Call of the Wild Book Review

Jack London's Call of the Wild interested me with it's anthropomorphic implementation to a pampered dog reverting to a wild and more primitive state of mind.

The setting plays a huge role in the development of Buck, so I find it one of the most important aspects of the book. The setting is the key factor in Buck's change from pampered to wild. This is because he goes from the calm and serene, mostly dull, country side to the harsh and unforgiving terrain of the Yukon, forcing him to change his entire aspect of life and himself. This is the main contributing factor to his change because if it wasn't the Yukon, then he wouldn't have become a sled dog, he would not have to deal with the snow, and basically every change that happened would not have happened, or would have happened differently.

In my opinion the life lesson (theme) of this book is that no matter how deep you bury your true instincts, they are still there and can still become dominant, especially if it is needed. For example, Buck was met with many hardships do to his buried primal instinct, as in the lack of leadership, and the lack of basically knowing what to do in a pack, but after his true primordial self began to emerge everything came easier to him as he accepted what he was.

I believe one connection I could make with this book would be to White Fang, also by Jack London. I would connect them because they both use anthropomorphism with a canine, a dog and a wolf. I find this interesting because in his novels he portrays the two animals with different humanoid personalities. Their personalities differ in that they both see and think of humans in a different "light". Buck thinks of humans as humans, while the wolf in White Fang thinks of them as gods, causing how they treat situations to differ. Another connection would be to that of real life, humans to be precise. Buck is so well anthropomorphically portrayed, that I believe even a human in those situations would have reacted in the same exact fashion, ironic given that Jack London (a human) is speaking for how he thinks Buck would react.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested at seeing life through the point of view of an animal, and that wants to read an engaging story about how a dog handles a situation given to him that no normal every dog could conquer.