The Call of the Wild

Gus Miller

The Call of the Wild, written by Jack London in 1903, is considered by many to be an American classic. Following the perspective of Buck, a dog, the story tells about Buck’s transformation into a calm, harmless domestic dog into a wild, savage beast. I normally read books written in more modern times, so The Call of the Wild was a change of pace for me. Nevertheless, although the story was slow going and boring at times, once I understood what was happening, I realized just how incredible this book was for its time.

As the story begins, Buck is a carefree family pet living in a sizable estate in California. He is beloved by the family, and establishes his superiority over the numerous other house pets. Unfortunately, Buck is tricked by the gardener of the estate, who sells him for gambling money, and spends weeks being mistreated and locked up with minimal food and water. He becomes savage and bites the many dog traders he meets, before he is finally bought by Perrault, a French-Canadian who runs a team of sled dogs. After seeing his companion, Curly, get brutally killed by a swarm of huskies, Buck realizes that he has arrived in a heartless, unforgiving world, where he will need to work harder than ever if he wishes to survive. Buck quickly learns how to pull a sled, and eventually becomes strong enough to be able to kill the leader of the team and take his place. Following this event, Buck and his team are suddenly forced to pull the sled of three Americans who have little experience in the frontier. The dogs are treated horribly, being forced to pull an extremely heavy sled with little food and almost no rest. They are nearky starved to death when they arrive at John Thornton’s camp.

Thornton frees Buck from his terrible situation mere minutes before they witness the sled, along with the Americans and the remaining dogs, fall under an icy lake. After realizing that this man just saved his life, Buck becomes quickly acquainted with Thornton, as well as Thornton’s two friends and his dogs. After having completely negative experiences with mankind since being kidnapped by the family gardener, this is the first time he has felt genuine love for a human. However, with very little to do at Thornton’s camp, Buck begins to feel an urge to venture out into the wild. One night, he comes across a lone timber wolf. He is much bigger and stronger than the wolf, but shows that he means no harm, and the two become friends. Buck returns to Thornton’s camp later that night, relieved to know that Thornton is still there. However, this is the last time they will see each other. After a successful hunt for prey, he returns to camp to find that Thornton and his companions have been ambushed and killed by Yeehat Indians. Buck takes immediate revenge by attacking the Yeehats, killing several of them and forcing them to flee in terror. No longer bound by the chains of civilization, Buck is now able to roam wherever he pleases. The last we hear of him is that he ends up joining a pack of wolves. There are tales of a mysterious “Ghost Dog” among the Yeehats, as well as a change of color in the local wolves.


I definitely enjoyed reading about Buck’s transformation from household pet to wild terror. One of my favorite things about the book was its character development. Character development is something that characters in current-day works of fiction frequently lack, and I was surprised at how a main character as unique as a dog could have so much personality and development. The fact that the main character is a dog is yet another factor that makes this story so unique. In his adventure, Buck discovered new things every day that were not just important, but vital for his survival. In fact, one of the first things Buck experienced in the wild was another dog getting murdered because she wasn’t strong enough. This provides a sharp contrast of worlds, between the world Buck had lived in since he was born and the world in which he would be living for the remainder of his life. Another thing that surprised me was that the plot was easy to comprehend, despite it being written over a century ago. After Buck was captured and found himself in a new world, his life became more and more of a struggle, until at the verge of death, he met his savior John Thornton. Buck then realized that not all humans were bad, but Thornton being killed by the Yeehats representes the bad of humanity outweighing the good. After avenging the death of his friend and savior, Buck was finally free from humans, and became one with the wild. The plot may be short and simple, but it was easy to see the multiple messages represented by London’s writing.


Overall, The Call of the Wild was a great read. Although the plot was simple and sometimes even boring, the main point of each event in the story was evident, and the ending was very satisfying. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone looking for something worthwhile to read during quarantine
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