The Composing Characteristics of the Call of the Wild_野性的呼唤的创作特点.doc

the composing characteristics of the call of the wild. introductionit is often said that londons characters lack depth, but that seems an unfair criticism. while it is true that much of his hack-work suffers from superficial character development, his best work reaches deeply into his characters hearts, sometimes in the form of anthropomorphism, as with buck, the dog-hero. there is always something powerful and shocks in londons novel. the call of the wild is one of his typical works. london particularly added the elements of naturalism and collective unconsciousness in the creation of the call of the wild. he attached importance to the role of genetics and evolution. he did not indulge in details in the description of the novel, nor did he reveal too much personal feeling. in his experience of gold rush life in the north, he observed through the view of buck that no matter how harsh the natural environment of the north could possibly be, it was still beautiful, just and logical. the world of the north in the call of the wild was cold, but it was also brilliant and pure. the pure and endless whiteness is just the prolonged metaphor london produced for the nature of human and animal in the past and present. about the authorjack griffith london, whose life symbolized the power of will, was the most successful writer in america in the early 20th century. his real name was john chaney and he was born on january 12, 1876, in san francisco, california. he was the illegitimate son of flora wellman and william chaney, an itinerant writer, teacher and astrologer. the couple separated soon after he was born, and within a few months flora married john london, so flora wellmans baby boy was christened john griffith london.londons vigorous stories of men and animals against the environment, and survival against hardship were drawn mainly from his own experience. london passed his childhood in poverty in the oakland slums. at fifteen he became a hobo; at sixteen, an oyster pirate and longshoreman. at the age of seventeen, 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 decided to turn to education and pursue a career in writing. his years in the klondike searching for gold left their mark in his best short stories; among them, the call of the wild, and white fang. his best novel, the sea-wolf, was based on his experiences at sea. his work embraced the concepts of unconfined individualism and darwinism in its exploration of the laws of nature. he retired to his ranch near sonoma, where he died at age 40 of various diseases and drug treatments. london is an avid reader with a voracious appetite for learning. as he says in his own words: i read mornings, afternoons, and nights. i read in bed. i read at the table. i read as i walked to and from school, and i read at recess while the other boys were playing. from his close association with the poor and downhearted, jack london developed an intense sympathy for all poor people, as well as a life-long inclination toward socialism.paradoxically, although his socialist friends deserted him, jack london throughout his life made vehement protest against the rich class, industrial cruelty and inefficiency, child labor, and corruption in government. as long as he lived he raised a call for justice, sympathy, service, and unselfishness. whatever the cause, it is clear that london, who played the various roles of journalist, novelist, prospector, sailor, pirate, husband, and father, lived life to the fullest.jack londons own life story, in the words of richard oconnor, was an even greater work than any he committed to paper.the summary of the call of the wild jack london began the call of the wild with a calm setting but described it with the words that made the reader imagine they were there. he painted a scene for every situation so well that as if a movie were playing. this is a story about a dog names buck. throughout the novel we follow buck through his journey through the klondike. when we first met up with buck, he lived in the santa clara valley, on judge millers property. he was the ruler of his domain, uncontested by any other local dogs. he was a mix between a st. bernard and a scotch shepherd dog. he weighed one hundred and forty pounds, and he carried every one with utmost pride. but one night, while the judge was away at a raisin growers committee meeting, the gardener, manuel, took buck away from his home. buck was then sold, and thrown in a baggage car. this would be the beginning of a new, cruel life for buck. no matter how many times buck tried to lunge, he would just be choked into submission at the end. when buck arrived at his destination, there was snow everywhere, not to mention the masses of husky and wolf dogs. buck was thrown into a pen with a man who had a club. the law of club is quite simple, if there was a man with a club, a dog would be better off not to challenge that man. buck learned this law after he was beaten half to death by the man who had the club. buck was sold off to a man who put him in a harness connected to many other dogs. buck was bad at first, but eventually, he learned the way of trace and trail. buck had to learn many things if he was to survive in this frigid land. he had to learn to sleep under the snow, and to eat his food as fast as possible so as not to have it stolen. at about this point in the book, we see buck start to go through a metamorphosis of sorts. he transforms from a housedog to a more primitive, savage version of his former self. buck proceeded to lose all the fat in his body and replace it with muscle. most southland dogs like him ended up dead because of their inability to conform. but one dog whose name was spitz was a white wolf dog that was a proven champion in confrontation and was as crafty as they came here. and there is a law of fang: when two dogs fight and one is knocked to the ground. the rest of the spectators will instantly pounce on the downed dog and make quick work of it.all of these unspoken rules had turned buck into the best dog to ever roam the klondike. buck did eventually fight spitz and send him to his death. he was being starved to death by a gold seeking group who had not brought enough food for the dogs. when buck could finally not move another step, a man from the group started to beat buck. as the blows grew less and less painful, and he was fading farther and farther, buck knew he was dying. while buck was being beaten, a man named john thornton came forth and took buck from his attacker. the man nursed buck back to health, and from that day forward, buck lived for that man. buck loved him with all his being. after being with this man for some time, buck started to hear a call from far away. he started paying more and more attention to this call. he went out for days at a time searching for its source. this call was the call of the wild. he had a will to go off and be with other dogs. he felt the urge to be free from man and catch his own food. one day, buck finally left for good. he was accepted by a pack of wolves that treated him like a wolf himself. and so the transformation was complete. buck had changed from a dog, to a beast of nature. . the analysis of the composing characteristicsa. the naturalism elements in the call of the wild1. naturalismthe term naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings. unlike realism, which focuses on literary technique, naturalism implies a philosophical position: for naturalistic writers, since human beings are in emile zolas phrase, human beasts, characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. zolas 1880 description of this method studied through their relationships to their surroundings. zolas 1880 description of this method in le roman experimental follows claude bernards medical model and the historian taines observation that virtue and vice are products like vitriol and sugar-that is, that human beings as products should be studied impartially, without moralizing about their natures. other influences on american naturalists include herbert spencer and joseph lecanto. it was a literary movement taking place from 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. it was depicted as a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as romanticism or surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. naturalism is the outgrowth of literary realism, a prominent literary movement in mid-19th-century france and elsewhere. naturalistic writers were influenced by charles darwins theory of evolution. they believed that ones heredity and social environment determine ones character. whereas realism seeks only to describe subjects as they really are, naturalism also attempts to determine scientifically the underlying forces for example, the environment or heredity influencing the actions of its subjects. naturalistic works often include uncouth or sordid subject matter; for example, mile zolas works had frankness about sexuality along with a pervasive pessimism. naturalistic works exposed the dark harshness of life, including poverty, racism, sex, violence, prejudice, disease, corruption, prostitution, and filth. as a result, naturalistic writers were frequently criticized for being too blunt.2. naturalism in american in the united states the genre is associated principally with writers such as abraham chan, stephen crane, ellen glasgow, david graham phillips, john steinbeck, jack london, edith wharton, and most prominently frank norris, and theodore dreiser. the term naturalism operates primarily in counter-distinction to realism, particularly the mode of realism codified in the 1870s and 1880s, and associated with william dean howells and henry james.many of the american naturalists, especially norris and london, were heavily influenced by zola. they sought explanations for human behavior in natural science, and were skeptical, at least, of organized religion and beliefs in human free will. however, the americans did not form a coherent literary movement, and their occasional critical and theoretical reflections do not present a uniform philosophy. although zola was a touchstone of contemporary debates over genre, dreiser, perhaps the most important of the naturalist writers, regarded balzac as a greater influence. naturalism in american literature is therefore best understood historically in the generational manner outlined in the first paragraph above. in philosophical and generic terms, american naturalism must be defined rather more loosely, as a reaction against the realist fiction of the 1870s and 1880s, whose scope was limited to middle-class or local color topics, with taboos on sexuality and violence. 2. the analysis of naturalism in the call of the wildjack london is an outstanding modern american novelist. his unique writing style through the call of the wild has been fully demonstrated. he corroborated the importance of survivability, endurance, and the capacity to beat his enemies through the experience of the hero buck. he repeatedly stressed the brutality that the fierce competition for survival can not forgive mistakes nor condone the weak. london believed that either the natural instinct or the nature animals are consistent the environment.according to the view of the american critic mary kay dodson, the use of buck is the most vivid description of naturalism by jack london. as everyone knows, the ancestors of dogs are wolves so it is inevitable for buck to turn from a tame, docile pet dog into a primitive beast. his gene and environmental forces compel him to kill or be killed. founding the intrinsic reasons of the development of characters from the angle of genetics is a main characteristic of naturalism. in the call of the wild, jack made a clear statement of the biogenic influence on buck: his father, elmo, a saint bernard dog, is a kind of rescue dog in swaziland snow mountain and his mother sleep, a scotland collie, is a kind of dog designed to fight dogs. both of them are rather strong and have a good cold-resistance. he inherited the strapping posture from his father; however, he is not as huge as him with only about one hundred and forty bounds. his has the mouth and head of a wolf, but so much bigger. his mouth was a mouth of wolf, just slightly larger. his head was much wider than wolfs, which was a gigantic head of wolves. his cunning was also the cunning of wolf, a kind of wild cunning. he was as smart as both a shepherd and a st. bernard dog together. all of this, along with his experience accumulated in the most severe environment makes him hard to cope with, like all the other creatures wandering in the wilderness. the power of environment on man is another characteristic of naturalism being discussed in the book. buck was born in the manor of judge miller in california and then was abducted, from comfortable south into harsh north. “he had been taken from the heart of civilization and thrown into the life of primitive”, 1 without the law of mercy and friendship, “all was confusion and action, and every movement was touched with anger.” 2 because “they were wild and they knew on other law than the law of club and tooth” 3 witnessed the death of lots of other dogs, buck knew life there was like a primitive battlefield, and live in it you are either to kill or be killed, there is no other way. to survive, buck had to adapt to the environment and went back to the primordial instinct. the malicious surroundings activated the wild nature of wolf inside him so some incidents like he provoked the stag happened. and when the provocation, fraud, blood and violence became a potluck, and the former south civilized dog tasted the happiness of killing, a complete beast, the wolf was made. later, after the death of his beloved master thornton, he returned to the wilderness and joined the wolves. from all above, it is clear that the element of naturalism is embodied in everywhere of bucks transformation.b. the collective unconsciousness in the call of the wild1. collective unconsciousnessthe collective unconsciousness of carl gustav jung was based on freuds individual unconsciousness. jung thought that collective unconsciousness is a racial memory that is inherited by all the members of human beings and to make modern people connect with their earliest ancestors. it is also called racial unconsciousness, which is a kind of innate unconsciousness form possessed by the entire human and emerged from inherent brain structure. the collective unconsciousness consists of two parts, one is archetype, and the other is instinct. archetype wont show directly in consciousness but will show itself in dreams, illusions, megrims, neurosis, artistic creations or appreciations in form of archetype image or symbol. jung believes there are four most important types of archetype and everyone has the one called “the shadow”, which locates in the deep layer of ones personality and is inherited by human ancestors. it is the darkest, deepest and most secret content of soul and is the depressed, uncivilized and denied part of collective consciousness, which endows human a furious, provocative and violent tendency. he also deems that certain environment can evoke the hidden collective unconsciousness and activate the shadow of archetype. 2. the analysis of collective unconsciousness in the call of the wildthe creative thinking was profoundly influenced by darwin and jung, which made him believe importance of heredity. from the view of jungs collective unconsciousness, the fate of buck in the call of the wild is the activation of the shadow of archetype hidden inside ones body.in the creation of the call of the wild, london largely embodied the thought of collective consciousness. the process of bucks adaptation of the environment is in fact his returning to his instinct, a representation of collective unconsciousness. before buck was abducted, he lived a life with everything like an aristocracy in the manor of judge miller. after his abduction, first, he had to endure two days and two nights travel in a train without any water or food, which was the end of his original protection and the beginning of his bitter life. then his was traded several times. later, he met the dog trainer in red sweater, who gave buck his first lesson into the wild world. buck had never been hit by a club before, however, now, now he was hit to the ground by a club again and again, though he was full of anger, and strong enough, he still cant fight a man know how to use a club. after one very strong blow (that might have killed a lesser dog), buck crawled to his feet. but he was too hurt to charge toward the man anymore. blood flowed from his ears, nose, and mouth, spraying his beautiful fur then the man came toward him and gave him a frightful strike on the nose. all the pain that buck had gone through before was nothing compared to this. with a roar that sounded almost like a lions, buck again threw himself at the man. but the man, moving the club from his right to left hand, struck buck under his jaw, sending him to the ground on his head and chest. buck gathered himself again and the man final throw a final blow that he had been holding back until the right moment. this one knocked all sense out of buck. he lay motionless on the ground.” 4 he now understood that he could never beat a man with a club. he had learned a lesson, and he would never forget it his whole life.