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Summary: My Review
Review: Thew the book Buck shows his capability in leadership, respnonsibility, and strength. I like how the book shows specifically what Buck had to do to go threw, in order to accomplish his goals. It relates to me and how I want to be successful. Yes, i know it is going to take a lot of work, but I am willing to put in extra effort to make something out of my self and acheive my goals, which is also how Buck feels. Buck and I have both gone threw many hardships and risks, but that is life and i am sure there is mant more to come.
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Summary: The Adventures of Buck
Review: A domestic dog (Buck) finds himself in the north where a gold rush is taking place. In time he rises to be one of the most feared and admired dogs in the north.
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Summary: Old, but not outta touch
Review: This book is good enough for a wide range of readers. A younger crowd may find it boring, but with enough action to keep them entertained. Also, the book only had 7 chapters, but with enough detail to keep you informed. (Perhaps too much.) Despite the good, at a few parts you may find yourself happy about things that you wouldn't normally be glad about. (Like death.) All in all, this book was good, but I wouldn't probably read it again under my own free will.
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Summary: Traveling Through the Yukon
Review: Jack London's book "The Call of the Wild" was well written and I think that everyone should read it. The book starts out talking about how Buck, the main character, lives in a large house in the Santa Clara Valley. The place he lives at is called Judge Miller's place. Buck's father, Elmo, was a large St Bernard who had been the Judge's very close companion. His mother, Shep, had been a Scotch shepherd dog. Buck loved hunting and outdoor delights, which made him stronger. Buck loved living at the Judge's house but one night when he went on what he thought was just a walk with Manuel, one of the gardener's helpers, his life changed. Money was exchanged between Manuel and another man and Buck was sent off in a baggage car. After a couple of days they stopped and he was turned over to a black-faced giant called Francois. Buck traveled with Francois starting at Dyea beach where Buck's life was changed to a not so lazy life through the Yukon. Traveling he learned that it was a wolf manner to fight which he encountered a lot with a dog named Spitz who is the sled leader. One day Buck and Spitz get into it and Buck ends up killing Spitz and takes over the head position, which was my favorite part in the book. A while later in the book, Buck meets a man named John Thornton who Buck loves and will do anything for him and even earns Thornton sixteen hundred dollars. With the money they set off into the East with six other dogs and found lots of gold. I would recommend "The Call of the Wild" to younger readers who like adventurous stories.
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Summary: wild calling
Review: Jack London out does himself in an amazing story about a Californian dog that learned to be an Alaskan sled dog. A pair of thieves stole a large dog (Buck) from his California home. The Alaskan gold rush of 1898 has started and there was a huge demand for strong sled dogs. His newly acquainted owners treated him poorly. The thieves ran the dogs and sled at least thirty miles a day. The sled drivers did not tolerate mistakes. They would whip the dogs for the mistakes. Since Buck is new at, this he recieved many bruises but learned quickly. Buck, soon enough, had an enemy. He learns by a previous fight that during a fight if a dog falls all the other dogs consume and attack them to the death. Buck had to be smart to survive. After hard work and triumph they made Buck lead dog. Even then they sold him again to even harsher owners, which he did not stay with for long. A man saved him and taught him to love again. After he found his new and loving owner they both saved each others lives at different parts of their lives. With the incredible relationship the reader is left with the question: Will everything go well or will Buck answer the call of the wild? An intriguing plot and interesting story, I rate the story highly. The great story receives a four out of four stars. The author does an astounding job. The two main reasons I liked it is first it had the best idea for story and the story keeps one are interested the whole time. With great character development, one receives a certain feeling for the characters. The wonderful use of adjectives makes one feel as though when one is reading it that the wolves are your friends and you are a part of the pack. The story is an amazing American tale and an easily enjoyed book. I suggest this book for intermediate readers, at least fifth grade and older.
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Summary: Call of the Wild
Review: The Call of the Wild takes place in 1896-1897 during the period of the Klondike Gold Rush. The story starts out in Santa Clara Valley in California, a small town around San Francisco. The setting soon changes, however, after Buck is sold to the man in the park. For the rest of the book, the setting is in the Yukon, a territory in Alaska. Men were the dominant ones and the women's role was to take care of the kids and keep the house tidy while their husbands went to find gold. I really enjoyed Call of the Wild. It gave a good view about what life during the time period. It showed that dogs (as well as people) change when exposed to new experieces. It also showed how people take for granted everyday things ... I don't think Francois and Perrault would ever have the chance to watch TV up in the Yukon. I would consider Buck a hero. He created togetherness and cooperation among the team rather than chaos under Spitz's leadership. Buck's love for John Thorton is an example of his being a hero, just because he made someone feel loved and cared for.
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Summary: Pretty Good
Review: This was an okay book. Some parts were kind of boring, but most kept you want to keep reading. I liked the ending the best, b/c the dog, Buck, goes where he's always wanted to.
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Summary: Call of the Wild
Review: I thought Call of the Wild, by Jack London had too much detail. In some places, the detail was needed, but sometimes it was just too much. The begining and end of the book was interesting, but the middle part was just stupid.It was like," Oh my gosh Buck! We have to deliever the mail!" This wasn't my favorite book, and if reading Call of the Wild wasn't school required , I would have chose another book.
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Summary: Wild and Dangerous dog adventure!
Review: Taken from his home of comfort and luxury, Buck is sold and moved north illegally. He is mistreated and abused as he is harnessed to work a sled dog's life. Buck quickly learns the harsh law of club and fang in his gold-hungry Alaskan environment. As the instinct of his ancestors surfaces, he gains wisdom and courage which help him to survive. Through long journeys and different masters, he becomes more wild and begins to forget his mellow past. While north, Buck experiences suffering, triumph, friendship, and love from both men and dogs in Jack London's book. I first chose to read this because I thought that it would be an interesting book of a dog struggling in the Alaskan cold. When I read it, the book turned out to be much more than I had expected. Torn between the worlds of civilization and the wild, Buck fights to live among gold-greedy miners in the northern widerness. He is forced out of comfort and tirelessly pulls sleds in a world where only the strong and fittest survive. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of its detailed and action-filled events. I found it especially addicting during the high-speed dogsled runs or the hide-tearing fights. Jack London's Call of the Wild is a spectacular and adventurous book that should be read by everyone!
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Summary: London's Best Work: A Modern Masterpiece of American Lit.
Review: London achieved his masterpiece with this book. He never wrote anything better than THE CALL Of THE WILD (first called THE SLEEPING WOLF). It's also to redeem the dog race, which he condemned in a short story entitled "Diablo". Ironically, London originally started out writing a short story, and instead it kept growing and growing until it reached a novel length. In the late 19th century early 20th century naturalism (a literary movement that places value on science and observation with the mindset that there is no fixed morality - its only chemical by-products) is just beginning to catch hold. Naturalism is a direct response to Realism, which Huck Finn is a prime example. Realism came about as a literary movement in the late 1860s after the Civil War, because the writers wanted to point toward a moral code. The movement started to fail in the late 1880s or 1890s because things weren't getting better. Naturalism, especially in this book (although CALL OF THE WILD has many things foreign to naturalism as well), contends there is no moral code, and that the way to get to the true explanation of life is to really get back to nature and observation and science. Although fundamentally opposed to naturalism (read C. S. Lewis's ABOLITION OF MAN for a detailed argument, as well as THE CASE FOR CHRISTIANITY, the first two books in MERE CHRISTIANITY), I like this book quite a bit. Why? Glad you asked. Lets take this story and make Buck a human. Would the story have been well received? No. It would have gotten the same treatment SISTER CARRIE did. The sheer genius in this book rests in the fact that Buck is a dog, and, being a dog, London can do quite a bit more. The moral code doesn't really apply to animals in this fallen world. There are also strong evolutionary themes in this work (Darwin just recently becoming popular in that era). Another paradox to this work, since it is supposed to be naturalist, is how much Buck transforms. In most naturalist novels the characters hardly learn anything through the course of the novel (look at Carrie at the beginning and at the end of Drieser's novel - she doesn't learn anything really, as opposed to Realist work where the moral is always clearly stated) - not so with this book. Buck not only learns but he becomes progressively more and more powerful. The interesting thing about this novel lies in the fact that, although supposedly naturalistic, in the end Buck becomes a mythic character. There are twelve elements of myth, and this reaches all of them. There is a book (A Hero With A Thousand Faces I think) that goes through them all. Anyway, and it shows up in SISTER CARRIE as well with the rocking chair serving as the symbolism, the major preoccupation with naturalist writers is why do humans have this constant yearning for something more? London doesn't have the answers (because he didn't have Jesus), and, for a naturalist novel, the ending is very strange and out of place because it ends in a romanticized and impossible mythic realm, in a valley where the gold crowds the river beds and Buck becomes a legendary terror among the Yeehats. One theme that struck me as very interesting is the theme of man (or in the case dog) against society - or more appropriately Civilization. Civilization imposes rigid and unnatural things Buck, and he becomes aloof from all. London describes him as a lord, and he has no real love. Yet, as he abandons these conventions of Civilization (and in many cases morality), he falls in love with (in a man-dog relation can go of course - lets not get indecent here) John Thornton. Yet even his love for Thornton he must abandon for the Call of the Wild. It seems (although, as it is a dog, the lines are a lot more blurred since a lot of what London says is true for animals, but not for the human race) the closer you get to the real primal creature and abandon society's convention, the closer to the real world you are. If you take that to apply to humans, its true and it's a lie. Man has two natures within him, one for righteousness the other for sin. If you are a Christian, then you will end in the place where Buck did - that land of myth that is impossible in this world. But if you indulge your sin nature and do not come to Jesus in the end you will go to. Something must be said for WHITE FANG. WHITE FANG is this novel in reverse. It's a story of a dog who becomes civilized, and although CALL is better WF is very good. I tend to look upon them as companion works, with one tracing the harkening back to the wild and the other the domestication of dogs. There is also a complex economic underpinning to this novel. Jack London proclaimed himself a socialist, and yet bragged that he wrote novels for money. Much of the motivation in this novel is economics - why would people go up to the Klondike in the first place but to get gold? And in the end they end in the valley of gold, that land of myth. Jack London was a contradictory man. Much like Buck, he had come out of the states and went to live in London in the slums, a horrible place, one of the worst on earth at that time. This corresponds to Buck going from sunkissed California to the Klondike, and London sought out the extremes in both situations. In the end he committed suicide, dying at the age of 40. (Just a side note: Buck is involved in the transmission of the mail at first, and at the end of the book he involves himself in the transmission of the male genetics....
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