Critical analysis of the novel: The Call of the Wild
The novel is about a dog named Buck, who is sold off as a sled dog.
He is treated badly as a sled dog, quickly learns his work, and then becomes the leader of the dog team by killing the previous dog’s leader. They are sold to another sled driver,
and were forced to work too much which drained their energy, and there was no rest, so due to this mismanagement, they died one after the other.
Only Buck was left and saved by a man called John Thornton, who loved animals and was kind.
John treated him well and helped him recover. At first, Buck was uneasy as he was badly treated by others, but finally, he started loving John and won a bet for John by pulling a 1000-pound sled.
John takes his dogs along with Buck into the backcountry, searching for a mythical lost cabin, where Buck meets a wild wolf while searching for the cabin.
He joined the group of wolves after the death of John, who was killed by local Indians while returning.
Title
Everyone has their own imagination, but according to me, the title is suitable for the play, The Call of the Wild.
This title shows as if the wild animals and forests are yelling and calling back animals from human areas because they are treated badly by humans with few exceptions, and even these few kind people are also not safe in the sense that they are harmed by their people, for example, John.
John symbolizes a reaction to industrialization, which is increasing the value of materialism while decreasing human value.
The two main themes we can extract from the story are the impact of the environment and adaptation to different environments.
Impact of the environment
The novel shows Buck living in a big mansion with many facilities, so he is good enough to let others eat his food. Living in a civilized society, he is also civilized, not harming anyone.
When he is sold and treated badly, the environment affects him, and he learns to steal food and finds it easy to steal.
He also killed a dog for his survival, so with the impact of the environment, one more thing is shown here in the novel: when he is helped by John, he starts loving him and wins for him a bet.
So, he reacted to how he was treated. The second theme is adaptation to a different environment.
Adaptation to a different environment
Progress is the result of adaptation. The above line could be observed in the story through an example of Buck, who came from a mansion and started working as a sled dog but still learned his work quickly and succeeded in learning. We can relate to this adaptation process, though it is difficult to adapt to an environment that is not liked by us. Still, by working hard, we can succeed.
Symbolism
Symbolism through characters is shown. Charles, Mercedes, and Hal are symbols of ignorance and vanity, whereas John and his companions symbolize loyalty and love.
Foil character
A foil character is a character that shows opposite traits to another character.
Here we can see foil characters in the novel.
John is a kind and loving person, whereas Charles and Mercedes prove themselves to be terrible masters, so their traits are contrasting, and they are foil characters.
Experience
The importance of experience is also depicted in the novel through different characters.
Hal, Mercedes, and Charles, who are inexperienced, treated Buck badly, but French Canadian mail driver Francois is an experienced man, so he treated Buck with fairness.
The novel portrays John as a kind and animal-loving man. We can extract an idea from this line that John is a kind and loving man, and he helped Buck, which in turn made Buck love him, creating a positive scenario.
We should also teach children that animals should be loved and not harmed.
We should treat animals and each other with kindness.
Secondly, in response to John’s kind behavior, Buck also performed well and started loving his master. We can say that good earns good and can create a beautiful society.
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