The Call of the Wild - Emma Chen
The Call of the Wild by John London tells the story of Buck, a housedog who is stripped of his comfortable lifestyle and kidnapped to pull sleds along the cold and unforgiving lands of Yukon in Canada during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. Exposed to “the law of Club and Fang” as he sees a friend get ripped apart by other dogs, Buck soon begins to get in touch with his primitive instincts which were hidden away during his captivity.
The book was unique in the way that while I have read historical fiction and fiction told from the perspective of animals, this was the first time I read something that combined the two. It gets the audience thinking of what roles and suffering animals when through during the course of history when we as humans only focus on our own species in all our historical texts. The scene in which a primitive human is shown in Bucks dream, and how Buck regains his primitive instincts through his experiences also makes one question how ‘civilized’ the human race really is once we are put in a place where nothing matters but survival as Buck was. The book points out moral questions about human nature using dogs as a metaphor - when it is right to be uncivil, when it is right to steal, when is it right to kill? This is explored as Buck adjusts from civilization into his life as a ‘wolf’ or wild dog, and …show more content…
However, some events were quite easy to miss and confusing as they were not direct enough, for example when the Canadian gold hunters were required elsewhere and couldn’t stay with the dogs any longer, it was hard to catch from the text. Personally, although I did end up enjoying the text, I would not have touched on this genre if I wasn’t required to, as the deaths and abuse suffered by the characters were too confronting for me as I get attached to them quite
The Call of the Wild by John London tells the story of Buck, a housedog who is stripped of his comfortable lifestyle and kidnapped to pull sleds along the cold and unforgiving lands of Yukon in Canada during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. Exposed to “the law of Club and Fang” as he sees a friend get ripped apart by other dogs, Buck soon begins to get in touch with his primitive instincts which were hidden away during his captivity.
The book was unique in the way that while I have read historical fiction and fiction told from the perspective of animals, this was the first time I read something that combined the two. It gets the audience thinking of what roles and suffering animals when through during the course of history when we as humans only focus on our own species in all our historical texts. The scene in which a primitive human is shown in Bucks dream, and how Buck regains his primitive instincts through his experiences also makes one question how ‘civilized’ the human race really is once we are put in a place where nothing matters but survival as Buck was. The book points out moral questions about human nature using dogs as a metaphor - when it is right to be uncivil, when it is right to steal, when is it right to kill? This is explored as Buck adjusts from civilization into his life as a ‘wolf’ or wild dog, and …show more content…
However, some events were quite easy to miss and confusing as they were not direct enough, for example when the Canadian gold hunters were required elsewhere and couldn’t stay with the dogs any longer, it was hard to catch from the text. Personally, although I did end up enjoying the text, I would not have touched on this genre if I wasn’t required to, as the deaths and abuse suffered by the characters were too confronting for me as I get attached to them quite