Power Of Instinct In The Call Of The Wild

The theme that I have chosen to analyze in The Call of the Wild is the power of instinct. Buck and the other dogs are living in the frozen terrain of northern Canada and they experience starvation, exhaustion, and freezing temperatures. Buck is put into a place where he must learn skills in order to survive the harsh conditions. Throughout the story we learn that Buck isn't just learning new skills, but is merely recovering primitive instincts. As you read the book, the author writes in way that seems as if Buck is going back to his old ways.

Buck is now becoming more adapt to new changes that being a sled dog brings. Buck begins to despise the behavior of the other dogs, but learns quickly that fair play does not exist. In chapter 2, Buck is struggling find a place to get warm and sleep for the night and he then finds Billie buried in the snow and proceeds to make his own. He wakes up covered in snow, he instinctively forces himself out of the snow. This is the first time he is realizing he is beginning to draw on his ancestral knowledge. "The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, and under the fierce …show more content…
In chapter 3, Buck is fighting more with other dogs, and starts to crave the excitement of a good fight and wants to gain dominance. One night while hunting, they come across a rabbit. Spitz and Buck start to fight violently over it. Buck wins the fight because he outsmarts Spitz. Buck is starting to hold his own and learn how to fight for his life. Bucks primitive instinct of hunting and killing is starting to come out. Buck sees a rabbit and starts chasing it in a bloodthirsty kind of way. "All that stirring of old instincts which at stated periods drives men out from sounding 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