog and human nature in Buck.

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2 Several Main Characters in the Nature of Buck

2.1 Fighting Spirit

In traditional animal novels, animals are not only typed victims and weak images,

but also apathetic and weak-spirited while facing with their own tragic fates. They are

mostly gentle and kind in character, as well as loyal to their masters. Their value is

reflected in the service for their masters, and they are accessories of people. Even they

are faced with abuse and beating from their masters, they are also willing to devote

themselves without complaint or fighting spirit, such as Black Beauty the hero of the

novel.

However, in the novels of Jack London, the animal images have strong vitality

and wisdom, and they also have an intense sense of rebellion in the face of human‟s

abuse. They change from the oppressed to the fiercely rebellious. Under the dual

oppression of nature and human, they do not succumb to the arrangements of the fate,

but constantly struggle with self-esteem for survival and freedom. They performed a

kind of toughness and resistance against yielding to life in the face of power and

violence, and become the representatives who dare to break out of human slavery.

Buck is one of the representatives which have intense spirit of fighting. In The

Call of the Wild, when the dog Buck was abducted from the house of the judge, he

was constantly fighting for his survival. In order to obtain the right of survival, he

fought with the man who abducted him. In order to survive in the process of pulling

the sledge, he constantly adapted to the harsh living environment. On the way he was

brought to the north, he was imprisoned in a cage and beaten with a club. He was

furious and fiercely attacked in retaliation again and again, until his body was

besmeared with blood and lost consciousness. Later, Buck towed sled for Hal and

Charles. When they arrived at the campsite of Thornton, Hal insisted in continuing on

his way to Dawson. Hal cracked the whip to force the dogs to go ahead, and some

dogs made painful efforts to rise. But

“Buck made no effort. He lay quietly where he had fallen. The lash bit into him

again and again, but he neither whined Buck refused to move under the

rain of heavier blows which now fell upon him. Like his mates, he barely able to get

up,but unlike them, he had made up his mind not to get up”(London: 37-38).

Under the power and violence, he would rather die than surrender without

struggle. When he found Thornton was killed by the Yeehats, he was so angry to

fiercely attack them and even killed some ones by ripping their throats wide open.

This is his revenge and fight for his received persecution against civilized society.

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2.2 The Willingness of Adjusting to New Environment

2.2.1 Doing A Great Job as A Slave

Buck is a model of learning from the environment. The cruelty of Eskimo dogs

caught him shocked, and the ferocity of dog leader Spitz also made him feel scared.

But he complied with the change of living environment to do a great job as a slave.

He had to tow the sled for more than forty mils every day, even though he only had

little food to eat. He learned to steal food without being discovered, to dug snow holes

to keep out the cold, and to guard against the attacks from equivalents.

When Buck was in the south, he lived in a warm house. He squatted by Mr

Miller‟s feet by the fire when winter arrived. But, when he was near the North Pole,

Buck had the great problem of sleeping. “Buck confidently selected a spot, and with

much fuss and waste effort proceeded to dig a hole for himself. In a trice the heat

from his body filled and the confined space and he was asleep”(London: 11).

Although the sleeping condition was rough and hard, he still had a good sleep. And it

shows Buck‟s excellent adaptive capacity to new environment.

In the past, Buck had never done any heavy manual work. However, in the north,

he must do the job as a slave. The will to live made Buck not only adapt to the

weather in the north, but also pull the heavy sled hard in the snow and run day after

day. “Buck learned easily, and under the combined tuition of his two mates and

Francois made remarkable progress”(London: 10). He had to suffer great pain to run

because the comfortable life in the south made her feet very tender. “His development

(or retrogression) was rapid. His muscles became hard as iron, and he grew callous to

all ordinary pain”(London: 14). Francois and Perrault fast recognized the ability of

Buck, and they were "particularly gladdened by the prossession of Buck"(London: 12).

It can be seen that Buck quickly learned the job of pulling the sled and performed well

in the new environment as a slave.

2.2.2 Fitting into the Herd well as A Dog

In the process of pulling the sled for masters, the environment was always

changing. Although Buck was saved by Thornton and became loyal to him, he was

greatly impacted by the call of the wild. After Thornton wad killed, he had no

connection with human society any more. So he decided to respond to the call in his

mind. Bur for him, the wild was a strange environment which need to adapt to. There

were many ferocious wolves as well as some other dangerous animals in the forest.

Here Buck showed excellent ability to adjust to the new environment, and he finally

became the leader of the wolf herd.

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Buck was able to hunt his prey in the forest, and even bears were not his

opponents. London led out a vivid description of Buck‟s fight to the wolf pack in the

valley.

“Buck's marvellous quickness and agility stood him in good stead. Pivoting on

his hind legs, and snapping and gashing, he was everywhere at one, presenting a front

which was appearantly unbroken so swiftly did he whirl and guard from side to side.

But to prevent then from getting behind him, he was forced back, down past the pool

and into the creek bed, till he brought up against a high gravel bank. He worked along

to a right angle in the bank which the men had made in the course of mining, and in

this angle he came to bay, protected on three sides and with nothing to do but face the

front. And so well did he face it, that at the end of half an hour the wolves drew back

discomfited”(London: 58).

Besides the ability of fighting fiercely, Buck was smart enough to judge the

situation and made correct decisions, which saved his life and contributed to his return

to the wild. For example, at the campsite of Thornton, he was keenly aware of the

danger of going ahead in addition to the fighting spirit. All the people and dogs

submerged in the water except him. In the valley, while the gray wolf went to show

friendliness, he stopped fighting, because he knew that he should get along well with

the wolves to survive in the forest. And through his experiences and efforts, he finally

became the leader of the wolf pack.

2.3 Love and Loyalty

Compared with some ugly human images in the novel, Buck had a heart full of

emotions. There was some real passionate love in his mind. After meeting Thornton,

Buck had suffered harsh treatment from different masters. And he almost walked to

the end of his life. Hal beat him with sticks and he was almost dying, if he was not

saved by Thornton. Thornton was a wise person, and he didn‟t ignore the treatment on

Buck. “John Thornton stood over Buck, struggling to control himself, too convulsed

with rage to speak. „If you strike that dog again, I'll kill you,‟ he at last managed to

say in a choking voice”(London: 38). Thornton saved Buck from the sticks and took

care of him just like his won child. So Buck gradually got well, slowly regained

strength and began a new life.

"Love that was feverish and burning, that was adorationk that was madness, it

had taken John Thornton to arouse"(London: 40). It was the first time Buck

understood love. He had never felt this kind of love even in in the sun-kissed Santa

Clara Valley. The hot and crazy love of Buck was aroused by Thornton. Due to

7

Thornton‟s rescue and the gender love, Buck rewarded him reduplicated love. He

protected Thornton wholeheartedly, and he could do anything for Thornton. They

connected with each other on a soul level, without language, and they could

communicate with each other with eye contact only. "And often, such was the

communion in which they lived, the strength of Buck's gaze would draw John

Thornton's head around, and he would return the gaze, without speech, his heart

shining out of his eyes as Buck's heart shone out"(London: 41).

As the author described, once Thornton lightly ordered Buck to jump off a cliff

for the purpose of testing Buck‟s loyalty, and Buck would be ready to jump without

hesitation to express his loyalty to Thornton via death. In the bar, when Burton was

picking a quarrel with a tenderfoot, Thornton was good-natured to do the peacemaker.

But Burton suddenly hit Thornton without warning. "Buck's body rise up in the air as

he left the floor for Burton' Buck loosed his teeth from the flesh of the arm

and drove in again for the throat"(London: 43). Though Buck didn‟t kill the man, his

loyalty to Thornton was totally performed.

In Buck‟s mind, there was only Thornton. He loved Thornton so much that he

tried to protect him every minute. While Thornton encountered danger in the river,

Buck jumped into the rapids three times to save Thornton at risk to his own. For this,

he broke three ribs and was badly injured. When Thornton bet with others and

allowed Buck to pull a sled which was weighted 1000 pounds, Buck tried to do his

best to pull that sled for a hundred yards according to the requirement of Thornton.

Buck not only helped Thornton to win the money but also won the honor.

Buck was absolutely grateful and selfless, and his love for Thornton was

altruistic without reservation. However, good times didn't last long. Thornton was

killed in gold camp unfortunately by a group of savage Yeehats while Buck was not

there. After Buck returned to the camp and found what happened, his love to Thorton

transformed to the hatred of Yeehats. So he attacked and even killed some of them. It

is because of his love and loyalty to Thornton that Buck killed people under the

civilized regulations and cruel arrows at all hazards.

2.4 The Eagerness of Conquering

2.4.1 The Struggle in the Herd of Dog

The eagerness of conquering is also one of the main characters of Buck. Due to

the horrible weather in the north, Buck gradually realized that he had to conquer, or he

would be defeated by both the environment and the competitors. “Not that Buck

reasoned it out. He was fit, that was all, and unconsciously he accommodated himself

8

to the new mode of life. All his days, no matter what the odds, he had never run from

a fight”(London: 13). Actually Buck always struggled in the whole novel, which is

closely related to his dominance.

At the beginning of the third chapter in the novel, London figured that “the

dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, and under the fierce conditions of trail

life it grew and grew”(London: 15). The fighting between Buck and Spitz seems to be

inevitable. However, though Buck had strong dissatisfaction with Spitz, he didn‟t

express it on his face. He knew he was not powerful enough to defeat Spitz , so he had

to control himself and wait for the opportunity.

London explained Buck‟s expecting of fighting for leadership as his animal

nature. When Buck considered the time was right, he threatened the leadership of

Spitz in public. He deliberately placed obstacles between Spitz and the dogs which

would be punished. Because of the breach of discipline, the relationships among dog

teams were impacted. Buck grasped the opportunity to defeat and kill Spitz, and

displaced the leadership of the dog team. And he received the recognition from the

masters. Buck conquered the most powerful one in the herd of dogs with his wisdom,

bravery and strength. This conquering made him feel proud of himself, and he led the

herd of dogs to work harder. He realized the dominance of the dogs as he expected,

and he extremely had the ability to dominate. "At a bound Buck took up the duties of

leadership; and where judgment was required, and quick thinking and quick acting, he

showed himself the superior even of Spitz, or whom Francois had never seen an equal.

But it was in giving the law and making his mates live up to it, that Buck

excelled"(London: 25). But this kind of leadership can only implement limitedly, he

must work under the control of masters. After being resold to the American people,

Buck understood that the leadership in the herd of dog could not satisfy him and he

expected to conquer more.

2.4.2 The Thriving in the Wolf Pack

Living in the wild requires powerful force to survive. Under the virulent

environment, Buck realized that he must conquer, or he would be conquered.

Kindness is the performance of weakness. To Kill or being killed and to eat or being

eaten are the laws of survival. Based on this belief, “the blood-longing became

stronger than ever before. He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that

lived, unaided, along, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving

triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survived"(London: 53).

His eagerness of conquering became stronger and stronger. When he was facing with

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the wolf pack, he didn‟t feel any fear and only desired strongly to conquer them.

The description of Buck‟s appetency of conquest are influenced by Darwin‟s The

Origin of Species. Natural selection or the preservation of favoured races is the core

content in this profound work to explore the struggle of species for life. In The Call of

the Wild, London mentioned that some southern dogs could not accommodate to the

changed environment and died, but Buck gradually fit to the environment and grew.

He was not eliminated by nature not only because of his strong will but also thanked

to his good congenital condition. “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”(London: 53). Buck‟s appetency of conquest is

just the expression of his consuming passions of survival. The stronger his appetency

of conquest, the stronger his consuming passions of survival. And at last, Buck

became the dominator of his life, achieving the ultimate conquest.

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3 The Mixture of Dog and Human Nature in Buck

3.1 Reflections of Human Nature

Although London set the protagonist of the story as a dog, his purpose is to

reflect humanity and realistic society via Buck. So Buck was appropriately given the

characteristics of human emotions and behavior. As a dog, Buck has self-esteem as

well as savvy like a human. Being abducted and struggled in the beast‟s cage not only

made him angry but also made his self-esteem hurt. The snow in the north was totally

a new thing for him, but his response attracted ridicule from others, which made him

quite embarrassed. These detail descriptions show Buck‟s human emotions to some

extent.

Also Buck has the ability of being a leader and making schemes with deep

consideration. He led the dog team to work efficiently. He schemed defeat the leading

dog by various means. And frequent imagination stimulated his infinite nature and

instinct in his mind. The vivid emotional depiction also enriches his human nature. In

the process of pursuing freedom, he was unable to forget the affection with Thornton.

He often recalled and reflected the good old times, unable to extricate himself. After

Thornton was dead, Buck returned to the valley to commemorate and honor the

master who taught him love. Even though it is partly related to the good-hearted

character of the dog, it is also a kind of humanized description.

Buck is a humane dog, and it has the personality, emotions and behavior

interlinked with human. Both his exploration way to be an elite and final achievement

of the wilderness hero represent those who have deep yearning for freedom with

loneliness, wandering and struggle. The mixture of dog and human nature is fully

expressed on Buck.

Buck turned from a dog to a wolf, but he had the soul of neither a dog nor a wolf.

It can be said that he is more similar with humans. Although at first he lived in the

superior environment without sorrow and anxiety, he never gave up in the following

dangers and difficulties with the changing of the environment. And he began adjusting

himself in the groping, trying to fight against the fate. He has some qualities of human,

including the bravery of changing destiny and the confidence of overcoming

difficulties. From Buck, it can be seen that only elite characters can stand out in the

harsh environment, and only that kind of environment can cultivate the elites. The

human world is extremely similar. The superior will be selected and the inferior will

be eliminated. The achievement of elites cannot be obtained in a straight line. People

need to be exercised and experimented in more harsh environment.

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Considering Buck‟s experiences wandering between human society and the wild

carefully, it is not difficult to find out the real resonance in the human mind. Buck‟s

spirit is also a feature which human should maintain. Most people are eager to

become elites, but they don‟t know how much costs will be paid behind success.

However, as long as people have the targets and desires in their heart, many

difficulties and obstacles can be conquered. It can be seen human‟s pursuing process

of their targets and desires on Buck‟s returning way to the wild. Harsh and changing

environments cannot make people be conquered by destiny. And only adapting to the

environments can people stand out. In this way, people can return to the real desire

inside, as well as maintain the original kindness and pureness. Just like the wild hero

Buck, people would also become the men they want to be.

3.2 A Mirror of Society

Although The Call of the Wild is a novel mainly concerned with animals, but the

author gave the animals human nature. London described the animals as “he” or

“they” by means of obvious allegory and mapping, aiming at revealing the realistic

nature of the temporal American society, through the perishing of humanity and the

recurrence of wild nature as well as the infighting and cruel contending. That is

because America didn‟t believe tears but advocated personality and violence. People

were all trying to cheat the others, and the weak are the prey of the strong. Only fit

people were be able to survive, and the world was full of competition everywhere,

which was the reality of America.

In the second half of the 19th century, as the Civil War was over with the victory

of northern soldiers, the problems of labor and market were solved, so capitalist

economy of America developed flourishing quickly. As a result of the rapid expansion

of the territory, the economy of the whole country seemed to be in its heyday, as

described in Mark Twain‟s The Gilded Age. Behind the economic development, in the

process of pursuing money, the competition was extremely fierce. People can become

millionaires overnight, and millionaires can also be bankrupt overnight. The whole

country was like a jungle full of predatory phenomenon. In order to survive, everyone

desperately fought with others. For the purpose of position, fame and fortune, they

competed cruelly with others. Buck under Jack London's writing was helplessly

involved in the fierce competition.

Buck's competition reflects the industrialized society of America at the end of the

19th century. Buck had been living in southern California, leading a life of ease and

comfort. The reason why he was brought to the north to be a sled dog was related to

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the gold rush at that time. In the severe natural environment, people needed dogs as

transportation tools. Then Buck was stolen and sold by the house servant to a vendor,

and the vendor resold him to the gold diggers. Thus, Buck was taken to the harsh

natural and social competition. Buck‟s being sold away from home and experiencing

the life in the north draws a picture of the modern industrialized society of America

with violence, oppression, fight and bloodiness.

London depicted the death of Curly to present the cruel social reality through the

eyes of Buck. Through Buck's fate, people can see the bloody history of the

development of capitalism after the Civil War. Large companies routed and annexed

small companies by hook or by crook, as well as squeezed the blood of the workers

by means of oppression and exploitation. There were severe opposition between

workers and capitalists. And the sticks of the capitalists caused the resistance of

workers. Several workers' movements were launched, which shown the latent crisis in

American society at that time.

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4 Conclusion

The Call of the Wild is undoubtedly a brilliant and profound novel which has

significant influence on the literature history. In the specific social and historical

environment, Jack London created the image of Buck with a complex character.

Firstly, it can be seen intense spirit of fighting from Buck‟s life. When Buck

encountered various difficulties in his life, he always took the method of fighting to

overcome those difficulties. Secondly, he had the willingness of adjusting to new

environments. From the south to the north, he was able to adapt to the work

environment and do a good job as a sled dog, and also he could fit with the real wild

environment by becoming the leading wolf. Thirdly, he performed enormous love and

loyalty to the good master Thornton. He saved Thornton‟s life several times at the cost

of his own security. And after Thornton was dead, he cannot forget the beautiful

moment with the good-hearted person. Fourthly, he had the eagerness of conquering

in his blood. He expected to be a dominator not only in the herd of dogs but also in

wolf pack.

The unsmooth experience presents the mixture of dog and human nature in Buck.

Some of his features express the humanity, and some of the characteristics reflect his

beastliness. It is undeniable that there are some shining humanity expressed in Buck.

From the perspective of society, the life of Buck seems to be a mirror of the American

society in the end of the 19th. Through the description of Buck, London exposed the

social conditions and revealed the problems of the society at that time. People can

understand that society clearer through the novel. Jack London‟s The Call of the Wild

has multiple themes, and it is worthy of further study in the future.

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Acknowledgments

Firstly, I‟d like to thank my university for giving me the opportunity of study. It

makes me be able to get knowledge and make researches during my university life.

Besides learning knowledge, I also improve my personal ability to study

independently.

Secondly, I want to sincerely thank my advisor. First, for accepting to be my

advisor even with a project as unique and ambitious as the one I chose and second, for

helping me throughout the process and answering all of my questions and giving me

advice along the way.

Thirdly, it is very necessary to thank my classmates, my family and my friends.

They provide a lot of support, encouragement, and understanding.

Eventually, this paper consulted and cited a variety of references, and here

appreciate to all the predecessors in academia.

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