外语系2001级3班易小蔡.doc

Buck in The Call of The WildYi xiaocai Class 3 No. 010403020 A Thesis Submitted as a Partial Requirement for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in English Department of Foreign Language and Literature YiBin University.Date: May 10th 2005Supervisor: Xie FangBuck in The Call of The Wild Outline Introduction: This essay aims to analyze Buck from his characteristics, existing circumstance and allegorical meaning. DevelopmentA: A brief introduction of The Call of The Wild. B: During his transformation to a sled dog, Buck demonstrates his strong adaptability in the harsh new world. This implied that only man of great capacity of adjusting could survive in an extremely competitive society. a) Living in the savage Northland, he learnt that:i A man with a club is a master to be obeyed.ii There is no fair play in a savage world.iii A strong enemy needs no rashness.b) Allegorical meaning.i Dog-eat-dog principle implies the harshness of the society. C: Being saved by John Thornton from whipping, Buck showed his strong emotion for him. It implied the authors love for the people.a) His pure love and faith to John Thornton.i Saving Thorntons life.ii Rejecting the wild call, close to Thornton. b) John Thorntons death cut off civilized connection from him. He reverted to nature. c) Allegorical meaning. i Londons love for the people.ii Mans escapes from society. Conclusion: Bucks survival in the savage wild demonstrates not only his distinguishing features, but also an allegory of human being. His life experience also serves as a revelation to modern people. Buck In The Call of The WildYi Xiaocai Class three Grade FourAbstract:The Call of the Wild is certainly not a usual entertaining animal centered story. With its main character Buck, it describes a dogs life experience and its survival in a harsh environment. In the light of the background this novel is composed, this essay aims to analyze the striking features of Bucks character and also attempts to explore the allegorical meaning of Buck and his existing circumstance. The whole article consists of four parts: a summary of the novel, a detailed analysis of Buck and its allegorical meaning, a conclusion with a generalization of Bucks character and a revelation of Bucks experiences to modern people.Key Words: Buck; adapt; survive; allegoryThe Call of The Wild is composed by Jack London, who is recognized as one of the preeminent naturalists in America. Its main character is named Buck, who is a huge Scotch shepherd and a Saint Bernard crossbreed. Buck lives a life of ease at Judge Millers Santa Clara Valley estate when gold is found in Alaska. Thousands of men rush to the Northland. They need dogs, dogs like Buck. Bucks aristocratic life ends after the gardener of Judge Miller kidnaps him. He is sold and sent to Seattle. In Seattle, Buck meets a man in red sweater who is holding a club in hand. As Buck comes in charging out of the open crate, the man cruelly beat him into submission. He learns his first lesson: he stands no chance against a man with a club. Before long, two dispatchers for Canadian government, Francois and Perrault, purchase Buck along with other dogs. From then on, he becomes a sled dog and begins his trail journey in the harsh Northland. He learns the necessary skills of a sled dog quickly, which includes sleeping under the snow at night for warmth, surviving on far less food, stealing food secretly and the knack for pulling a load. Having traveled nearly two thousand miles, Buck and his comrades are in wrecked condition. In this sad, exhausted state, the team is sold to Hal, Charles and Mercedes, who come with the dream of finding gold. Starving, exhausted, Buck leads the team struggle forward under the blows from whips and club. At last the team creeps into John Thorntons camp at the mouth of White River. Hal drives Buck to lead the team forward by hard whipping. Buck is dying, at this moment John Thornton stops Hals brutality and saves Bucks life. Under Thorntons tutelage, Buck recovers from the physical injury and in his heart bears a deep love for Thornton. He saves Thorntons life at the risk of his own, wins a bet of 1,600dollars for him. Though living with Thornton, Buck is unable to forget what he has learned in the trail and trace, and he hears faint sounds in the forest that beckon him. But the love for Thornton holds him. However, the Yeehats killed Thornton and cut off his connection to civilization. Buck follows the call of the wild eventually. Buck is huge and healthy; he has inherited his mothers intelligence and the size and strength of his father. After being kidnapped, his education into the harsh realities of an unprotected life begins. Endures a two-day-and-night train journey during which he is vilely treated and neither eats nor drinks, and in the fever of pain and rage, Buck meets the man in red sweater, who provides the first step of his initiation into the wild. Although he is a large powerful dog, he is no match for a man with a club. “He is brought crushingly to the ground” every time he charges. Buck thus learns his first lesson: a man with a club is a master to be obeyed. “He was beaten; but he was not broken. He saw, once for all, that he stand no chance against a man with a club.” Having seen a dog that never fail to compromise, finally killed in the struggle for mastery, Buck knows the alternatives clearly: Encountering a stronger man, to obey, to conciliate or to die. Thus Buck survives by adjusting him to follow the rules of a new circumstance. Bucks next lesson takes place on Dyea beach when Curly, whom he has befriended, is killed by the huskies when she makes friendly advances to one of them. In two minutes, she is torn to pieces. Curlys death leaves shock and surprise to Buck. It often troubles him in his sleep. He becomes more aware of the savage wild, where there is “no fair play, once down, that was the end of you” and “he would see to it that he never went down”. Adapting to new environment also entails learning other lessons, not only simple lessons such as digging a sleeping hole in the snow or eating fast, but also lesson involving major moral changes. Buck learns to steal, because he is ravenous, suffering from perpetual hunger pangs. His first theft marks him as fit to survive in the hostile northland environment. It marks him as a supervisor of great capacity who can adjust himself to changing conditions, the lack of which means swift and terrible death. He is not to be blamed under moral principal, for which is the rule of civilized world. In the primitive Northland, there are all savages, who know no law but the law of club and fang. Survival is the only goal and ruthlessness is the only way. Thus Buck learns through experience and proves that he is eminently adaptable and fit. His body also adapts well to the new demands of the environment: he loses his fastidiousness, grows impervious to pain, achieves an internal as well as an external economy, learns to make the most of whatever come his way. His senses develop to be incredibly acute, and forgotten instincts come to life in him. Working as a sled dog, Buck accepts the friendly help of his comrades, yet he confronts Spitzs (the lead-dog) hostility. “Spitz even went of his way to bully Buck, striving constantly to start the fight which could end only in the death of one or the other.” In the primitive wild, not only does Buck fight against the fierce conditions of trail life, but also he encounters strong enemy inevitably. Spitz belongs to such type. He is big and powerful always acting friendly, but in a treacherous sort of way. Buck is quite aware of his antagonist, who is strong and cunning. There is a fight between them, which is under the law of club and fang, to fail means to die, and the victim will be list out in the game of survival. However, Busing in adjusting himself to the new life, which contains various kinds of uncertainness. Buck is not prone to rashness and precipitated action. In the bitter hatred between him and Spitz he betrayed no impatience, shunned all of offensive acts. He realized that the clash is inevitable but it should come at a proper time. The death fight between Buck and Spitz come finally one night in the chase of a snowshoe rabbit. Spitz is a practiced fighter, who “never attacks till he had first defend that attack”. But Buck possesses a quality that made for greatness: Imagination. He fights by instinct, and he can fight by head as well. His imaginative tactics win him the fight for mastery. Spitz fall down; Buck takes the position of lead dog. From Dyea to Dawson, Buck learns and grows quickly. He is not only a survivor but also a superior now. As the leader of the whole team, Buck shows his sound judgment, quick thinking and quick acting even superior to Spitz. He proceeds to lick the team into shape, which has grown unruly during the last days of Spitz. The team soon recovers its old-time solidarity and dogs leap as one dog in the traces. Buck is shocked when the first time he is put into harness and turns to be a sled dog. He is surprised at the eagerness of the rest of the team as well. Now, after traveling a long way, he is gripped tight by nameless incomprehensible pride of the trail and trace, takes delight from it and he is filled with enthusiasm which impels him to lead the whole team to make a record run. In The Call of The Wild, Buck is not simply a dog; the harshness of the trail also involves similarities of human society of the authors time. Bucks attempt to survive in the hostile Northland is an allegory of mans condition in the society of Londons time. Jack London was born in the slums of San Francisco. He was the myth of a poor boy who became a millionaire by pulling himself up by his own bootstraps. Because of his life experiences, he was quite familiar with the live conditions of the inferior class of the society. The Call of The Wild was finished in 1903 after London back from the East End (a slum in London). What he saw in the London Slums bring back memories of his experiences in the Oakland Slums and of the road and jail. It frightened him with its misery and hopelessness. In The Call of The Wild, the meaning of Bucks attempt to survive in the hostile Northland is deeply influenced by London has so recently seen in the East End where people is living in the abyss. The adverse circumstance of the wild is an epitome of the social environment. Under either circumstance, man and dog have to spare no pains finding a way to get alive. Buck survived by his great adaptability, which serves as an example of the law of the jungle. At Londons time, people who live as superiors are those who employ individual strength, cunning and violence. They survived by adapting to “the law of club and fang”. The harsh society is like the jungle, where only man of strong capacity of adjusting can survive in the struggle of life. London “has seen civilizationthe East End, the Oakland Slums, the road and jail, and has chosen savagerythe Alaskan wilds. The reality of the capitalism he could not cope with is abandoned for a simpler, more primitive world; the complexities of human behavior are jettisoned in favor of the more fundamental behavior of dogs and wolves.” Under the guise of Bucks life, London is telling his own. He is demonstrating the principle of success and survival he has experienced. London used to be a work beast in a cannery, an oyster pirate and finally a “brain merchant”. Every step on his way to the destination of success is of difficulties and setbacks. We can find assimilations in Bucks struggles in the primitive wild. At his first step to the primitive world, Buck learns that a man with a club is a master to be obeyed. Obviously, the man with the club is on behalf of the stronger individual who masters and makes law of life. People under this mastership, like Buck, must adjust himself to adapt the law. By this adaptation, man or dog may be temporarily defeated but ultimately will triumph. Curlys death informs Buck that there is no fair play in the savage wild. From the great fight with Spitz, Buck understands that win a strong enemy needs both strength and wisdom. In the competition of survival, he omits rules of civilization and follows the law of the Jungle. Mans adaptation to this dog-eat-dog principle in human affairs also accompanies moral changes. During this course, he becomes hardened to greed, thievery, cunning, violence and individualism in society and nature. The wild and brutal Northland and Bucks learning to cope with the rough lifestyle are Londons pretext for the complexity of society and peoples living condition at his time. He equates men with dogs and wolves and equates the harshness of the trail with the harshness of society, implying that force, savagery and cunning were equally the ways to success in both areas. “Put into harness” is a human phrase for working. Buck is “gripped tight by that nameless incomprehensible pride of trace” at the beginning of the journey. The trail and trace in the harsh Northland is endless. He and his team are driving forward and forward. That is a monotonous life, operating with machine-like regularity. The trip is hard and the heavy work wears them down. They bearing not only the toil of trail and trace, but also whippings from the callous masters. Even a survivor and superior of the dog team, Buck endures these hardships. By the toil of trail and trace, London implies mans living conditions. From what he has seen and experienced in the London slum and the Oakland slums, he depicts that even working hard, man cannot change his circumstance with a life in the abyss. In the hash environment and under the law of the jungle, Buck has developed from a civilized dog to a dominant primordial beast. In the struggle of life, Buck becomes hardened to nature physically and also hardened spiritually to greed, thievery, cunning and violence, which violate the principles of civilization. However, he remains keeping the most valuable quality of civilization: pure emotion, his love for John Thornton.Thornton saves Bucks life at the mouth of White River under Hals violent blows. Bucks refusal to rise is a protest against tyranny. Thornton sees it to all, and he saves Buck life. He is the man who truly understands Bucks pain and places himself in danger to save him. However, Buck loves Thornton whole-heartedly not only because he saves his life but, furthermore, Thornton is different from other man, who “ saw to the welfare of their dogs from a sense of duty and business.” “Thornton saw to the welfare of his (dogs) as if they are his own children, because he could not help it.” Buck is filled with genuine love for the first time, which he has never experienced even at Judge Millers down in the sun-kissed Santa Clara valley. With the Judge, Buck considers as friendship, with Francois and Perrault, he only preserves respect, but with John Thornton, love is feverish and burning. For Buck, Thornton is the ideal master, who regards Buck a human and “never forget a kindly greeting on a cheering word and to sit down for a long talk with (him)”Bucks love for Thornton is a passionate one. He expresses his love in adoration. “He would lie by the hour, eager, alert, at Thorntons feet looking up into his face, dwelling upon it, studying it, following with keenest interest each fleeting expression, every movement or change of feature.” His love is expressed by a kind of devotion as well. He attempts to jump over a chasm that would have led to certain death attacks Black Burton, risks his own life repeatedly in the rapids to save Thornton s and he pulls a sleigh loaded with a thousand pounds of flour. By all the actions, Buck proves his pure emotion to Thornton. Having traveled thousands of miles through the primitive Northland, the nature of a civilized dog has run far away from Buck. He is more akin to a wild animal. Living with Thornton in the vast wilderness, Buck is quiet yearning for its unutterable attractiveness to Buck. Deep in the forest a call is sounding imperious which beckons him to follow. Though he is wildly glad with the wild brother, he still remembers Thornton, the only man who ties him to civilization. “ Thornton alone held him, the rest of mankind was nothing.” Bucks passionate love demonstrated the last time when he confronts Thorntons death. He bursts into fury. “For the last time in his life he allowed passion to usurp cunning and reason, and it was because of his great love for John Thornton that he lost his head.” Thorntons body is deep in the waters, all day long Buck is brooding by the pool or roaming restlessly above the camp. Thorntons death has left a great void in him. “Which is somewhat akin to hunger, but which aches and aches, and which food cannot fill.” Thornton is dead, so there is nothing held Buck now. Mankind and civilization has been far away from him, but the vast wilderness is full of vitality, he turns to wild.Love is the most valuable things of the world. When we talk about love, something tender and warm fills in the mind. The love keeps Buck from the wild is just as love has held London. John Thornton is the ideal human in Londons mind. He “lives close to earth, thinking simply and seeing clearly”. He determines to reach his goal but heavily roots in civilized humanity no matter dealing with people or animals affairs. He is not only the ideal master, but also the ideal friend, spouse and sibling. But for London, this is a kind of idealism. In a life, however, love eventually dies or is killed, as John Thornton is killed by the