book review call of the wild

The Call of the Wild

By jack london.

Jack London’s The Call of the Wild is an undisputed classic of the genre. It takes an unlikely protagonist who readers can’t help but sympathize with, and puts him through a series of unfathomably treacherous situations.

About the Book

Article written by Emma Baldwin

B.A. in English, B.F.A. in Fine Art, and B.A. in Art Histories from East Carolina University.

Throughout the book, readers learn what it takes to survive in the Yukon alongside Buck, a dog stolen from his home in California and forced into service as a sled dog. The power of the natural world and its draw for all living creatures, human and non-human, is at the heart of the novel. 

Civilization and Wilderness in The Call of the Wild 

After reading the novel ‘ The Call of the Wild ‘ by Jack London , readers are meant to walk away questioning civilization and with a newfound interest in, and respect for, the natural world. It’s hard to finish Buck’s story without admiring his appreciation for nature (despite all the suffering he’s forced to endure). 

This major theme of the novel should appeal to all readers. While the protagonist is a dog, readers can easily place themselves in Buck’s place and imagine what it would be like to be forced to live a wild life, very removed from that which you previously enjoyed. And if, perhaps, you might experience the same type of joy in freedom and nature as Buck does. 

Buck as a Protagonist 

If you’ve never read ‘ The Call of the Wild ,’ the immediate realization that the main character is a dog is surprising. London made this unique choice (as a dog-lover all his life) as a way to depict humanity and nature from an unusual perspective. No one understands the contrast between civilization and the wild as a dog does, London suggests in his novel. 

Buck lived a life of luxury, one that was interpreted permanently when he was stolen and sold as a sled dog. He had no choice (as a human being likely would) over what happened to him and where he went. He traveled from master to master and was forced to endure starvation, freezing cold, and a constant battle for dominance with the other dogs. 

While he suffered, he also learned a great deal (as the reader does). His initial horror at the Yukon and the brutal murder of Curly results in his learning a series of powerful, unforgettable lessons. Any weakness (like kindness or friendship) can lead to your demise. 

Jack London’s Style 

While the book is best known for Buck’s character and for its usual setting (not to mention its prestige as one of the first adventure fiction novels), London’s writing style is commonly overlooked. London never won any literary awards of note during his career, but today, his writing stands among the greats, particularly for its effortless descriptions of the natural world and Buck’s realization of his own instinctual wildness. 

While London never forces an appreciation for nature (or fear of its power) on the readers, it comes along nevertheless. His direct but lyrical style of writing makes it impossible not to appreciate the beauty and terror of the Yukon and feel, right along with Buck and the other characters in the novel , amazement at what it takes to survive. 

Buck’s introduction to truly wild living is a process that begins after he arrives in the North and lasts throughout the novel. It’s not until the end, when he finally joins a pack of wolves, that he fully gives up his lingering affection for the civilized world. He turns away from the comforts that we all know so well and willingly determines to live a life of struggle and survival. 

It’s not just the struggle to survive and the ability to fully give in to his instincts that attracts Buck though; it’s also the freedom and beauty that comes along with it. London writes: 

There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the soldier, war-mad in a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf-cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight.

Here, he demonstrates Buck’s newfound attachment to the wild as he “sound[s] the old wolf-cry” and enters the wildness willingly. The idea that one forgets they’re alive when they are most alive is an interesting one. It is also an example of London’s more lyrical prose. Set alongside a direct description of Buck leading the pack, it creates a fulsome emotional landscape that has attracted readers for decades. 

Final Thoughts 

While not every reader may love the story of ‘ The Call of the Wild ,’ it does contain an inescapable universal appeal in its depiction of civilization and wilderness. It asks you to reconsider the world you live in, what it means, and what you’re missing from your base, instinctual self. 

Buck rediscovered his own instincts, willingness to survive, and a way of living that he was initially very distant from so too many readers as they navigate the pages of Jack London’s novel. 

The Call of the Wild Review: Jack London's Adventure Fiction Novel

Book Title: The Call of the Wild

Book Description: 'The Call of the Wild' is an adventure fiction novel that follows Buck, who is sold as a sled dog in the Yukon and is forced to fight for survival.

Book Author: Jack London

Book Edition: Puffin Classics Edition

Book Format: Paperback

Publisher - Organization: Penguin Young Readers Group

Date published: May 1, 2003

Illustrator: Charles Livingston Bull

ISBN: 978-0-14-244005-3

Number Of Pages: 232

• Writing Style
• Lasting Effect on Reader

The Call of the Wild Review

The Call of the Wild is an unforgettable novel that pioneered the adventure genre. It follows Buck a privileged California dog who is stolen and sold as a sled dog in the Yukon. His struggle to survive leads to a newfound appreciation for the natural world and his own wild instincts.

• A unique main character
• A meaningful conclusion
• Beautiful, lyrical prose
• Less interesting dialogue
• May leave readers wanting more
• Some examples of cruelty towards animals

About Emma Baldwin

Emma Baldwin, a graduate of East Carolina University, has a deep-rooted passion for literature. She serves as a key contributor to the Book Analysis team with years of experience.

Cite This Page

Baldwin, Emma " The Call of the Wild Review ⭐ " Book Analysis , https://bookanalysis.com/jack-london/the-call-of-the-wild/review/ . Accessed 6 April 2024.

It'll change your perspective on books forever.

Discover 5 Secrets to the Greatest Literature

There was a problem reporting this post.

Block Member?

Please confirm you want to block this member.

You will no longer be able to:

• See blocked member's posts
• Mention this member in posts
• Invite this member to groups

Please allow a few minutes for this process to complete.

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

The call of the wild, common sense media reviewers.

Thrilling, violent tale of dog's survival in 1890s Alaska.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Offers a portrait of the Klondike Gold Rush of the

Dogs thrive when they can follow their powerful in

Buck's final owner, John Thornton, is rough but mo

Men and dogs are beaten and killed, and attack and

"Hell" is used several times. A biracial character

Men smoke pipes. Men also receive "invitations to

Parents need to know that Jack London's classic novel The Call of the Wild was originally published in 1903. It traces the journey of a dog named Buck from domestic family life to pulling sleds during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, and then heeding the pull of his natural instincts to return to the wild…

Educational Value

Offers a portrait of the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, including details on how dogsled teams work, and the hardships experienced by the people and animals.

Positive Messages

Dogs thrive when they can follow their powerful instincts.

Positive Role Models

Buck's final owner, John Thornton, is rough but more decent and compassionate than any other humans in the story. His kindness and respect for Buck's nature engenders the dog's loyalty and love. One character is half-French Canadian and half-Native American, described in negative terms. At one point Native Americans attack, killing dogs and men. The only woman who figures in the story acts like a spoiled child, by turns overfeeding the dogs (which leads to insufficient food and starvation later) and overworking them.

Violence & Scariness

Men and dogs are beaten and killed, and attack and kill each other. Men beat dogs with clubs and whips. Dogs fight to the death and tear out the throats of men and other dogs. Lots of bloody details.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Hell" is used several times. A biracial character is referred to as a "half-breed."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Men smoke pipes. Men also receive "invitations to drink" alcohol, but drinking is not depicted.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Jack London's classic novel The Call of the Wild was originally published in 1903. It traces the journey of a dog named Buck from domestic family life to pulling sleds during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s, and then heeding the pull of his natural instincts to return to the wild. This is a story of survival and includes a great deal of brutality that may be upsetting to animal lovers. Dogs are clubbed and whipped. Animals fight each other to the death, and tear out the throats of dogs and men. The book also has some bigoted and sexist portrayals of humans. At one stage in Buck's story, he's owned by two men who are described as "... a black-faced giant called Francois. Perrault was a French-Canadian, and swarthy; but Francois was a French-Canadian half-breed, and twice as swarthy." Native Americans commit a ruthless attack in the book as well, killing dogs and men. And the only woman who figures in the story acts like a spoiled child, by turns overfeeding the dogs (which leads to insufficient food and starvation later) and overworking them. Ultimately, however, this is a story about the power of a dog's natural instincts, and the dignity that animals deserve. The book has been adapted for film, most recently in the 2020 movie starring Harrison Ford .

Where to Read

Community reviews.

• Parents say (16)
• Kids say (63)

Based on 16 parent reviews

Makes Abusing Animals Seem Normal

What's the story.

In Jack London's THE CALL OF THE WILD, family dog Buck is kidnapped and transported to the Yukon in Canada to be a sled dog during the Klondike Gold Rush. At first Buck tries to fight back, but he's soon beaten into submission. As he passes through a succession of owners, he finds that ancient instincts from his wolf ancestors are awakening within him, helping him survive in the brutal wilderness of the North. Buck becomes a leader and a formidable hunter who's attuned to his senses and the wilderness around him.

Is It Any Good?

Jack London's muscular and poetic novel is a thrilling adventure story that explores the relationship of dogs with humans, and dogs with the natural world. As Buck increasingly heeds the instincts of his wolf ancestors, he becomes both more alive and more truly himself. However, not every dog in the story has the power to survive in the wild, and many of the humans are ill-suited for the harsh conditions they face. By exploring the brutality of an untamed environment through the eyes of a dog, London reveals much about human and animal behavior. The Call of the Wild may not be well-suited for sensitive young animal lovers, but it's a powerful story that makes readers think.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how attitudes toward animals have changed in the century since The Call of the Wild was written. How are animals treated in the book? How would this book be received if it were written today?

How do you feel about the way Native Americans are portrayed in this novel?

This book is written with a third-person narrator, but from Buck's point of view. Why do you think Jack London used the dog's perspective? How did this help the author tell the story?

Book Details

• Author : Jack London
• Genre : Animals
• Topics : Adventures , Cats, Dogs, and Mice , Wild Animals
• Book type : Fiction
• Publisher : Larousse Kingfisher Chambers Inc.
• Publication date : January 1, 1903
• Number of pages : 208
• Last updated : January 15, 2019

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

The Dogs of Winter

No Better Friend: Young Readers Edition: A Man, a Dog, and Their Incredible True Story of Friendship and Survival in World War II

A Wolf Called Wander

Black Beauty

The Incredible Journey

Children's Books About Animals

Best animal movies for kids, related topics.

• Cats, Dogs, and Mice
• Wild Animals

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

The 100 best novels: No 35 – The Call of the Wild by Jack London (1903)

The Call of the Wild, a short adventure novel about a sled dog named Buck (a cross between a St Bernard and a Scotch collie) will be one of the strangest, and most strangely potent, narratives in this series.

Its author was a one-off, too. Jack London was a maverick, macho young man, the son of an itinerant astrologer and a spiritualist mother. As a boy, he led a criminal life, specialising in the piracy of oysters in San Francisco Bay. As a writer, he blazed briefly, lived hard and dangerously, and died from drink and drugs aged just 40, having written more than 50 books in 20 years.

London is the archetype of the American writer as primeval hero, the forerunner of Hemingway , Dos Passos , Kerouac and possibly Hunter S Thompson . To George Orwell , he was "an adventurer and a man of action as few writers have ever been". A devotee of Kipling's Jungle Book , London found his literary voice writing about a dog that learns to live at the limit of civilisation. He was inspired to embark on his dog story as a means to explore what he saw as the essence of human nature in response to a wave of calls to American youth urging a new start for the turn-of-the-century generation. London's mythical creature became his answer to the complex challenges of modernity.

The reader discovers Buck, a domesticated prize dog, as the effete pet of a Californian judge. When he is stolen by his master's gardener to settle some gambling debts, Buck passes through a sequence of owners representing the highs and lows of humanity. Sold into a kind of canine slavery as an Alaskan sled dog, Buck ends up in the Yukon of the 1890s Klondike gold rush, a milieu familiar to the writer. Eventually, he becomes the property of a salt-of-the-earth outdoorsman named John Thornton who recognises Buck's qualities and with whom the dog enjoys a deep, and affecting rapport.

Among many adventures, in extremis, Buck saves Thornton from drowning, but when his master is killed by Yeehat Indians, he gives in to his true nature, answers the call of the wild and joins a wolf pack: "Man, and the claims of man, no longer bound him." Here, London is not just writing about dogs. He is expressing his belief, which owes something to Rousseau, that humanity is always in a state of conflict, and that the struggles of existence strengthen man's nature.

London's chapter titles – "Into the Primitive", "The Law of Club and Fang" and "The Dominant Primordial Beast" – might appear to set London's literary agenda. But what projects The Call of the Wild towards immortality is London's urgent and vivid style, and his astonishing identification with the world he's describing. His capacity to involve his readers in his story, regardless of literary subtlety, is what many generations of American writers became inspired by. For this alone, he deserves to be remembered.

A Note on the Text

The Call of the Wild was first serialised in the Saturday Evening Post in the summer of 1903 and was an instant hit. Jack London had already sold the rights to the novel outright for $2,000 because he wanted to buy an old sloop for sailing. Accordingly, the story was first published as a volume in America by Macmillan and Company whose editor, George Brett, played a crucial role in London's success as a writer.

London achieved overnight acclaim. Inevitably, there was envy. A forgotten writer named Egerton Ryerson Young claimed that London had plagiarised his 1902 book, My Dogs in the Northland . London acknowledged the influence and deflected the charge, saying he had already corresponded with Young on the subject.

HL Mencken , a most perceptive critic, wrote: "No other popular writer of his time did any better writing than you will find in The Call of the Wild … Here, indeed, are all the elements of sound fiction: clear thinking, a sense of character, the dramatic instinct, and, above all, the adept putting together of words – words charming and slyly significant, words arranged, in a French phrase, for the respiration and the ear."

Three more from Jack London

The People of the Abyss (1903); White Fang (1906); The Road (1907).

• The 100 best novels

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Book review: “The Call of the Wild” by Jack London

In November, 1902, Jack London wrote his non-fiction investigative book The People of the Abyss about the life of the poor of the East End of London. He’d spent seven weeks living there a few months earlier.

Of the city’s 6.2 million residents, one in 14 lived in grinding oppressive poverty. Or, as the writer put it:

“ At this very moment, 450,000 of these creatures are dying miserably at the bottom of the social pit called ‘London.’ ”

A month after writing The People of the Abyss , London was at work on the novel that made his name, The Call of the Wild . Both books were published in 1903.

A rejection of civilization?

To my mind, there is a direct connection between the two books, and it has to do with a little-discussed aspect of The Call of the Wild .

In his non-fiction book, London detailed the world that civilization made — a world in which nearly half a million “creatures” were left on a human trash heap, left to find their way for as long as they could struggle, left to a miserable life and an early death.

In his novel, London told the story of the un-taming of Buck — of his travels deeper and deeper into his primitive self until, in the end, he is joyously alive and full in his wildness.

In my reading, The Call of the Wild seems to be — subtly and, perhaps for London, subliminally — a rejection of a human civilization that permits the horridness of the lives of the city of London’s poor. The novel’s subtext appears to me to be that the life of Buck is a model for human beings — that health and joy and freedom can only be found in wildness.

A paean to freedom

As I suggest, this may have been subconscious for London. Even so, his visit to the East End may have primed him to create Buck’s story. On a conscious level, he may not have made the connection. But, it seems to me, it’s definitely there.

Another possibility is that, as a struggling writer, trying to keep body and soul together, he didn’t want to write a direct challenge to the status quo, and, for that reason, hid the subtext of his novel.

To write more clearly about the need for wildness would have been akin to promoting anarchy, advising the poor to rebel, preaching chaos in which those with the strongest bodies and wills — not the richest or best-connected — would triumph.

Either way, no reader of The Call of the Wild can see Buck’s evolution (or is it a devolution?) into a kind of wolf as anything but a good thing. The novel is a paean to the freedom of the wild, the freedom to howl at the moon and hunt with the pack, unrestrained.

“The decay of his moral nature”

The goodness of Buck’s transformation is signaled early when he watches another dog steal a piece of bacon from behind the human master’s back and then, “to survive in the hostile Northland environment,” cleverly thieves his own hunk of bacon, a transgression for which another dog is punished.

“This first theft marked…[Buck’s] adaptability, his capacity to adjust himself to changing conditions, the lack of which would have meant swift and terrible death. “It marked, further, the decay or going to pieces of his moral nature, a vain thing and a handicap in the ruthless struggle for existence. “It was all well enough in the Southland, under the law of love and fellowship, to respect private property and personal feelings; but in the Northland, under the law of club and fang, whoso took such things into account was a fool, and insofar as he observed them, he would fail to prosper.”

In the anarchy of the wilderness, Buck is learning that the only rule is to do whatever is necessary to survive.

And, while human society might think of itself as living under “the law of love and fellowship,” those “creatures” in the East End knew much better “the law of club and fang.”

By contrast, the three tenderfeet — middle-aged Charles, his wife Mercedes and her brother Hal —buy Buck and his worn-out team and then arrogantly expect Nature to adapt to the rules of civilization that they have lived all their lives.

Unlike the earlier men who served as the team’s masters, these three are sloppy, selfish and soft. And all three die with their dogs when their sled falls through the thin ice they’d been warned about — warnings they looked down on.

Buck survived because the woodsman John Thornton came to his defense just before the three went onto the ice.

Like Buck, Thornton was a man who lived a wild life and loved it. And loved Buck with a love that was reciprocated.

Despite the increasingly strong tugs of a pack of wild wolves on Buck, the dog remains with Thornton until, on one return to the camp, he finds the man dead, slain in an attack by a Native American tribe.

Interestingly, London depicts these Indians unusually for his time. They aren’t described as inhuman savages. Instead, they have a lot in common with the wolf pack toward which Buck is pulled.

They are wild, but that is good. The tribe and the pack share the same wilderness, the same dangers and the same rich life as an interconnected part of Nature.

Patrick T. Reardon

Written by : Patrick T. Reardon

For more than three decades Patrick T. Reardon was an urban affairs writer, a feature writer, a columnist, and an editor for the Chicago Tribune. In 2000 he was one of a team of 50 staff members who won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. Now a freelance writer and poet, he has contributed chapters to several books and is the author of Faith Stripped to Its Essence. His website is https://patricktreardon.com/.

One Comment

good job guys you did really well :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Leave A Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

© Copyright 2024 | Patrick T Reardon.Com | All Rights Reserved

• Biggest New Books
• Non-Fiction
• All Categories
• First Readers Club Daily Giveaway
• How It Works

A 1903 Review of Jack London's The Call of the Wild

"jack london seems to possess an intuition of the dog life, and the dog heart".

• Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars.

“Jack London’s news story, The Call of the Wild , is the romance of Buck, a great dog. Buck’s sire was a St. Bernard, and his mother was a Collie, and he was shaggy, big of body, strong of muscle and stout of heart. He was stolen from a California ranch and taken to live in the far glacier land of the North, where he was put in a team with work dogs and made to carry the Yukon mail. Jack London seems to possess an intuition of the dog life, and the dog heart, an insight which must have come from intimacy and communion with some big, noble, shaggy friend; and the story is related with a simple, direct, dramatic force which enchains interest; and which is art. The Republic unhesitatingly recommends The Call of the Wild as a story of quality, not surpassed by Bob, Son of Battle , and not approached by any other similar tale.

“During the four years of his puppyhood in California, Buck had lived the life of a country gentleman, fond of activity, of the water and the hunt, but ignorant of hardship and toil. Stolen and taken into the Yukon country, his character changed and he became hard under the hard conditions of life, a leader and master among dogs, turning back toward savage instincts. As time goes on he hearkens more and more to the ‘Call of the Wild’ until, at last, after years fraught with incident and adventure, he yields himself to the mastery of primitive instincts—to the wild, both without and within himself—and reverts to savagery in the great wilderness of the North. The change from gentleman to savage is effected gradually and traced with absorbing interest. Hamilton Wright Mable says truly: ‘The story has a deep psychologic interest, and may be read as a striking parable; but it is, above all, an absorbing tale of wild life, full of pictorial power and abounding in striking incidents of frontier town, camp and adventure.’ ”

–The St. Louis Republic , August 8, 1903

Share this:

• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Get the Book Marks Bulletin

Email address:

• Categories Fiction Fantasy Graphic Novels Historical Horror Literary Literature in Translation Mystery, Crime, & Thriller Poetry Romance Speculative Story Collections Non-Fiction Art Biography Criticism Culture Essays Film & TV Graphic Nonfiction Health History Investigative Journalism Memoir Music Nature Politics Religion Science Social Sciences Sports Technology Travel True Crime

April 1 – April 5, 2024

• Leslie Jamison considers the pop-psychification of gaslighting
• Sheila Heti interviews Lauren Oyler
• What afrofuturism can teach us about climate activism

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

Book Review

The call of the wild.

• Jack London
• Adventure , Drama , Historical

Readability Age Range

• Macmillan; the edition reviewed was published by SeaWolf Press in 2017

Year Published

The Call of the Wild by Jack London has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine .

Plot Summary

The year is 1897. Buck, a St. Bernard and Scotch shepherd mix, is the head dog on Judge Miller’s Santa Clara estate. Gold has been discovered in Alaska, and prospectors are scrambling to find strong work dogs. One of the judge’s hired men kidnaps Buck and sells him. Buck’s new owner, the man with the red sweater, beats Buck into submission with a club. Buck watches other new dogs receive similar orientations and learns he must obey or be killed.

The man with the red sweater sells Buck to French-Canadians Perrault and François. The men take Buck and other dogs from Seattle to the Klondike on a boat called the Narwhal . Buck suddenly finds himself in the uncivilized Arctic, where he and the other dogs must draw upon their primitive instincts for survival.

He learns to be a sled dog and adapt to the frozen climate. He becomes stronger, and his senses grow keener. Buck’s canine shipmate Curly is brutally attacked and killed by the other dogs. Buck and the vicious sled team leader, Spitz, become bitter rivals. Buck and Spitz eventually fight to the death, and Buck secures his place as sled dog leader.

Led by Buck, the team makes record time to Skagway. The French-Canadians turn the dogs over to another man charged with delivering mail to the town of Dawson. A month later, they are back in Skagway. Thousands of miles of travel in poor conditions has left the dogs thin and worn-out.

A group of incompetent American travelers — including a spoiled woman named Mercedes, her husband, Charles, and her brother, Hal — purchases the dogs. They have too much baggage and no idea how to manage the sled dogs. Several dogs die under their care, and the rest suffer from overwork and starvation.

When they reach the camp of a man named Thornton, Buck can no longer move. Hal starts to beat Buck, but Thornton threatens Hal’s life if he hurts the dog. The Americans leave the near-dead Buck behind, ignoring Thornton’s warnings about the thin ice ahead. Buck watches as the travelers, the remaining dogs and the sled fall through the ice and vanish.

Thornton nurses Buck back to health. The two form a bond and save each other’s lives. Buck’s love for Thornton tempers his primal instincts for a time. Thornton makes a bet that Buck can pull a 1,000-pound sled, and the dog shocks the onlookers by succeeding. Thornton uses the money he wins to pay off debts and journey to a fabled lost mine.

He and his partners find lots of gold, and the dogs have nothing to do. During this period of boredom, Buck feels drawn to the forest and partakes in the instinctive behaviors of his ancestors. He frolics with a wolf, hunts, tracks prey and stays away for several days at a time. Only his love for Thornton pulls him back to camp.

Buck returns to camp one day and discovers Yeehat Indians have killed Thornton’s group. The furious dog attacks the tribesmen, killing several and scattering the rest. After avenging his beloved master’s death, Buck is free to return to the wild and live among the wolves. Yeehats talk about his spirit long after Buck is gone, and his traits are evident in future generations of wolves.

Christian Beliefs

Other belief systems, authority roles.

Buck’s first and last owners, the judge and Thornton, treat him with love and respect. Most of the masters between them abuse, neglect and overwork Buck and other dogs.

Profanity & Violence

The Lord’s name is used in vain a time or two. The words h— and d–n also appear a few times. Various owners taunt, throw, choke, beat and kill the dogs, sometimes using clubs and axes. Dogs are starved, denied water and overworked, sometimes to the point of death. Dogs fight fiercely and rip each other’s throats and faces open in bloody scenes. Some dogs are nearly torn to pieces. Buck rips open a man’s throat to save Thornton’s life. He kills some of the Yeehat tribesmen after they kill Thornton.

Sexual Content

Discussion topics.

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books .

Additional Comments

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected] .

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.

Latest Book Reviews

Castle Reef 2: Bloodlines

Compass and Blade

Nothing Else But Miracles

Waverider (Amulet #9)

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Dune Messiah

Weekly reviews straight to your inbox.

• Video2Watch
• Forthcoming/Preorder
• Literary Fiction
• Book2Screen
• Historical Fiction
• Science Fiction
• Supernatural
• Essential Reading
• Graphic Novel

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

• Release Date: 1903
• Genre: Book2Screen , Classics , Coming of Age , Essential Reading , Literature , Survival
• Author: Jack London

About Call of The Wild:

‘Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and . . . he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire, and to plunge into the forest.’

Half St. Bernard, half sheepdog, Buck is stolen away from his comfortable life as a pet in California and sold to dog traders. He soon finds himself aboard a ship, on its way to Northern Canada. Surrounded by cruelty, Buck’s natural instincts and behaviour begin to emerge as he works as a mail carrying sled dog, scavenging for food, protecting himself against other dogs and sleeping out in the cold snow.

Sold to a group of American gold hunters who are inexperienced living in the wilderness, the dogs are treated badly and as misfortune besets them, Buck is saved by John Thornton. Indebted to his new master, Buck remains by Thornton’s side, saving him from drowning and protecting him with fierce loyalty throughout their time together. However, Buck can not deny the strong lure of the wilderness around him.

Exciting and action-packed, THE CALL OF THE WILD explores the timeless relationship between man and dog, and the inevitable draw of primitive instincts that pull Buck away from civilization and humanity towards the lawless and harsh wilderness.

A poignant and triumphant tale of a great creature in the wild. He feels the bitterness and savagery of men and his pack, there has been a dividing line in his relations with humans by no fault but their own due to their constant usage of this canine Buck in work, in pulling in the snow, they have not shown any kindness, but there is hope he will soon be blessed with some. One man shows a kindness that helps Buck, who has had a life of toil and enduring of hardships, its a warming to the heart to see man and animal bonded in humility and kindness. Humans can be cruel and unkind to each other, and many guilty of worser crimes to animals in the wild and those under their control as a pet, they are more vulnerable and have no voice. Jack London here has given them a voice in this story and White Fang. He has successfully placed us in their point of view, in the shoes of the main protagonist Buck. An inspiring story that will continue to last through time. Jack London is another author that I recently hold high up there in the sphere of great writers, he writes with great insight into the world, the behaviours, the human condition and here the animal dilemma. I read this story way too late in my life, I only wished that I learned of these great stories of his when i was in my youth. This story has revived for me the importance of justice and kindness to the animal kingdom and the freedom to an animal of the wild. Author Joe Lansdale recommends this author and has said in an interview that Jack London had inspired him in his youth as a writer and I can now see why. If all this is not enough reason to read this or to remind one of its greatness, then read what the author E. L. Doctorow said in his preface of this story…

“Man and dog are here together put back into prehistory, one of the moments of metaphorical abutment in which the book abounds. The law of the club and the law of the fang are one and the same, which is to say that in this primeval life of nature man and dog are morally indistinguishable-the call of the wild calls us all. We are dealing in this instance with not a literal dog but a mythopoetic thesis. It is perhaps his fatherless life of bitter self-reliance in late-nineteenth-century America that he transmutes here-though this is not the way it does us any good to read it. It seems more relevantly his mordant parable of the thinness of civilisation, the brutality ready to spring up through our institutions, the failure of the human race to evolve truly from its primeval beginnings. It derives from Jack London’s Marxism the idea of the material control of our natures, and from his Darwinism the convictions that life triumphant belongs to the most fit. This is not a sweet idea for a book, it is rather the kind of concept to justify tyrannies and the need of repressive social institutions to keep people from tearing themselves to bits. But London’s Nietzchean superdog has our admiration, if the truth be told. For as grim as its implications are, the tale never forgets its sources as a magazine frontier romance. It leaves us with satisfaction as its outcome, a story well and truly told. It is Jack London’s hack genius that makes us cheer for his Buck and want to lope with him in happy, savage honor back to the wild, running and howling with the pack.”

“Bucks first day on the Dyea beach was like a nightmare. Every hour was filled with shock and surprise. He had been suddenly jerked from the heart of civilisation and flung into the heart of things primordial. No lazy, sun-kissed life was this, with nothing to do but loaf and be bored. Here was neither peace, nor rest, nor a moment’s safety. All was confusion and action, and every moment life and limb was in peril. There was imperative need to be constantly alert; for these dogs and men were not town dogs and men. They were savages, all of them, who knew no law but the law of club and fang.” “And not only did he learn by experience, but instincts long dead became alive again. The domesticated generations feel from him. In vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed, to the time the wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest and killed their meat as they ran it down. It was no task for him to learn to fight with cut and slash and the quick wolf snap. In this manner had fought forgotten ancestors. They quickened the old life within him, and the old tricks which they had stamped into the heredity of the breed were his tricks. They came to him without effort or discovery, as though they had been his always. And when, on the still, cold nights, he pointed his nose at the star and howled long and wolf like, it was his ancestors, dead and dust, pointing nose at star and howling down through the centuries and through him. And his cadences were their cadences, the cadences which voiced their woe and what to them was the meaning of the stillness, and the cold, and dark. Thus, as token of what a puppet thing life is, the ancient song surged through him and he came into his own again; and he came because men had found a yellow metal in the North…” “The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, and under the fierce conditions of the trial life it grew and grew. Yet it was a secret growth. His newborn cunning gave him poise and control. He was too busy adjusting himself to the new life to feel at ease, and not only did he not pick fights, but he avoided them whenever possible. A certain deliberateness characterized his attitude. He was not prone to rashness and precipitate action; and in the bitter hatred between him and Spitz he betrayed no impatience, shunned all offensive acts.” “All that stirring of old instincts which at stated periods drives men out from the surrounding cities to forest and plain to kill things by chemically propelled leaden pellets, the blood lust, the joy to kill-all this was Buck’s, only it was infinitely more intimate. He was ranging at the head of the pack, running the wild thing down, the living meat, to kill with his own teeth and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood. There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond life cannot rise. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive. This ecstasy, this forgetfulness of living, comes to the artist, caught up and out of himself in a sheet of flame; it comes to the solider, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter; and it came to Buck, leading the pack, sounding the old wolf cry, straining after the food that was alive and that fled swiftly before him through the moonlight. He was sounding the deeps of his nature, and of the parts of his nature that were deeper than he, going back into the womb of Time. He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars and over the face of dead matter that did not move.” “It was beautiful spring weather, but neither dogs nor humans were aware of it. Each day rose earlier and set later. It was dawn by three in the morning, and twilight lingered till nine at night. The whole long day was a blaze of sunshine. The ghostly winter silence had given way to the great spring murmur of awakening life. This murmur arose from al the land, fraught with the joy of living. It came from the things that lived and moved again, things which had been as dead and which had not moved during the long months of frost. The sap was rising in the pines. The willows and aspens were bursting out in young buds. Shrubs and vines were putting on fresh garbs of green. Crickets sang in the nights, and in the days all manner of creeping, crawling things rusted forth into the sun. Partridges and woodpeckers were booming and knocking in the forest. Squirrels were chattering, birds singing, and overhead honked the wild fowl driving up from the south in cunning wedges that split the air.” “This man had saved his life, which was something; but, further, he was the ideal master. Other men saw to the welfare of their dogs from a sense of duty and business expediency; he was to the welfare of his as if they were his own children, because he could not help it. And he saw further. He never forgot kindly greeting or a cheering word, and to sit down for a long talk with them (gas he called it) was as much his delight as theirs. He had a way of taking Buck’s head roughly between his hands, and resting his own head upon Buck’s, of shaking him back and forth, the while calling him ill names that to Buck were love names. Buck knew no greater joy than that rough embrace and the sound of murmured oaths, and at each jerk back and forth it seemed that his heart would be shaken out of his body so great was its ecstasy. And when, released, he sprang to his feet, his mouth laughing, his eyes eloquent, his throat vibrant with unuttered sound, and in that fashion remained without movement, John Thornton would reverently exclaim, “God! You can all but speak!” “The blood longing became stronger than ever before. He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survived. Because all of this he became possessed of a great pride in himself, which communicated itself like a contagion to his physical being. It advertised itself in all his movements, was apparent in the play of very muscle, spoke plainly as speak in the way he carried himself, and made his glorious furry coat if anything more glorious. But for the stray brown on his muzzle and above his eyes, and for the splash of white hair that ran midmost down his chest, he might well have been mistaken for a gigantic wolf, larger than the largest of the breed. From his St. Bernard father he had inherited size and weight, but it was his shepherd mother who had given shape to that size and weight. His muzzle was the long wolf muzzle, save that it was larger than the muzzle of any wolf; and his head, somewhat broader, was the wolf head on a massive scale.” “There is a patience of the wild-dogged, tireless, persistent as life itself-that holds motionless for endless hours the spider in its web, the snake in its coils, the panther in its ambuscade; this patience belong peculiarly to life when it hunts its living food; and it belonged to Buck as he clung to the flank of the herd….”

Lara's Wanderings

Book Review: Call of the Wild by Jack London

“Call of the Wild” and “White Fang” are two novels by Jack London that are almost exact opposites of each other. “Call of the Wild” is about a dog that ends up going wild, while “White Fang” is about a wolf that gets domesticated. I will review “Call of the Wild” here first because it seems almost like “White Fang” is its sequel.

“Call of the Wild” follows the life of a mixed-breed dog named Buck. He gets kidnapped from the comforts of a California mansion and sold to traders who take him up to Canada and then into the Alaskan gold rush. Buck experiences both good and bad masters as he learns to become a sled dog and master the hardships of the cold north. Eventually, he leaves man entirely to lead a wolf pack.

This novel is often on middle school reading lists, and rightfully so. Still, it is not a sweet animal story with a cute ending. If fact, it can deal with harsh life and death reality in shocking ways. The cruel deaths of some of the characters, both dogs and humans, can be tough on younger sensitive readers. This doesn’t mean the book should be avoided, but parents and teachers should talk with younger readers about these harsh realities. Foolishness often leads to death. Weakness is often not protected. The book does not address whether this is right or wrong, fair or unfair. It just shows that these things happen.

For me, some of the realities of abuse, cruelty, and foolishness were more shocking as an adult than it was for me as a middle school reader. This also made the kindnesses and victories more impressive. This strong contrast is powerful in this novel, but it doesn’t feel forced, unreal, or exaggerated for its setting.

Also, even though this is a book about animals, its plot structure follows a classic tragedy sequence of events. Buck’s transition to the wild is not a victory but the inevitable result of his maltreatment. I have found that some readers see his leading a wolf pack as a victory. In some ways, it is far better than his dying. Buck’s size, strength, will, and intelligence prevent him from the fate of other dogs, but all of these things are wasted in his wild fate. It was only in the goodness of his last master’s love did Buck fulfill his potential. It then seems appropriate that Buck would continue to mourn him.

I highly recommend this novel to readers of middle school age and up. Younger readers would find the content emotionally difficult, though that definitely depends on the child. The “Call of the Wild” is well-written, descriptive, captivating, and intellectually challenging. It is a classic children’s novel for a good reason.

Share this:

Leave a comment cancel reply.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

Book Reviews

The Call of the Wild by Jack London: Book Review

Buck is a dog’s dog, in and out of the house, accompanying the masters around at well, and just generally living the good life in California. But when the Alaskan gold rush starts, big dogs are suddenly worth a small fortune because of their ability to pull fully-laden sleds. Buck is furtively sold by one of the gardeners and he finds himself in a veritable Hell on earth, but this version of Hell is frozen over.

But Buck is a survivor and he adapts to his new circumstances. No, he doesn’t adapt; he thrives .

This was shelved in the juvenile section of my local library, and I have to say that surprises me a little bit. It’s just that the vocabulary seemed pretty tough for the juvenile crowd. Had I read this as a pre-teen, I would have hated it. I would have been focused on Buck being kidnapped and how hard his life was in Alaska.

Now that I’m a little older, I appreciate the book more. Some parts bothered me, as Buck passed through the hands of various owners, some of whom were vicious. I’m pretty sure I just skimmed through the worst of the beatings. I ultimately found myself admiring Buck’s strength. He thrived on his work and he thrived on being the Alpha dog. He was ultimately in his element. The harsh life he found himself in brought out some of his worst and best qualities. Isn’t it funny how the two just naturally go hand in hand in some situations? He’s a bully but he’s a survivor. He’s a natural leader. He has a boundless capacity for love. He’s a hard worker. He’s intuitive. He gives his all to every task he’s given. There’s a lot to admire in him, even when he’s practically feral.

The essay writer I keep buried (deeply) within sees the potential here for a great essay on the nature of man and beast and how our civility is nothing more than a thin veneer over our baser instincts. Some of my favorite parts in the book are when buck’s ancestral memories come bubbling up and he can remember his ancestors living with cave men at the dawn of time.

If you can get through the sections of abuse, I do recommend this classic adventure tale. It’s a quick read, it left me thinking, and it would be perfect to read as a winter storm blows outside.

Banned/Challenged: I came across this blog post at Banned Books Awareness that address this issue more eloquently than I ever could. Go check it out.

Read an excerpt .

Read more reviews at Pages Unbound , Reading With Tequila , and Opinions of a Wolf .

If you liked The Call of the Wild , you might also like The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, and Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand.

Buy The Call of the Wild at

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s , my local independent bookstore located in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC; and Better World Books . I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.

Related Posts (Automatically Generated):

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly: Book Review

Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore: Book Review

The Known World by Edward P. Jones: Book Review

This was one of my favourite books as a teenager. I first read a digested kids version but have since read the proper book many times. It is an interesting to read in comparison with London's White Fang which has almost the opposite message, a wild wolf becoming civilised. Must see if I can find time to reread them both.

I can't read this book because it kills me, but I am familiar with the story. Jack London is my brother's favorite author (well one of them) so I have heard the stories secondhand. 🙂 The closest I could get is the movie with Ethan Hawke. Lol.

I love to hear from you! Please contact me (menu bar, above) if you're having trouble commenting. Cancel reply

Authors & Events

Recommendations

• New & Noteworthy
• Bestsellers
• Popular Series
• The Must-Read Books of 2023
• Popular Books in Spanish
• Coming Soon
• Literary Fiction
• Mystery & Thriller
• Science Fiction
• Spanish Language Fiction
• Biographies & Memoirs
• Spanish Language Nonfiction
• Dark Star Trilogy
• Ramses the Damned
• Penguin Classics
• Award Winners
• The Parenting Book Guide
• Books to Read Before Bed
• Books for Middle Graders
• Trending Series
• Magic Tree House
• The Last Kids on Earth
• Planet Omar
• Beloved Characters
• The World of Eric Carle
• Llama Llama
• Junie B. Jones
• Peter Rabbit
• Board Books
• Picture Books
• Guided Reading Levels
• Middle Grade
• Activity Books
• Trending This Week
• Top Must-Read Romances
• Page-Turning Series To Start Now
• Books to Cope With Anxiety
• Short Reads
• Anti-Racist Resources
• Staff Picks
• Memoir & Fiction
• Features & Interviews
• Emma Brodie Interview
• James Ellroy Interview
• Nicola Yoon Interview
• Qian Julie Wang Interview
• Deepak Chopra Essay
• How Can I Get Published?
• For Book Clubs
• Reese's Book Club
• Oprah’s Book Club
• happy place " data-category="popular" data-location="header">Guide: Happy Place
• the last white man " data-category="popular" data-location="header">Guide: The Last White Man
• Authors & Events >
• Our Authors
• Michelle Obama
• Zadie Smith
• Emily Henry
• Amor Towles
• Colson Whitehead
• In Their Own Words
• Qian Julie Wang
• Patrick Radden Keefe
• Phoebe Robinson
• Emma Brodie
• Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Laura Hankin
• Recommendations >
• 21 Books To Help You Learn Something New
• The Books That Inspired "Saltburn"
• Insightful Therapy Books To Read This Year
• Historical Fiction With Female Protagonists
• Best Thrillers of All Time
• Manga and Graphic Novels
• happy place " data-category="recommendations" data-location="header">Start Reading Happy Place
• How to Make Reading a Habit with James Clear
• Why Reading Is Good for Your Health
• 10 Facts About Taylor Swift
• New Releases
• Memoirs Read by the Author
• Our Most Soothing Narrators
• Press Play for Inspiration
• Audiobooks You Just Can't Pause
• Listen With the Whole Family

The Call of the Wild

By jack london read by jeff daniels, category: teen & young adult fiction | teen & young adult classics | teen & young adult action & adventure | audiobooks.

May 25, 2010 | 190 Minutes | Young Adult | ISBN 9780307710277 --> Buy

Buy from Other Retailers:

May 25, 2010 | ISBN 9780307710277 | Young Adult

190 Minutes

Buy the Audiobook Download:

• audiobooks.com

About The Call of the Wild

Jack London’s The Call of the Wild was written in 1903, but Buck’s gripping adventure makes for a thrilling listen on audio more than 100 years after it was first published.             This gripping story follows the adventures of the loyal dog Buck, who is stolen from his comfortable family home and forced into the harsh life of an Alaskan sled dog. Passed from master to master, Buck embarks on an extraordinary journey that ends with his becoming the legendary leader of a wolf pack.             “To this day Jack London is the most widely read American writer in the world,” E. L. Doctorow wrote in The New York Times Book Review . Generally considered to be London’s greatest achievement, The Call of the Wild brought him international acclaim when it was published. His story of the dog Buck, who learns to survive in the bleak Yukon wilderness, is viewed by many as his symbolic autobiography. “No other popular writer of his time did any better writing than you will find in The Call of the Wild ,” said H. L. Mencken.

Listen to a sample from The Call of the Wild

Also by jack london.

About Jack London

Jack London—his real name was John Griffith London—had a wild and colorful youth on the waterfront of Oakland, his native city. Born in 1876, he left school at the age of fourteen and worked in a cannery. By the time… More about Jack London

Product Details

Category: teen & young adult fiction | teen & young adult classics | teen & young adult action & adventure | audiobooks, you may also like.

Spud-The Madness Continues

I Am Her Revenge

The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group

ALSC Notable Children’s Recordings SELECTION 2011

Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

Raise kids who love to read

Today's Top Books

Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

An online magazine for today’s home cook

Just for joining you’ll get personalized recommendations on your dashboard daily and features only for members.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Call of The Wild — The Story by Jack London “Call of The Wild”: Book Review

The Story by Jack London "Call of The Wild": Book Review

• Categories: Book Review Call of The Wild

About this sample

Words: 580 |

Published: Sep 1, 2020

Words: 580 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

"Call of the Wild" - a Brief Book Review

Works cited.

• London, J. (1903). The Call of the Wild. Macmillan.
• Gair, R. (1997). The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press.
• Gerber, L. (2016). The Klondike Gold Rush: Photographs from 1896-1899. Schiffer Publishing.
• Herring, B. (2004). The Klondike Gold Rush: The History of the Late 19th Century Gold Rush in Alaska and the Yukon. Charles River Editors.
• Hill, G. (2006). The Alaska Gold Rush. Crabtree Publishing Company.
• Latham, R. (2002). Alaska and the Klondike Gold Rush. University of Washington Press.
• Morgan, M. (2010). The Klondike Stampede. University of Nebraska Press.
• Naske, C. (2012). Alaska: A History. University of Oklahoma Press.
• Wheeler, R. (2009). Gold Rush Dogs. Alaska Northwest Books.
• Wilson, J. (2002). The Alaska Gold Rush: A History Perspectives Book. Cherry Lake Publishing.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1406 words

6.5 pages / 3030 words

3.5 pages / 2123 words

7 pages / 3092 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Call of The Wild

The Call of The Wild by Jack London is an adventurous novel about the story of a young St. Bernard named Buck who is stripped from his peaceful home as a domestic pet and turned into a stone-cold sled dog in the midst of the [...]

Anthropomorphism, the attribution of human characteristics to animals or non-human entities, has been a recurrent theme in literature, sparking intrigue and debate. Jack London's classic novel, "The Call of the Wild," provides a [...]

In the novel The Call of the Wild written by Jack London, Buck was stationed as a compelling leading character who undergoes multiple character developments throughout the novel due to nature and nurture. London’s approach of [...]

The fear of a dystopian future that is explored in both Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis and George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four is reflective of the values of the societies at the time and the context of the authors. As [...]

The power of words is enough to control an entire nation. Although many would consider physical power and brute force to be absolute power, George Orwell’s 1984 demonstrates a dystopian society where language is the ultimate [...]

In order for one to exist in a totalitarian society whose government is successful in its control, one must deal on a day-to-day basis with strong persuasion and propaganda. These totalitarian societies have an iron grip on [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Advertisement

Supported by

‘The Call of the Wild’ Review: Man’s Best Friend? Cartoon Dog.

A defanged and updated version of Jack London’s classic novel doesn’t lack for excitement.

• Share full article

By Ben Kenigsberg

“The Call of the Wild,” Jack London’s gripping 1903 novel, tells the story of a California house dog who discovers his inner wolf. The latest movie adaptation , directed by Chris Sanders, is, strictly speaking, the saga of a human performer who channels his inner pooch.

Buck, the heroic St. Bernard-Scotch shepherd mix of the book, is now a computer-generated creation. Terry Notary, the movement coach who taught actors how to mimic simians on the recent “Planet of the Apes” films , played the dog on the set before animation, in what the film bills as a “live action reference performance.” On the evidence, he was quite credible; any cries of “good boy!” that ring out from viewers will only seem creepy in retrospect.

Opposite Buck is Harrison Ford, countering the dog’s unnervingly expressive eyes with a disturbingly emotionless voice-over. Ford plays Buck’s eventual master, John Thornton, here a grieving father who has traveled to the Yukon for escape. (Buck buries his bottle of booze.) Pondering this interspecies communion — between a craggy star and a digital dog (based on a man playing a dog) — may prompt howls into an existential void. But as the basis for a family crowd-pleaser, the pairing is often irresistible.

The brutality of London’s tale has been softened, as have some of the creakier cultural attitudes. The courier François, described by London as “swarthy” and a “half-breed,” is now Françoise (Cara Gee), and the climactic attack by Native Americans never happens.

Still, this “Call of the Wild,” however defanged and updated, doesn’t lack for exciting canine brawls or tense rescues from frozen waters. It also doesn’t lack for an almost soothing corniness, as when the postal worker played by Omar Sy explains, “We don’t just carry the mail. We carry lives.”

The Call of the Wild Rated PG. Animal cruelty. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig have wound in and out of each other’s lives and careers for decades. Now they are both headlining an Apple TV+ comedy of wealth and status .

Nicholas Galitzine, known for playing princes and their modern equivalents, hopes his steamy new drama, “Mary & George,” will change how Hollywood sees him .

Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth met while filming “Fargo” in 2017. Now married, they have reunited onscreen in “A Gentleman in Moscow.”

A reboot of “Gladiators,” the musclebound 1990s staple, has attracted millions of viewers in Britain. Is appointment television back ?

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

• Book Reviews
• Top 10 Lists
• Laura Anne Bird
• Frances Carden
• Dave Driftless
• Sue Millinocket
• Stephanie Perry

Call of the Wild

Darwinism and Danger: The Edgy Classic That Just Didn’t Capture Me

Author: Jack London

Buck, a majestic dog with a cushy life, is kidnapped by his rich master’s desperate gardener and sold as a sled dog to participate in the brutal Klondike Gold Rush. Transitioning from pampered beast to something more primordial,  Call of the Wild  follows Buck’s short adventure examining survival of the fittest in a literal dog-eat-dog world. Long a favorite, the tale brings adventure and strife alive, pitting readers against harrowing sledding journeys in sub-zero temperatures, contemplating the greed of man and the passionate desire for blood inherent in his beasts. The conclusion is the making of a legend, the swift, brutal journey completed on its wildest note.

Shedding the veneer of civilization, Buck quickly responds to the “call of the wild,” frequently having visions of cavemen and his wolf ancestors. Under the law of “club and fang” Buck passes from brutal, greedy masters, engages in exhausting journeys and physical deprivation, and watches the good dogs die as the dominant wolf-blood of his not so long lost ancestors calls for supremacy.

We don’t see much of Buck before his Alaskan adventure begins and what we do see is a physically well cared for dog that is more or less emotionally neglected by affluent, absentee owners. Buck isn’t your Lassie type and his extraordinary reaction to strangers, which turns out to be a fortitudinous interpretation of the bad crowd he’s been passed along to, hints at a dog with some behavioral problems. From the start of his transfer to Alaska, Buck is fairly vicious but no match for the heartless men he encounters who dream of gold and beat Buck into submission.

Even more shocking, perhaps, is the enmity of the other dogs. The typical image of a happy pack, tails wagging, howling at the moonlight and capering in the sun is not one for this book. The dogs are opportunists and jealous, desirous of being leaders at any costs. It’s an almost human like quality – this ability to ignore all in the effort to gain power, and the irony here is that it is undiluted nature in its purest, most aggressive form.

With all the guts and glory, the dangers and betrayals, and a wild protagonist parading as man’s best friend, it seems as though  Call of the Wild  has everything it needs to captivate and devastate an audience. Yet during this, my second reading of the book, something is still just missing. Technically a novella (or lets face it, just a really long short story),  Call of the Wild  covers a lot of ground (both geographically and plot wise) in a rapid conglomeration of Spartan pages. In this mode, we are mere observers of the drama and not participants. It’s discussed what Buck losses, or more aptly, what he throws aside as worthless, yet we had no time to get acquainted with him before and cannot really see how dramatic the change is.

Long a fan of any animal related story, I’ve plowed through  The Incredible Journey  multiple times and also human + animal stories in the form of such classic favorites as  Julie of the Wolves ,  Lassie , The Jungle Book ,  All Creatures Great and Small,  and more. When I first saw  Call of the Wild  in high school, the elegant picture of a wolf like dog against a snowy world in the cover was all I needed to see. Imagine my consternation then when I found that I just couldn’t connect with Buck, who is essentially Spock in dog form. The cold survival logic comes so quickly, and seemingly with so little upheaval, that the protagonist is too far from our sympathies or our conceptions of man’s (and woman’s) favorite animal companion. Buck’s natural instinct is so easily accessible to him despite generations of captivity that the big theme of Darwinian survival is more predictable than tense. Upon my second reading, maybe a good ten to fifteen years later, I still find myself coming away with the same feeling of detachment from the noble canine lost in the selfishness of adventurous men.

Of course, there is kindness too, even affection and loyalty between Buck and certain humans. Yet this is also simply described and while Buck’s vision of the caveman and his attraction to the artic wolves is evocative, his loyalty is a thing told of, his affection something we know but never really feel. A lot of this is probably due to the fact that the story just happens so quickly. Of course, Incredible Journey  was short too and I loved that . . .

By the time Buck’s fight for survival and domination are complete, the novel has briefly covered a lot of explorations and near misses, all of which are thrilling and fun in a preliminary, summarized way. Then . . . then it’s just over. Just as we begin to settle into the extremities of Buck’s life and wonder where his time with man will converge with his growing sense of wildness, just as the death and adventure captivates us in a cold, hard world, the conclusion arrives. Although the ending is satisfying, even a little fairy-tale like feeling as it establishes a legend and a history, the ultimate truth is that readers have been in this world, with this aloof dog, too short a time to adequately remember much of the story after the final chapter or maintain any of its temporary magic.

–        Frances Carden

• Recent Posts

• Book Vs Movie: The Shining - April 6, 2020
• Thankful For Great Cozy Mysteries - December 13, 2019
• Cozy Mysteries for a Perfect Fall - October 20, 2019

'The Call Of The Wild' Review: A Heartfelt Survival Story Buried In A Mush Of Uncanny CGI

Most attempts to adapt the works of Jack London to the big screen have, more often than not, resulted in a neutered final product. Chris Sanders ' live-action/computer-animated adaptation of  The Call of the Wild falls firmly in this category.

Gone is the savage romance of London's short novel in all its untamed glory, instead, The Call of the Wild is a Disney-fied The Revenant — though it's even less a survival film than it is a schmaltzy celebration of that bond between dog and human. At parts, it feels more like A Dog's Purpose film than the gritty wilderness tale of London's original book. The funny thing is, London's book was a direct rebuke to that bond, painting the majestic call of natural instinct as something more awesome and powerful than any human bond.

The Call of the Wild opens with Harrison Ford 's weary narration of the story of Buck, an abnormally large St. Bernard/Scotch Collie mix who lives a comfortably domestic life under the ownership of the affluent Judge Miller ( Bradley Whitford ). The story unfolds through old pen drawings that reflect the newspaper illustrations of the time, showing the hoards of dogs sold to prospectors looking to get rich in northwestern Canada at the height of the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. But as we fade from the yellowed newspaper illustration to real life, the uncanny computer-animated Buck barges in — a gentle giant whose every step seems to make his surroundings tremble. He's a dog too big for this small town that he was raised in, but he's even more out of his element when he is stolen and sold to freight haulers in Yukon. Confused and scared, Buck bears beatings and starvation before he is sold to a kindly French-Canadian gold courier (a delightfully cheery Omar Sy ) and his partner Françoise ( Cara Gee ). Buck finds himself becoming more attuned to the sled-dog lifestyle, gaining the trust and respect of the other sled dogs, except for the angry leader Spitz, who starts to feel threatened by the new arrival.

The film puts Buck through several more hardships — including a cruel new master played with a campy glee by Dan Stevens  (the role of the spoiled, greedy antagonist switched with  Karen Gillan 's slightly more empathetic take on the pampered socialite Mercedes) — before he lands in the arms of Ford's John Thornton, an alcoholic prospector mourning the loss of his son. The story follows the broad strokes of London's book fairly accurately, though with a more cautious touch when it comes to the violent dog fights and beatings of the source material, and giving a softer edge to its all the human characters, save for Stevens' Hal, who the film builds up to be the Big Bad of the movie.

This is Sanders' live-action directorial debut after the filmmaker cut his teeth co-directing Disney's  Lilo & Stitch and DreamWorks'  How to Train Your Dragon to critical acclaim. There is a springiness to his direction that speaks to his animation savvy — the physics of the world are a little out of step with reality, with each tumble hitting a bit harder, and each action sequence a little more fantastical. But most notably, the computer-animated dogs lean more cartoonish than the muted photorealism of Disney's  The Lion King or  The Jungle Book live-action remakes. Once you get over the uncanny valley of seeing dogs raise their eyebrows so many times, it becomes clear that this is intentional — the heightened gloss that coats the film, subduing its moments of violence and boosting its moments of sentimentality, has the fantastical feel of an animated film. It's a choice that works for a family-friendly version of  The Call of the Wild , but it had me wondering if this film would have been vastly improved by being an entirely animated film.

Why not just go all the way and make a fully animated  The Call of the Wild? It would allow the filmmakers to better depict the dog-to-dog dynamics that are so essential to Buck's arc (complete with actually expressive faces!) and allow the film to embrace the wilder, grim aspects of London's original book without veering into exploitative dog-fight territory. I'm in no way advocating for more gritty dog violence — the sequences that actually do play out in  The Call of the Wild were disturbing enough — but an animated take would have evened out the uneven mixture of tones in Sanders'  The Call of the Wild , with Buck's goofy hijinks sitting uncomfortably with the bleak tale of bestial survival.

The film is at its best in its contemplative second half, when it finally lives up to the premise of London's book: the primitive call of nature that beckons Buck away from the human world he had always known. Early in the film, that call takes an actual form, as a vision of a black wolf that appears to Buck whenever he's in a crises. That literal manifestation of the call is strange but effective, but nowhere near as powerful as the long quiet stretches when Buck wanders through the wilderness to befriend the wolves that roam the Yukon mountains, as Ford's prospector discovers an amazing trove of gold near the peaceful river cabin where he and Buck had traveled to escape civilization. Suspicions that Ford phoned it in for  The Call of the Wild will be proven false, as the actor gives a wonderfully grizzled and vulnerable performance as a mourning father who drowns his sorrows in alcohol. Though his character is barely more than a series of familiar character traits, Ford lends him a good-humored humanity that matches well with Buck's big-hearted gentle giant.

I wish  The Call of the Wild would trust its audience to give it the quiet, contemplative but unapologetically savage film that embodies the latter half of the film, instead of inserting silly hijinks and Stevens' scenery-chewing villain. Allow nature to run its course, for the story's primal ode to the wilderness to be heard. It would break through the monotony of computer-animated creatures and sweet schmaltz. But alas,  The Call of the Wild will fade into the latter category.

/Film Rating: 6 out of 10

The Call of the Wild

Publisher description.

Embark on an unforgettable journey into the heart of the wilderness with "The Call of the Wild," a timeless tale of courage, resilience, and the enduring bond between humans and nature. In this gripping narrative, follow the remarkable story of Buck, a domesticated dog thrust into the harsh and unforgiving landscapes of the Klondike Gold Rush. As Buck navigates the challenges of the wild, he discovers his primal instincts awakening, leading him to embrace his true nature and forge a path of survival against all odds. With Jack London's vivid prose and unparalleled storytelling, "The Call of the Wild" transports readers to a world of breathtaking beauty and untamed wilderness. Feel the thrill of the adventure as Buck encounters a cast of unforgettable characters, from grizzled prospectors to cunning predators, each shaping his journey in unexpected ways. As a timeless classic beloved by readers of all ages, "The Call of the Wild" continues to captivate hearts and minds with its powerful themes of freedom, loyalty, and the triumph of the human spirit. Join the ranks of millions who have been inspired by this enduring masterpiece and experience the call of the wild for yourself.

More Books by Jack London & RedHouse

The Spring of Wild Lily

Services Offered

Verified by Business

Foot Massage

Deep Tissue Massage

Shiatsu Massage

Couples Massage

Hot Stone Massage

Swedish Massage

People also searched for

foot massage

couples massage

deep tissue massage

hot stone massage

Location & Hours

Suggest an edit

5920 Brown St

Oconomowoc, WI 53066

You Might Also Consider

The Guild of Modern Wellness

16.2 miles away from The Spring of Wild Lily

My goal with The Guild of Modern Wellness is to empower you to reclaim and maintain your health through safe and effective natural treatments that focus on healing the whole person – mind, body and spirit. read more

in Saunas, Weight Loss Centers, Iv Hydration

Complete Chiropractic & Rehab Center

2.7 miles away from The Spring of Wild Lily

Pain Relief awaits you read more

in Nutritionists, Chiropractors, Massage Therapy

Melanie L. said "You will almost never find me here. I don't wear make-up of any kind, which this place has a lot of. I don't wear a lot of perfumes, I don't use styling products and I probably wouldn't know the significant difference between any…" read more

in Perfume, Skin Care, Cosmetics & Beauty Supply

About the Business

Here at The Spring of Wild Lily, we are a proud Asian Spa located in Oconomowoc, WI ! We are professional Asian massage therapists that are trained to provide all kinds of massages! Best asian massage in town! Our highly trained, licensed Asian massage therapists are here to help you get to those annoying knots on your body and release them, also to help you relax and 5920 all built up stress. We serve a wide variety of modalities and add ons are also available including but not limited to Deep Tissue, Swedish, Shiatsu and much more. See our website for more details. You can either Book your appointment via phone call or just simply walk-in anytime where we are always ready to help! …

Ask the Community

Ask a question

Yelp users haven’t asked any questions yet about The Spring of Wild Lily .

Recommended Reviews

• 1 star rating Not good
• 2 star rating Could’ve been better
• 3 star rating OK
• 4 star rating Good
• 5 star rating Great

Select your rating

Overall rating

I met Ne ne and thought she' s a ballarina! About 5' 4 no more than 120 lbs. How is this little lady going to give me a deep tissue massage? WOW! She will surprise you! She has kryptonyte hands! Impressive. A Swedish massage on steroids. I came away with no pain from my tender sacro iliac. A tip: use Google translate prior to getting on the table.

The Joint Chiropractic

Welcome to The Joint Chiropractic - Oak Creek. As your local chiropractor in Oak Creek we invite you to join the millions of Americans who have not only found relief from back pain, but also a pathway to wellness with chiropractic's… read more

in Chiropractors

Little Steps Pediatric Therapy

16.5 miles away from The Spring of Wild Lily

Jennifer B. said "My son is seeing an occupational therapist here and we have had a great experience. Finding a provider who would take our concerns seriously and was willing to help was surprisingly difficult, but from day 1 they have been…" read more

in Speech Therapists, Sports Medicine, Physical Therapy

People Also Viewed

Natural Therapeutics Wellness Center

Nurture Massage Spa

Happy Feet Foot Massage

Voodoo Massage

Peace Love Massage

Relaxing Relief Massage

Kneading Touch

Massage 108

Amyable Massage

SOL Therapeutics

Full Body Massage Near Me

Massage Therapist Near Me

Messages Near Me

Other Places Nearby

Find more Massage near The Spring of Wild Lily

Find more Massage Therapy near The Spring of Wild Lily

Find more Reflexology near The Spring of Wild Lily

Service Offerings in Oconomowoc