2nd Quarter Reading Paper 2014

Submitted By St_Michael3
Words: 1546
Pages: 7

The novel, “The Call of the Wild”, by Jack London, is a story about a dog-named Buck who is brutally kidnapped and taken away. When he gets to Seattle in Washington, he is put with many other dogs that were also kidnapped. He is beaten and taken to the Klondike and was then made part of a sled dog team during the Gold Rush. He survives through the toughest life throws at him and is in maltreatment. As he goes through this, he becomes strong by using instincts. When a guy named John Thorton finally rescues him, he forms an unbreakable bond with him. The months go on and there is a new call, he is hearing in the wild, the call of the wild.

Main Characters
Buck- he is a dog and a mix of St. Bernard and Scotch shepherd. He is brave, adventurous, bellicose, and curious. Buck is a protagonist, but a few times throughout the book, he is an antagonist.
Perrault- worked for the Canadian government and was always nice to the dogs. Always had an upbeat attitude for the day to come. He is a protagonist.
Francois- worked for the Canadian government and had a grumpy attitude. He was the driver of the sled. Francois is a protagonist.
Spitz- he is a mean and ferocious dog and is the leader of the team. He is vicious and didn’t like to be bothered. He is an antagonist.
Hal- he is mean to the dogs and was always grumpy. He acts like he is in charge and is an antagonist.
Mercedes- Always crying and yelling. She has a loving heart and is a protagonist.

Plot Summary
Buck, a powerful dog, half St. Bernard and half sheepdog, lives on Judge Miller’s estate in California’s Santa Clara Valley. He leads a comfortable life there, but it comes to an end when men discover gold in the Klondike region of Canada and a great demand arises for strong dogs to pull sleds. Buck is kidnapped by a gardener on the Miller estate and sold to dog traders, who teach Buck to obey by beating him with a club and ship him north to the Klondike. Arriving in the chilly North, Buck is amazed by the cruelty he sees around him. As soon as another dog from his ship, Curly, gets off the boat, a pack of huskies violently attacks and kills her. Watching her death, Buck vows never to let the same fate fall upon him. Buck becomes the property of Francois and Perrault, two mail carriers working for the Canadian government, and begins to adjust to life as a sled dog. He recovers the instincts of his wild ancestors: he learns to fight, scavenge for food, and sleep beneath the snow on winter nights. At the same time, he develops a fierce rivalry with Spitz, the lead dog in the team. One of their fights is broken up when a pack of wild dogs invades the camp, but Buck begins to undercut Spitz’s authority, and eventually the two dogs become involved in a major fight. Buck kills Spitz and takes his place as the lead dog. Buck’s new masters are inexperienced and out of place in the wilderness. They overload the sled, beat the dogs, and plan poorly. Halfway through their journey, they begin to run out of food. While the humans bicker, the dogs begin to starve, and the weaker animals soon die. Of an original team of fourteen, only five are still alive when they limp into John Thornton’s camp, still some distance from their destination. Thornton warns them that the ice over which they are traveling is melting and that they may fall through it. Hal dismisses these warnings and tries to get going immediately. The other dogs begin to move, but Buck refuses. When Hal begins to beat him, Thornton intervenes, knocking a knife from Hal’s hand and cutting Buck loose. Hal curses Thornton and starts the sled again, but before they have gone a quarter of a mile, the ice breaks open, swallowing both the humans and the dogs. John Thornton becomes Buck’s master, and Buck’s devotion to him is total. He saves John from drowning in a river, attacks a man who tries to start a fight with John in a bar, and, most remarkably, wins a $1,600 wager for his new master by pulling a sled carrying a thousand-pound…