Major Themes In George Orwell's Into The Wild

For a book to be considered a classic novel, it has to be “accepted as being exemplary or noteworthy, for example through an imprimatur such as being listed in a list of great books, or through a personal opinion..” This was the definition of a book being a great novel; according to wikipedia. This book is about a dog named Buck, who was very strong and very smart, even though he only starts off as a regular pet. Who goes off to pull sleds for many masters, throughout the whole story Buck becomes stronger and is very loyal to his master, if he’s loyal back. There are three main themes that came from this novel, Bucks indispensable struggle for mastery, the power of his inner primitive instincts, and laws of civilization and wilderness. In …show more content…
When Buck enters the wild, he has to learn many lessons in order to survive in the wilderness, and he starts to get really good at it. But in the novel, it doesn’t refer it as him learning new things to survive, instead he gradually recovers his primitive instincts from his ancestors that they possessed. “And not only did he learn by experience, but instincts long dead became alive again. The domesticated generations fell 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.” (London, 55) This quote is talking about how in the wilderness, Buck started to gain more instincts from his ancestors that they used to survive. In the novel this is was commonly called “ativism”. Either he chose to follow these instincts was all up to him, but his life depended on it. Clearly, another main topic that Jack London brought up in this novel was Bucks reliance on his instincts, without these instincts that he has acquired from his ancestors, he wouldn’t be able to survive out in the wild on his …show more content…
In my own opinion, this book should be read in some history classes when learning about the Klondike Gold Rush. You learn a lot about what they had to go through to do what they did. It is also a really great story to read that is action packed. You read the book and its as if you were actually an animal named Buck. Buck, an animal that was raised domestic, then when he had to pull a sled and started to rely more on his own instincts from nature, starts to become more wolf like. In conclusion, Jack London wrote this book to talk about a story about a dog’s perspective through the Klondike Gold Rush, he created Buck to write a story that he would’ve liked to have of himself, being free and wild like he should’ve always have