Melissa Lyons

10/17/2012

Period # 3

Book Report: The Call of the Wild

Call of the Wild is a book told in 3rd person about a dog that gets sold to dog traders and

eventually ends up becoming a sled dog. The main character of the story is Buck, a dog that is

half sheepdog, half St. Bernard, and lives a sheltered life on his owner’s, Judge Miller, estate in

Sara Clara Valley. He lives a good life until gold is discovered in the Klondike region of Canada

and a demand grows for strong dogs to pull sleds, this leads to Miller’s gardener, Manuel, to

kidnap Buck and sell him to dog traders for money to pay off his gambling debts.

Buck gets put in the dog trader’s kennel, where he tries to resist, but is beaten into

submission. He eventually learns the rules when one of the new dogs, Curly, friendly approaches

a husky but is attacked and killed in a manner of minutes.

Buck and some other dogs are finally purchased by Francois and Perrault, two mail

carriers that work for the Canadian government. He eventually learns how to become a sled dog

and grows out of his domestic ways. His senses become acute, his muscles stronger, and he

inherits the way of his ancestors.

Eventually he starts to form a rivalry with the lead dog, Spitz. After Spitz takes Bucks

sleeping spot they start to circle each other, ready to fight when suddenly a pack of starving wild

dogs attacks the camp. Eventually they fend off the wild dogs, but Buck and Spitz rivalry grows,

until even the owners realize it will end in a fight to the death.

This ends up happening when the pack goes hunting for a rabbit, led by Buck. Spitz takes

a different path from the pack and ends up cutting Buck off as soon as he’s about to get the

rabbit. They fight and at first it seems like Buck is going to lose, until Buck tricks him and bites

Spitz leg, breaking it. Spitz eventually dies.

Buck then takes the head role and leads the sled team through trails in record time.

Perrault and Francois have orders to go elsewhere, and the team is given to a Scotsman who

makes them carry significantly heavier loads. After a long trip the team rests in a town overnight,

an immediate delivery is need so the team gets replaced with a fresh one and is sold to Hal and

Charles. Two American prospectors that are inexperienced.

They try to load up the sled with too much stuff, and when it can’t be pulled they whip

the dogs. Even when they remove half the load at a town and get 6 new dogs the sled is still

heavy. There poor treatment of dogs and food rationing leads for many of the new dogs to die

because they are not adjusted to the wilderness.

They reach John Thornton’s camp, and experienced gold miner, and he warns them to

stop going because the ice is starting to melt and they will break through. Hal ignores him and

puts the dogs back into place. Buck doesn’t get up sensing that going down the trail is a bad idea.

Hal beats Buck to try to get him in his harness until Buck is near death. Thornton suddenly stops

Hal and says he’ll kill him is he hits Buck again. Hal backs off and continues down the trail, a bit

later Buck and Thornton look down the trail and watch the sled crack the ice and sink into the

water with the owners and dog team.

Buck stays with Thornton and loves his knew master, being loyal to his every command.

He saves Thornton’s life on two occasions, and in a test of loyalty, Thornton commands buck to

jump off a cliff. Buck begins to do so until Thornton stops him, proving Bucks obedience.

Thornton also boasts that Buck can pull 1000 pounds on a sled. Many men start to wager against

his claim, but they are proven wrong when Buck pulls the sled 100 meters in front of their very

eyes. While Buck loves this new life he also missed the wild, and his feral instincts are growing.

Thornton pays his debts and goes searching for a gold mine with his friends and other

dogs, they make thousands of dollars and due to the lack of work for Buck he goes out into the

wild and befriends a wolf. The wolf starts to lead Buck back to his pack but Buck goes back to

the camp. While he loves Thornton he also wants to be wild and will go into the forest for days

at a time.

One day when coming back to the camp buck finds Thornton, his friends, and the other

dogs dead, killed by the Yeehat tribe. Buck is enraged and kills many of the tribesmen, after he

scares the rest of them off he goes back into the forest and becomes the leader of the wolf pack.

But still visits the camp where Thornton dies every year, and has become a Yeehat legend as a

ghost dog who leads the wolf pack, and as an evil spirit who haunts the valley where Thornton

died.

In my opinion this was a great story that shows the struggles of a dog that is strong and

wise enough to survive through it all, as is reborn as an incredible wild dog. It is also a very

emotional book, as the way it written makes you feel like Buck is a person, making his issues

and struggles to the reader that much more sympathetic. It shows the tragedies and harsh realities

of real life without making the book overly depressing. It is also written in a very interesting

way, in a 3rd person omniscient narrator that knows Buck’s thoughts and emotions, which makes

this story in particular very different from most.