Important Quotations Explained
1. During
the four years since his puppyhood he had lived the life of a sated
aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was even a trifle egotistical,
as country gentlemen sometimes become because of their insular situation.
This quotation is from the beginning
of Chapter I, “Into the Primitive,” and it
defines Buck’s life before he is kidnapped and dragged into the
harsh world of the Klondike. As a favored pet on Judge Miller’s
sprawling California estate, Buck lives like a king—or at least
like an “aristocrat” or a “country gentleman,” as London describes
him. In the civilized world, Buck is born to rule, only to be ripped
from this environment and forced to fight for his survival. The
story of The Call of the Wild is, in large part,
the story of Buck’s climb back to the top after his early fall from
grace. He loses one kind of lordship, the “insular” and “sated”
lordship into which he is born, but he gains a more authentic kind
of mastery in the wild, one that he wins by his own efforts rather
than by an accident of birth.
2. He
was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken. He saw, once for
all, that he stood no chance against a man with a club. He had learned
the lesson, and in all his after life he never forgot it. That club
was a revelation. It was his introduction to the reign of primitive
law, and he met the introduction halfway. The facts of life took
on a fiercer aspect and, while he faced that aspect uncowed, he
faced it with all the latent cunning of his nature aroused.
This quotation is taken from late in
Chapter I, “Into the Primitive,” just after
Buck has been beaten repeatedly by one of his kidnappers. Each time
he is clubbed, Buck leaps up to attack again, until finally the
man knocks him unconscious. This incident is Buck's introduction
to a new way of life, vastly different from the pampered existence
that he led in the Santa Clara Valley. There, civilized law, and civilized
morality were the ruling forces—symbolized by the fact that his
first master, Judge Miller, is a judge. In the
wild, though, Buck comes to terms with “the reign of primitive law,”
in which might makes right, and a man with a club (or a powerful
dog) can do as he pleases to weaker creatures. In this scene, Buck
is mastered by the man with the club, but he learns his lesson well
and soon comes to master others.
3. And
not only did he learn by experience, but instincts long dead became
alive again. The domesticated generations fell from him. In vague
ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed, to the time the
wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest and killed
their meat as they ran it down. . . . Thus, as token of what a puppet
thing life is the ancient song surged through him and he came into
his own again. . . .
This quote, taken from Chapter II,
shows that as Buck fights for survival in the harsh world of the
Klondike, he relies increasingly on buried instincts that belonged
to his wild forebears. The role of this atavistic development—“atavism”
refers to the recovery by an animal of behaviors that belonged to
its ancestors—points to one of the central themes of London’s novel,
namely, the way that primitive instincts and urges persist beneath
the veneer of civilization. Throw a soft, civilized creature (human
or animal) into the wild, London suggests, and if he survives, he,
like Buck, will come to depend on the same instincts that guided
the life of his primitive ancestors. “The ancient song,” in his
phrase, is only waiting for the right opportunity to emerge.
4. A
pause seemed to fall. Every animal was motionless as though turned
to stone. Only Spitz quivered and bristled as he staggered back
and forth, snarling with horrible menace, as though to frighten
off impending death. Then Buck sprang in and out; but while he was
in, shoulder had at last squarely met shoulder. The dark circle
became a dot on the moon-flooded snow as Spitz disappeared from
view. Buck stood and looked on, the successful champion, the dominant
primordial beast who had made his kill and found it good.
These words constitute the final paragraph
in Chapter III, describing the climactic
battle between Buck and Spitz. The paragraph marks the moment that
Buck comes into his own by vanquishing and killing his great rival,
and then taking Spitz’s place as the team's lead dog. He has left
his life as a pampered pet far behind—now he is “the successful
champion . . . the dominant primordial beast.” Throughout the novel,
London suggests that life in the wild is defined by a struggle for
mastery, and the Buck-Spitz duel is the central example of this
struggle, the moment when Buck establishes himself as a master of
the kill-or-be-killed ethic of the wild.
5. [Each]
day mankind and the claims of mankind slipped farther from him.
Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard
this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled
to turn his back upon the fire, and to plunge into the forest. .
. . But as often as he gained the soft unbroken earth and the green
shade, the love of John Thornton drew him back to the fire again.
This quotation is from Chapter VI,
“For the Love of a Man,” and it depicts the tension building within
Buck during his time with John Thornton. Thornton is the ideal master,
and his relationship with Buck represents a perfect partnership
between man and dog. London tells us that this is the first time
that Buck has truly loved a human being. Yet, at the same time,
it is clear that Buck’s destiny lies in the wild, and so he is torn
between the urges that pull him away from humanity and his intense
loyalty to Thornton. That love, it becomes clear, is the only thing
tying him to the world of men—which means that when Thornton is
killed, there is nothing left to hold him, and he embraces his destiny
as a wild creature.
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