The Call of the Wild

 The Call of the Wild(野性的呼唤)

The book of Jack London was written in the year of 1903, when the author was trying to transform into a writer. As a reflect of his idea, Jack London filled the book with his experience in gold washing and traveling in the nature.

In the book we can witness the transform of a dog called buck, He experienced the warmth and abuse in the human society. During his ups and downs in human’ world, he was always struck by the view of nature and called by the wild, which was his ancient nature. Finally, after the death of his last owner, he got back to the nature and lived as his ancestors.

First of all, I think the book perfectly reveals the idea of Jack London. Before he wrote the book, the author has traveled through the America and read “Origin of Species” and books of Marx. In the book he describes the exploitation of humanity and the call from Buck’s ancestor. This can be seen as the criticism of the capitalism society of America, which partly reflects the life of the lower-class people and the cruel of the oppressing.

But in another aspect, the main reasons of Buck’s return may contain the nature of his own

species. This feeling becomes even stronger in the later chapters. Although the last owner was good to Buck, he still can’t resist the desire for the old life style. I think this is a query of the human civilization and human nature. Buck’s return is not only a flesh return, but it’s also a return of spirit and morality.

Many ancient scholars in China such as Lao-tzu and Zhuang Zi also express the same view of return to nature. The differences between The Call of the Wild and them lies in the viewpoint of a dog. Compared to human, a dog’s return to wild may be more acceptable and more implicit, and this is the beauty of the book. The stronger the desire for wild nature becomes, the darker the human society is. Along with epic words, the book is sure to be the legend in an unfair society filled with exploitation. And this will be recorded in the history of American society in early 20th century.

2019-12-27

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