There is a dog named Buck, who is the main character of the famous novel The Call of the Wild written by Jack London, the United States novelist and short-story writer. The Call of the Wild was the book which made London well-known in the republic of letters. Although it’s a story about a dog’s struggling to survive with uncomplicated plots, it is regarded as a classic of American literature.
Buck was actually a civilized dog in the South. He used to live a quite comfortable life in California’s Santa Clara Valley as the pet of Judge, but Buck’s happy life came to an end when men discovered gold in the Klondike region of Canada and a great demand arisen for strong dogs to pull sleds. Buck is kidnapped and sold to dog traders by a gardener’s assistant in order to pay a gambling debt. Although Buck fought against those people who planned the trade fiercely, he failed to defeat the “man in the red sweater”. After being beaten badly, he was taught to obey and respect the law of the club.
Subsequently, he was shipped north to the Klondike and began his tough life as a dog used to haul the sled. Buck was really clever and adapted himself into the harsh environment quickly. Also, he is not an easily contented dog. Though Buck was born in the judge’s house and used to being domesticated and cultivated, there was still strong ambition which keeps flowing from his inner world when he first got to the wild world. He was anxious to show his ability and, after suffering endless fights between human beings, dogs, the weak and the strong, Buck finally became the leader of the dog team.
While, that didn’t last too long, Buck’s masters turned the team over to a mail carrier for the sake of money. They were forced to carry much heavier loads than they used to. As a consequence, the dog team was badly exhausted at the end of the journey, and then the mail carrier sold them to a group of American gold hunters -Hal, Charles, and Mercedes. However, the conditions of the dog team didn’t become any better. By contrast, those new masters are extremely inexperienced and out of place in the wilderness. They had no plan and didn’t prepare enough food for both the dogs and themselves.
As a result, some weaker dogs soon died. Of an original team of fourteen, only five dogs including Buck survived when they limped into John Thornton’s camp. Then Thornton warns them that the ice over which they were traveling was melting and that they might fall through it. But Hal dismissed these warnings and tried to get across immediately. The other dogs began to move forward, but Buck refused to move any further. When Hal began to beat him, Thornton intervened and helped Buck to escape from his control. Hal was urgent to get across, so he gave up Buck and started the sled again. Then the misfortune happened without any sign – the ice broke open and swallowed both the humans and the dogs.
After that, Buck devoted his loyalty to his new master totally. They formed a deep friendship. Buck saved Thornton for several times and loved his master very much. While Buck was more and more attracted by the wild, and he felt as if he was being called away from civilization into the wilderness. During their adventure, Thornton was killed by the Yeehats, so Buck avenged himself on the Yeehats and killed many people. After revenge, Buck obeyed his longing for the wild. At the call of the wolves, Buck went into the wild and became the leader of the herd of wolf, but every year he would return to the place where Thornton died, to mourn his master before returning to his life in the wild.
