Buy on Amazon
View on Biblioguides
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, is, at its heart, a story about a dog, with affection between dog and man and filled with exciting adventures. The book also shows how cruel people can be to animals. It has been in print ever since its publication in 1903 and has had several successful movie adaptations, the last as recently as 2020. What is its background? The 1849 gold rush in California transformed that territory, bringing a flood of new people resulting in it becoming a state in 1850. Similarly, the Klondike Gold Rush in 1890s Canada forced the development of that area of Canada. The Call of the Wild is set during this Canadian gold rush where powerful sled dogs were at a premium. Buck, a large St. Bernard mix, is kidnapped (dognapped?) from his comfortable California home where he is the pet of a kind affluent family. He is mistreated, becoming more savage and wild, yet is broken to sled duties by force. He goes through a series of owners, each illustrating part of the Klondike gold rush times, until he finally meets a kind owner, John Thornton, with whom he bonds and lives with. He experiences the ”call of the wild” through being attracted to a local band of wolves but stays with his owner through their mutual affection. After his owner and his companions are killed -it was a wild, lawless time and place – Buck, losing his master’s love, finally heeds the call of the wild and becomes the leader of the wolf pack.
It is interesting that many influential critics have claimed that the main theme of The Call of the Wild is Darwinian evolution, with Buck shedding thousands of years of evolution to return to his wild roots. This actually is nonsense. Dogs and wolves are the same species and can successfully inter-breed. Through selective breeding and careful training, humans have made many kinds of dogs to serve us, covering a large range of size, shape, abilities, and colors, yet they are all still genetically the same species as wolves. If anything, The Call of the Wild, besides being tremendously fun to read, shows the truth of God’s creation, some of the evil that fallen man can do, and the redeeming power of love and kindness, in this case between a man and his dog. Buck the dog finds that a man’s love ends with his death but we know that God’s love lasts forever.