Law of Civilisation and Wild
The Laws of Civilization and of Wilderness
While the two lives that Buck leads stand in stark contrast to each other, this contrast does not go unchallenged throughout the novel. His life with Judge Miller is leisurely, calm, and unchallenging, while his transition to the wilderness shows him a life that is savage, frenetic, and demanding. While it would be tempting to assume that these two lives are polar opposites, events later in the novel show some ways in which both the wild and civilization have underlying social codes, hierarchies, and even laws. For example, the pack that Buck joins is not anarchic; the position of lead dog is coveted and given to the most powerful dog. The lead dog takes responsibility for group decisions and has a distinctive style of leadership; the main factor in the rivalry between Buck and Spitz is that Buck sides with the less popular, marginal dogs instead of the stronger ones. Buck, then, advocates the rights of a minority in the pack—a position that is strikingly similar to that of his original owner, the judge, who is the novel’s most prominent example of civilization.
The rules of the civilized and uncivilized worlds are, of course, extremely different—in the wild, many conflicts are resolved through bloody fights rather than through reasoned mediation. But the novel suggests that what is important in both worlds is to understand and abide by the rules which that world has set up, and it is only when those rules are broken that we see true savagery and disrespect for life. Mercedes, Hal, and Charles enter the wild with little understanding of the rules one must follow to become integrated and survive. Their inability to ration food correctly, their reliance upon their largely useless knife and gun, and their disregard for the dogs’ suffering all attest to laws of the wilderness that they misunderstand or choose to ignore. As a result, the wilderness institutes a natural consequence for their actions. Precisely because they do
While the two lives that Buck leads stand in stark contrast to each other, this contrast does not go unchallenged throughout the novel. His life with Judge Miller is leisurely, calm, and unchallenging, while his transition to the wilderness shows him a life that is savage, frenetic, and demanding. While it would be tempting to assume that these two lives are polar opposites, events later in the novel show some ways in which both the wild and civilization have underlying social codes, hierarchies, and even laws. For example, the pack that Buck joins is not anarchic; the position of lead dog is coveted and given to the most powerful dog. The lead dog takes responsibility for group decisions and has a distinctive style of leadership; the main factor in the rivalry between Buck and Spitz is that Buck sides with the less popular, marginal dogs instead of the stronger ones. Buck, then, advocates the rights of a minority in the pack—a position that is strikingly similar to that of his original owner, the judge, who is the novel’s most prominent example of civilization.
The rules of the civilized and uncivilized worlds are, of course, extremely different—in the wild, many conflicts are resolved through bloody fights rather than through reasoned mediation. But the novel suggests that what is important in both worlds is to understand and abide by the rules which that world has set up, and it is only when those rules are broken that we see true savagery and disrespect for life. Mercedes, Hal, and Charles enter the wild with little understanding of the rules one must follow to become integrated and survive. Their inability to ration food correctly, their reliance upon their largely useless knife and gun, and their disregard for the dogs’ suffering all attest to laws of the wilderness that they misunderstand or choose to ignore. As a result, the wilderness institutes a natural consequence for their actions. Precisely because they do
Cited: Benoit, Raymond. "Jack London 's The Call of the Wild." American Quarterly 20.2 (1968): 246-248. Web. 13 Apr. 2010. Berliner, Jonathon. "Jack London 's Socialistic Social Darwinism." American Literary Realism 41.1 (2008): 52-78. Web. 15 April 2010. Labor, Earle. "Jack London 's Symbolic Wilderness: Four Versions." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 17.2 (1962): 149-161. Web. 12 April 2010. London, Jack. The Call of the Wild. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1963. Print. Mills, Gordon. "The Symbolic Wilderness: James Fenimore Cooper and Jack London." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 13.4 (1959): 329-340. Web. 15 April 2010. Nuernberg, Susan M. "Review: 'Give Us Savage and Naked Fury: ' Jack London and The Call of the Wild." The English Journal 85.5 (1996): 98-100. Web. 15 April 2010. Pease, Donald E. "Psychoanalyzing the Narrative Logics of Naturalism: The Call of the Wild." Journal of Modern Literature 25.3 (2002): 14-39. Web. 13 April 2010. Reesman, Jeanne Campbell and Arnold Krupat. "Jack London." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 7th ed. Vol. C. New York: Norton, 2007: 1051-1052. Print.