The Call of the Wild

Chapters 3 and 4 give Buck greater challenges to face and allow his character to grow. In Chapter 3, after the wild huskies deplete the team’s food supply, Perrault pushes the dogs harder to reach their destination. Buck, used to a domestic life in the Southland, struggles with the burden the journey puts on his body: “Buck’s feet were not so compact and hard as the feet of the huskies. His had softened during the many generations since the day his last wild ancestor was tamed by a cave-dweller or river man” (14). Perrault and François make Buck footwear for his paws, but Buck isn’t defeated by his weaknesses. His body adapts throughout the arduous journey: “Later his feet grew hard to the trail, and the worn-out foot-gear was thrown away” (14). Buck’s physical transformation shows he’s a resilient character and is therefore able to survive in the Arctic. Buck also continues to transform mentally and spiritually. When he fights the starving huskies, Buck is ruthless, and the taste of blood in his mouth makes him even fiercer: “The warm taste of it in his mouth goaded him to greater fierceness” (13). Buck doesn’t shy away from the situations he’s thrown into in the wild. He embraces them, and he becomes primal. The call of the wild, sung by the other dogs, also beckons Buck to embrace his heritage. When Buck sings with the other dogs, he feels he is channeling a past that has been waiting to be activated: “He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time” (17). Throughout Chapters 3 and 4, London uses the harsh Arctic environment to give Buck increasingly difficult tasks to overcome, elevating the drama of the story. When Buck rises to each challenge and continues to embrace his wild side, his character grows and becomes more complex.

London’s message that nature is cruel and unrelenting, and that only the strong survive, continues to be developed. After the attack from the wild huskies, all the dogs on the team are hurt. The most mild-mannered dogs carry the greatest injuries:

There was not one who was not wounded in four or five places, while some were wounded grievously. Dub was badly injured in a hind leg; Dolly, the last husky added to the team at Dyea, had a badly torn throat; Joe had lost an eye; while Billee, the good-natured, with an ear chewed and rent to ribbons, cried and whimpered throughout the night (13).

Being kind and good-natured helps the dogs function as a team, but when it comes to life and death, stronger dogs like Buck and Spitz handle themselves better, showing their traits are more integral to surviving in the wild. Dolly succumbing to madness further shows that being timid and meek can lead to a mental breakdown, and later, death. Between dramatic scenes, London continues to fill his prose with environmental details that make the setting dramatic and hostile. In Chapter 4, the harshness of nature continues to be reiterated: “It was not too cold. The temperature dropped to fifty below zero and remained there the whole trip” (20). In the Arctic winter, temperatures of 50 degrees below zero are common, even mild. The novel tests the characters regularly through the hostility of the setting. Not all the characters survive because they aren’t strong enough, and London reiterates how unforgiving the landscape is to keep the story dramatic.

Stylistically, London capitalizes chosen words to give them more meaning and impact. In Chapter 3, while the team chases a rabbit, London writes of the pull between life and death. A rabbit gives out a death cry, and London imbues the scene with more meaning by capitalizing life and death: “At sound of this, the cry of Life plunging down from Life’s apex in the grip of Death, the full pack at Buck’s heels raised a hell’s chorus of delight” (17). In the wild, life and death are intertwined. For something to live, something else must die. That balance and struggle is a central message of The Call of the Wild, and London employs capitalization to enhance this theme.