...Naturalism in The Call of the Wild Jack London was born on January 12, 1876 to a working class family. He had to deal with a hard life from a very young age, but his constant struggling got him through most of the difficulties and by the age of 30, he was internationally famous for his books Call of the Wild (1903), The Sea Wolf (1904) and other successful literay works. Though he wrote passionately about the great questions of life and death and the struggle to survive with dignity and integrity, he also sought peace and quiet inspiration. He wished society to be reformed that he expressed through his writings. His stories of high adventure were based on his own experiences at sea, in the Yukon Territory, and in the fields and factories of California. Similar to a number of writers at that time, he died young, at the age of 40, impoverished (again), sick and suffering from alcoholism. To this day it is still unclear if he the cause of death was accidental morphine overdose or he commited suicide. He as well was a fairly controversial person, so that different authors look at him in various ways: ”The basic law of his thinking was logic. His literary style was the clear, obvious and unmistakable sentences of the beautiful English language. ’The Call of the Wild’ serves as the reference book of English stylistics on Sorbonne. He was the man of facts: not to be afraid of looking inside of the eyes of reality, a great view of life. But Jack London's inner debates did...
Words: 2444 - Pages: 10
...What is adversity? The main character, Buck, in Jack London’s The Call of the Wild faced adversity throughout the book. Buck turned his struggle into success. The idea of adversity is an expressed theme in The Call of the Wild. One expressed adversity theme is everything happens for a reason. When Buck was taken from Judge Miller and became a sled dog he ended up happier. Buck also was placed with the terrible owner Hal and Charles. This led him to meet John Thornton. Buck deeply loved Thornton even more than Judge Miller “As you love me Buck . As you love me.”. Buck and Thornton had loved each other so much. The reader may have been rooting for Buck to return to Judge Miller but in the end realizes Buck is happier in the wild. “His development...
Words: 342 - Pages: 2
...American Author Jack London Many authors have specific distinctions in the way they write. They add their own tones and voice to give character and personality to their style of writing. Jack London is among these authors but in his own sense different. Jack London is notorious for focusing his stories on the wild outdoors of the north. In two of London’s most famous books, Call of the WIld and White Fang, he writes about the Klondike Gold Rush. The main characters in both novels are dogs. One learning to survive in the wilderness and one learning to adapt to domestication. This theme supports London’s notorious writing style about the wild. His choice to write about such events in these area and time specific settings can be traced to his childhood growing up in the middle of the Yukon Gold Rush himself. Jack like any author uses his prior experiences as a platform for his writing. What I think makes London’s tone and voice in writing these books so fascinating and successful is the detail in which he writes to convey his setting to the reader. He so accurately describes the feel of the air and the silence of the day along with the beauty of the sky to bring and mental image to anyone’s mind. This keeps the reader intrigued and interested along with a clear vision of an American habitat. This vision of Northern American tundra is crucial to the draw of the novels and short stories London writes because it does convey American culture and and the living conditions...
Words: 357 - Pages: 2
...Jack london was a very self severed man. His works were mostly about what was going on and what he went through, but he would look at some of his works and put them in a different perspective like “White Fang” when he put the story in the eyes of a pup wolf that had to survive. His books are also about the wild adventures of his life everything that he went through and everyone he met. He would go off to chase a story he was always going somewhere to find adventure to live life. John London was born January 12, 1876 he was born in San Francisco, California.(2nd) Born John Griffith London in 1876, he adopted the name Jack as a adolescent.(6th) London was forced to dropout of school in the 8th grade to help out with is family to support them. He went back to high school, but he left shortly after a year of attending. He studied to pass the entrance exams for the University of California at Berkeley. London loved it at Berkeley, but only attended the University for one semester and was forced to drop out of the school because of money issues.(1st) London had...
Words: 898 - Pages: 4
...Jack London, the writer behind the prominent and well-known story, The Call of the Wild, shows readers what it is like to survive and get through tough times. His book follows a dog named Buck, the protagonist of the story. He is taken from his home to work up north near the Klondike Mountains. Buck struggles in the freezing and blizzard-like climate, outsmarts his owners, defeats his enemies, becomes a leader, and is finally set free. With every twist and turn, the dog stood strong and powered through life with perseverance and courage. Jack London’s writing is a clear example of surviving by having determination and persistence. In the beginning of Jack London’s masterpiece, an antagonist arose. Spitz, the lead dog of Francois and Perrault’s...
Words: 835 - Pages: 4
...Catherine Murray Research Paper Jack London Jack London was a great American writer, author, and journalist in the nineteenth century. He was born John Griffith Chaney, in San Francisco, California. London worked in the Klondike for a few years and then began to write and publish books and stories. His books became very successful which made him one of the most popular authors of the nineteenth century. Jack grew up in a hard working-class. He pretty much paved out the way for his own life and success. He rode trains, worked on oyster ships, shoveled coal, and found employment in a cannery. These experiments inspired him in writing some of his stories, as he really enjoyed to read and write at libraries in his free time. His writing career basically began in 1893, the year that he went out on a sealing voyage in which him and his crew almost got taken out by a typhoon. Jack London’s writing career started off by his mother encouraging him to submit one of his stories to one of the local newspapers for a writing contest. Jack was 17 at the time and even though he only had an eighth grade education, he had won the first prize of twenty-five dollars, and had beat college students from Stanford and Berkley. After this experience, he decided that he would begin to dedicate his life to writing short stories, but he had a difficult time finding publishers. He then enrolled at the University of California Berkeley, but only for a brief time before he traveled north to Canada...
Words: 575 - Pages: 3
...Throughout history, writers have often used their surroundings as subjects. They tend to capture the life around them and incorporate it into their work. Many authors, such as Jack London, write prolifically and never cease to depict their experiences. The Call of the Wild is an example of one of these prolific works. Jack London illustrates his life experiences and the history surrounding him in The Call of the Wild, all while using elements of realism to highlight the sense of believability. In the 1890s, the time period in which The Call of the Wild is set, many movements were were going on throughout America. The most monumental of these movements was the Gold Rush. According to Charlotte Gray, a historian about the Gold Rush, America had just survived a depression and many were rendered poor. The poor Americans went west in hopes of finding...
Words: 1767 - Pages: 8
...Campbell’s theory of mythological heroes’ steps that were used in order to become a god-like hero was distributed in Jack London’s, Call of the Wild, with the main character Buck. Buck was a tidewater dog who distributed many steps of becoming a hero. The steps he followed were in no order, but they are shown throughout the story of his evolution from being weak to a hero. Buck’s first stage was the call to adventure or the call of the wild. He distributes many examples of the call affecting his life in one way or another. The examples of the call start at the beginning of the story where he fights back against the men who were taking him away as said many times Buck is a...
Words: 843 - Pages: 4
...The story The Call of the Wild showed a bond between man and beast. The bond between Buck and Thornton could only have ended one way, and it did. In Jack London's The Call of the Wild, Bucks's life would have changed if Thornton did not die. First, Buck did not make any plans to leave Thornton. In the novel, " John Thornton was eating dinner when Buck dashed back into camp"( London 79). This phrase goes to show that if Buck left, but he decided to come back. Buck was alway following Thornton, showing him affection. Buck was not going to leave Thornton. Second, Thornton was the first person Buck had ever loved. In the story Buck described his love, "But love that was feverish and burning, that was adoration, that was madness, it had taken...
Words: 287 - Pages: 2
...Well known for his stories such as A Call To The Wild and To Build A Fire, London took naturalism and made it into what is studied by so many students still to this day. Jack London’s fame as a writer came about largely through his ability to realistically interpret humanity’s struggle in a hostile environment. Early in his career, London became an interpreter of the things that are, rather than a creator of the things that might be. Due to this, he drew his plots, characters, themes, and settings from real-life experiences and encounters. London often is found describing the impact of nature in all of its raw power on both human beings and creatures such as dogs in his short stories. London incorporated passionate and shocking elemental dimensions...
Words: 272 - Pages: 2
...Call of the Wild Research Paper True individual success is not provided on a silver platter, it is not built from the hands of another, it is not found in a surrounding environment, but rather found within one man. Individual success is hard work,determination, will power , and strive that a person possesses. Individuals that have found the success within themselves can be seen throughout history with elected officials, academic scholars, and achieving medical professionals. In order to achieve the ultimate prosperity, hard work and dedication is essential. Albert Einstein could not develop the theory of relativity, had it not been for his previous work in physics. Edward Jenner would not have developed a cure for smallpox had it not been...
Words: 921 - Pages: 4
...Into the Wild Discussion Questions Due Date: _____________ Directions: Answer each of the follow questions in a well-developed paragraph response. Don’t forget to restate the question in your answer. Responses are to be typed in MLA format. 1. In the author's note Jon Krakauer claims that Christopher McCandless “invented a new life for himself' searching a raw, transcendent experience.” Do you agree with the author's assessment? How did McCandless re-invent himself? How was his life “transcendent” after he graduated from college? 2. Krakauer titles his book Into the Wild which echoes Jack London’s work, The Call of the Wild. McCandless was obviously influenced by London, and Krakauer suggests that McCandless’ experience demonstrates the “grip wilderness has on the American imagination, the allure highrisk activities hold for young men of a certain mind...” How do you define “the call of the wild?” Does the call still exist in the same form it existed in previous periods in America’s history? How is the “wild” or the wilderness important to us as a people? 3. McCandless was also greatly influenced by Henry David Thoreau. What did he borrow from Thoreau’s interaction with nature? How did he differ from Thoreau? 4. Gordon Young, who reviewed Into the Wild, said that McCandless “did not die in vain, and that his life was enviable in many respects.” Young asserts that McCandless was “a profound American figure, uncompromising 'in his approach and thoroughly optimistic about the future...
Words: 391 - Pages: 2
...Into the Wild Discussion Questions Due Date: _____________ Directions: Answer each of the follow questions in a well-developed paragraph response. Don’t forget to restate the question in your answer. Responses are to be typed in MLA format. 1. In the author's note Jon Krakauer claims that Christopher McCandless “invented a new life for himself' searching a raw, transcendent experience.” Do you agree with the author's assessment? How did McCandless re-invent himself? How was his life “transcendent” after he graduated from college? 2. Krakauer titles his book Into the Wild which echoes Jack London’s work, The Call of the Wild. McCandless was obviously influenced by London, and Krakauer suggests that McCandless’ experience demonstrates the “grip wilderness has on the American imagination, the allure highrisk activities hold for young men of a certain mind...” How do you define “the call of the wild?” Does the call still exist in the same form it existed in previous periods in America’s history? How is the “wild” or the wilderness important to us as a people? 3. McCandless was also greatly influenced by Henry David Thoreau. What did he borrow from Thoreau’s interaction with nature? How did he differ from Thoreau? 4. Gordon Young, who reviewed Into the Wild, said that McCandless “did not die in vain, and that his life was enviable in many respects.” Young asserts that McCandless was “a profound American figure, uncompromising 'in his approach and thoroughly optimistic about the future...
Words: 391 - Pages: 2
...once was he branched off. McCandless didn’t have the idle childhood, he wanted his own personal experiences. His parents were always busy, and he grew to be very stubborn and independent minded. He reinvented himself, he wanted the good life, completely letting go by changing and burning all of his money. Making a new beginning, took a chance on what he wanted to do. So he became something for himself, “McCandless walks south through the desert, arriving in the Topock, Arizona, where he buys a second hand canoe. 2. Krakauer titles his book Into The Wild which echoes Jack London’s work, The Call of the Wild. McCandless’s experience demonstrates the “grip wilderness has on the American imagination, the allure high-risk activities hold for young men of a certain mind…” How do you define “the call of the wild?” Does the call still exists in the same form it existed in previous periods in American history? How is the “wild” or the wilderness important to us as a people? What about to you as an individual? The appeal of the nature the wilderness gives people the ability to be free from society. To be able to escape from reality for a little while, to do something you wouldn’t normally do. Naturally need for the wilderness it’s a challenge you want to concur. See like the character was forced into his structured life style...
Words: 402 - Pages: 2
...literary novels have been considered inappropriate for school curriculums; however, it is important that we reconsider some of the greatest forms of art, such as The Call of the Wild for its, uniqueness, artistic value and content. Jack London’s ,The Call of the Wild allows a connection from the reader to the dog in a unique point of view, although some may claim that it is not a correct image to portray an animal with human characteristics, it still has artistic value to it, which allows the reader to look through the dog’s eyes. Buck (the dog) deliberately allows the reader to know the insights of his mental process when he states emotions such as, “Never in his life had he been so vilely treated” (4). This form of allowing the reader to know...
Words: 563 - Pages: 3
