"The Call of the Wild" entry #3

author: Jack London; published: 1903 & 2002

When Buck meets John Thornton, his life starts to change completely. London states in relation to Buck that, "[...] Love, genuine passionate love, was his for the first time. This he had never experienced at Judge Miller's down in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. With the Judge's sons, hunting and tramping, it had been a working partnership; with the Judge's grandsons, a sort of pompous guardianship; and with the Judge himself, a stately and dignified friendship. But love that was feverish and burning, that was adoration, that was madness, it had taken John Thornton to arouse (London 140-141)." After stating such, London continues the story with ways that Buck was of service or proved his love to John Thornton. Buck did this in many ways in that he would playfully "bite" John Thornton's hand or in several instances, Buck saved his master's life. Buck saved Thornton's life once by jumping in a river pull him back to shore, or attacking a man that once hit Thornton. It was the last and only time though that Thornton was threatened that Buck wasn't able to save his master. Towards the end of the book, Buck was frequently going on hunting trips on his own into the wild, constantly being drawn to the wild's call. One day when Buck went on one such trip to hunt a huge moose, he came back to the camp in which Thornton had been hunting gold- to find Thornton dead. When Buck found his master dead, he went wild. What happened was that Thornton, his other two dogs and his two friends were attacked at their camp by a tribe of Indians called the Yeehats. The Yeehats killed Thornton and company and as a result, Buck killed many of them. When Buck did killed many of these humans (the Yeehats), it was a huge revelation to him. It was like he was defying the very essence of the law of club & fang. In other words, Buck was stronger than a man- he defeated and killed many men and therefore was stronger than them. The book ends with Buck joining a wolf pack after Thornton dies. In a way, Buck becomes a legend among the Yeehats- for being an evil spirit. True-fully though I don't think Buck was an evil spirit- he was just once again expressing his passionate love for a man (John Thornton) who was killed by the Yeehats- it was just unfortunate that the Yeehats were on the negative, receiving end of that expression of Buck's love.