The Call of the Wild

“Old longings nomadic leap / Chafing at custom’s chain; / Again from its brumal sleep / Wakens the ferine strain.”

The opening epigraph of The Call of the Wild is an excerpt from the poem “Atavism” by John Myers O’Hara. The lines, which describe the awakening of a wild nature, queue the reader as to the content of the story to come and foreshadow Buck’s personal journey with his wilder side.

“For two days and nights he neither ate nor drank and during those two days and nights of torment, he accumulated a fund of wrath that boded ill for whoever first fell foul of him. His eyes turned bloodshot, and he was metamorphosed into a raging fiend. So changed was he that the Judge himself would not have recognized him; and the express messengers breathed with relief when they bundled him off the train at Seattle.”

Buck taps into a ferocious side of himself quickly after being stolen from the Judge’s property. His behavior while in his cage reveals a darker side of him to the reader, making him a more complex character. This early in the story, Buck already demonstrates his willingness to change according to the situation he’s in and lays the foundation for London’s commentary about survival of the fittest.

“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. That club was a revelation. It was his introduction to the reign of primitive law, and he met the introduction halfway. The facts of life took on a fiercer aspect; and while he faced that aspect uncowed, he faced it with all the latent cunning of his nature aroused.” 

The man in the red sweater exerts his dominance over Buck with ease, equipped with his club. Buck is hurt, but his spirit and will remain, showing he’s a resilient character. Buck is also intelligent and fast thinking; he quickly recognizes that in this new world, the strongest are in charge. This realization awakens more of Buck’s primal nature and develops the Law of Club and Fang—a rule to surviving in the North that is central to the novel.