The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild is a story about a dog Buck and his path to the Wild. The writer of this amazing and incredible story is Jack London. 

Buck was born in Mr. Miller’s house. It was a big house with large gardens and fields of fruit trees around it. In this big place there were house dogs and farm dogs, but they weren’t important. Buck was the chief dog, he was born there, he lived there and that was his place. 

One day Manuel, a man who worked for Mr. Miller, tied a piece of rope around Buck’s neck. Buck thought that this was just a walk. He didn’t know that this was 1897 and he didn’t know that men and big dogs were hurrying to north-west Canada to look for gold. Manuel gave the rope to a man and this man gave Manuel some money in exchange. That is how Buck was sold and his new path began. 

The next day, when he woke up he was in a small box. A man opened the box and tied a piece of rope around Buck’s neck. The rope was pulled and Buck had to go. That man sold Buck to the barmen in a bar. The barmen sold him further to the men called Perault and François. Buck learned that they were fair men. He was in harness with other either dogs and they were pulling goods. That was their job. At first, Buck felt embarrassed. He saw horses pulling harness and because of that he felt like a horse. Buck learned quickly how to pull harness, how to dig a hole for a sleep and what was most important he learned a law of club and tooth: “Always obey your master”. In harness big dogs were chiefs. In his harness Buck was the one who was the big dog, so he was a chief. Little by little and Perault and François put him for a lead dog of harness. He was a good chief. He made his team work hard and they were always moving quickly. They pulled from Seattle to Dawson City for a couple of times. 

Slowly they were getting tired, but they didn’t have any rest. What was once a fast harness became a slow one - tired and useless. Dogs were skin and bone. 

Dogs in harness were sold to Americans, called Hal and Charles. They didn’t know anything about harness and while doing that job, they were bad drivers. One day they had to cross the White River. A man called John Thornton said to Hal that it wasn’t safe to do that, but Hal didn’t listen. Buck sensed trouble and because of that he didn’t want to move. The stupid Hal and Charles let Buck go to Thornton and tried to cross the river. At one moment they fell in cold water. 

Buck and Thornton were best friends. Buck helped Thornton and saved his life many times. They were having a great time until the Indians killed Thornton and friends. After that Buck joined the wolves and become the chief of his wolf pack. 

The Call of the Wild is an amazing story. I like it because it’s full of action and description of the wilderness. In this story we see that each dog still has a part of his ancestors deep down - the wolves. 

By Ognjen Francuski, VIII4