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London, Call of the Wild Jack London's Call of the Wild is rightly considered as one of the greatest masterpieces of English literature. It wouldnt be too daring to suggest that at least two generations of men that participated in First and Second World Wars were greatly influenced by its ideas. It appears as if this novel was meant to strengthen people before the advent of great twentieth century's trials and tribulations I personally view London's masterpiece as much more than just a great novel. It is a condensed life philosophy a manual to living for every real man. This is a story about what is important in this world and what is superficial. Its the Nietzschean worldview, read as a story of dogs transformation from domesticated doggy to a wild wolf with lot of survival experience behind and with unshakable will to dominate.
Many critics used to note that, although Call of the Wild is written in prose, its spirit is truly poetic Author has chosen the story of Buck to introduce reader with his Darwinist worldview. Buck used to have a comfortable life, not being aware of hardships when he lived at Jude Millers estate in California. These were the times of Yukon's great Gold Rush. Sled-pulling dogs were in short supply when thousands of adventures went up North, hoping to quickly get rich. One day Buck gets kidnapped and next thing he finds himself being almost beaten to death with a club to teach him obedience: That club was a revelation. It was his introduction to the reign of primitive law, and he met the introduction halfway.
The facts of life took on a fiercer aspect (London, p. 14) The new cruel world opened its arms to Buck, in which only the fittest will survive. Upon ships arrival to North he witnesses another dog from the ship Curly, being violently killed by the pack of huskies. Buck begins to adapt, yet it doesnt come easy to him. After becoming a property of Francois and Perrault, Buck acquires survival skills.
He learns how to sleep under the snow, how to ration food and how to preserve energy while pulling a sled. At this time starts his rivalry with the leader of a dogs team, Spitz. There is no room for two under the sun Buck kills Spits and becomes a dominant dog. From this time on, Buck appears to us in the new light There is a great deal of respect that every reader begins to feel towards this dog, after he proves being worthy of survival, despite all the odds. Through the character of Buck, author wanted to show us that were all capable of doing things that we normally would dismiss out of hand.
All it takes, are some extreme circumstances. The skin-deep cultural layer outside of our animal true nature will disappear very quickly, when itll come to be or not to be. After Buck meets Thornton, he becomes more and more attracted to be out on the loose. Thornton encourages him to do so, by allowing Buck to roam freely, after taking the leash off him. But as time goes by, Buck seems to be less and less attracted to civilization: He began to sleep out at night, staying away from camp for days at a time; and once he crossed the divide at the head of the creek and went down into the land of timber and streams. There he wandered for a week, seeking vainly for fresh sign of the wild long, easy lope that seems never to tire. (London, p. 51).
Buck begins to feel being divided between his loyalty to Thornton and his growing attraction to his wild brothers. Still, he cant abandon his master as he inner feels that Thornton is also getting frustrated with the world of men and thats what causes mutual understanding between him and Buck. But once Thornton is dead, there is nothing to keep Buck among people he gives in to the call of nature and joins pack of wolves. Author shows us that what made Buck happy after he left for the woods, wasnt even his newly acquired freedom, but the fact that he was finally able to follow his instincts and not to be ashamed of it: 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. (London, p. 61) It appears that Jack London did even more for promoting Nietzschean ideas in than Nietzsche himself.
Buck is nothing but a super-hero of animal kingdom. Everything is allowed if it leads to survival and domination. There is no other morality but the morality of masters and slaves, of those that are free and those that are not. Nature might appear cruel, but it guaranties the continuity of natural selection, as only the biological mechanism that, so far, was enabling living creatures to progress.
The natural selection is what enabled humankind to evolve, this is the rule that is equally applied to all living things. According to statistics, 50 % of all children under 10 years old in America are overweight, being under high risk of dying from heart attack before they reach the age of 40. This situation is only going to get worse as time goes by. This is a direct result of reversed natural selection There are very little reviews of this novel that dont praise it. Yet, with the rise of political correctness, there seem to be more and more skeptical approaches to this novel on the part of critics. Many of them consider glorifying Social-Darwinism as inappropriate, because in their view, this would lead to people becoming curious whether Nazi philosophy quite as bad as it is generally described.
One of such critics is Donna Stunder, who in her review of this novel, goes as far as suggesting that Call of the Wild cant be very beneficial for peoples development, since it views a brute force as a final reason that wins any argument: In the morning children are taught of tolerance, yet a few hours later The Call of the Wild is being introduced to them as one of the finest novels in English literature (Stunder). It appears that there is a tendency among critics nowadays to undermine every idea, which is noble and powerful. They simply project their own weaknesses onto such work and if it doesnt fit their criteria, they reject it out of hand. The best cure for such critics would be to spend sometime up the North in the winter.
This would cardinally change their ways of thinking. One of the most important features of this novel is that we accept London's position as our own when we read it. Only works of great authors can do this to readers and thats why I have no doubt that Call of the Wild will continue to influence young people in their process of growing up, despite the attempts of politically correct watchdogs to undermine the significance of this novel. London's Buck had undergone changes that would also be normal to every individual if it was to survive the harsh reality: Civilized, he could have died for a moral consideration, say the defense of Judge Miller's riding-whip; but the completeness of his de civilization was now evidenced by his ability to flee from the defense of a moral consideration and so save his hide. (London, p. 35) Being an atheist makes London's views especially appealing to me. Any morality, which is based on religious doctrine, which contradicts the laws of nature, will result in nothing but corruption of people. The best example here is Christianity Despite the fact that London's novel is totally deprived of any superficial concepts of morality, it nevertheless filled with optimism.
Author appears to us as great idealist and romantic. He suggests that under no circumstances individual can whine when hes through the hardship. Quite contrary hardships are meant to strengthen men. Nietzsche's saying Whatever doesnt kill us makes us stronger seems to be the single novels motive.
Man, just like any living creature, is subject to the law of nature. It is up to him whether he chooses to obey or ignore them. Ethical rules of behavior dont stand a chance, when confronted with the laws of biology. The call of the Wild is counted among 10 most published novels in English language. This points out to the fact that people accept London's Social-Darwinist ideas on subconscious level; otherwise it wouldnt become so popular.
It is a great reading material to those who prefer to face a reality for what it is, rather than living in the world of fairy tales Bibliography: London, J. The Call of the Wild Houghton Mifflin Co. , Boston. 1979 Stunder, D. Violence in The call of the Wild. November 29, 1999 Mouthshut. com, Inc.
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Research essay sample on London Call Of The Wild
