Symbolism In The Call Of The Wild

The Call of the Wild is the story of a St. Bernard-Scotch Shepherd mix named Buck. Buck had it all: a loving owner, a loving family, land in which to roam, and an overall royal lifestyle. That is, until one day, an untrustworthy gardener named Manuel wrongfully sold him. Buck started off thinking that he was going for a stroll, but ended up being tied up and thrown into a baggage car headed for California. Once Buck was sold again in California, he was thrown down, choked, had a brass collar forcibly put on him, and then thrown into a cage. For the next few days, Buck was tormented. While he was generally left alone by the people holding him captive, his mind and emotions tormented him. He kept thinking about his family, and would always expect …show more content…
They tried sledding, but were naturally terrible at it. Hal beat the dogs with a club or whipped them when they did anything “wrong”, Mercedes was melodramatic, they overloaded the sled and made it too heavy for the dogs to pull, over fed the sled dogs and then freaked out when they ran low on dog food, and those were just a few examples of how terrible they were. Due to the actions of these three, some of the sled dogs died terrible deaths. Buck harbored a hatred for them, but put up with them until they reached John Thorton’s camp at the mouth of White River. There, the group stopped to rest. John tried to convince Hal to stop, and allow their dogs to rest. However, Hal wanted to keep pushing the dogs, and started to whip them. All of the group struggled to rise, except for Buck. Buck refused to move, and took the whip. John watched, with tears forming in his eyes. Once Hal became angry, he grabbed the club and proceeded to beat Buck. Buck proceeded to lie there, taking the blows. Then suddenly, without warning, John uttered a cry similar to that of a wild animal. He sprung at Hal, and knocked him over with power comparable to that of a falling …show more content…
However, he felt a calling. He would sometimes head to the woods, not returning for days, to hunt. Though, he would always come back to John. One day, while out, he met a wolf. He called the wolf his “wild brother”, and roamed the woods with him for a while before heading home. One day, Buck returned to his home to find everything destroyed, it was destroyed by the natives of that area. He found the remaining natives, and proceeded to kill all of them in his fury. Though, it was no good. John was dead. Buck spent the night at what was left of the camp, and head off into the woods the next day. There, he met a pack of wolves. They were hostile at first, but then Buck’s wild brother showed up. Thanks to the wild brother, Buck was allowed to join and hunt with the pack. Years passed, and the natives started noticing something odd about the pack. Some of them now had splashes of different colors in their coat, and they now told tales of a ghost dog who runs at the head of the pack. The tale eventually grew, as hunters stopped returning from hunts. The natives of that area now tell the story of an evil spirit, who resides in a valley they dare not enter. The call had been