The Call of the Wild

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For other uses, see Call of the Wild (disambiguation)
Call of the Wild  

First edition cover
Author Jack London
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Adventure novel
Publisher Macmillan
Publication date 1903
Media type print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 140 pp
ISBN NA
OCLC 28228581
Followed by White Fang

The Call of the Wild is a novel by American writer Jack London. The plot concerns a previously domesticated and even somewhat pampered dog named Buck, whose primordial instincts return after a series of events finds him serving as a sled dog in the treacherous, frigid Yukon during the days of the 19th-century Klondike Gold Rushes in which sled dogs were bought at generous prices.

Published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is one of London's most-read books, and it is generally considered one of his best. Because the protagonist is a dog, it is sometimes classified as a juvenile novel, suitable for children, but it is dark in tone and contains numerous scenes of cruelty and violence.

London followed the book in 1906 with White Fang, a companion novel with many similar plot elements and themes as Call of the Wild, although following a mirror image plot in which a wild wolf becomes civilized by a mining expert from San Francisco named Weedon Scott.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Buck, the main character, is the son of a St. Bernard and a Scotch Shepherd dog, which gives him the appearance of an exceptionally large dog that looks similar to a wolf. Buck leads a comfortable life as the pet of Judge Miller in the 'sun-kissed' Santa Clara Valley of Northern California. Judge Miller's gardener helper, named Manuel, along with a friend, abducts the dog and sells him to a trainer of sled dogs, which were in great demand due to the discovery of "a yellow metal" in the frozen lands of Yukon and Alaska. Slowly introduced to the brutality of his new life, Buck is forced to survive and adapt. He works pulling sleds with other dogs, learns to steal food, and engages in power struggle with other dogs for the lead position in the sled team. His owners soon learn that even though his enemy, Spitz, fights like a devil, Buck is "two devils." He becomes the leader of the sled team after defeating Spitz in a battle. He then is exchanged to a mail carrier. He changes hands to a trio of incompetent owners, and is nearly starved and beaten to death, before being eventually acquired by a kind and loving owner, John Thornton. When Thornton is killed by "Yeehat" Indians, Buck goes into a beastly rage and kills several members of the native tribe. Buck turns to the wild and becomes the alpha male of a wolf pack he met a few days before the death of Thornton. Of the world Buck enters, London writes "the salient thing of this other world seemed fear." It is a world of dream that Buck enters, when he becomes something of a legend, The Ghost Dog.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Several films based on the novel, or at least using elements from it, including its title, have been produced; the best-known of these, emphasizing human over canine characters, is the 1935 version starring Clark Gable and Loretta Young.

The 1972 The Call of the Wild starred Charlton Heston and Mick Steele. A television film was broadcast in 1993 that focused more on the character of John Thornton.

The 1997 movie The Call of the Wild: Dog of the Yukon starred Rutger Hauer, was narrated by Richard Dreyfuss and adapted by Graham Ludlow. It is most faithful to the novel;[1] although the majestic Leonbergers that play "Buck" are not of the same breed as in the novel.

There was also a Call of the Wild television series broadcast in 2000.

The animated special What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown! is a parody of The Call of the Wild, with Snoopy as Buck.

There is a Japanese anime television series adaptation known as Anime Yasei no Sakebi (アニメ野性のさけび Anime Cry of Wildness), which consists of 22 episodes and is based on the novel produced by Wako of Japan.[2] There was also an anime movie made in the 1980s, and animated by the Japanese company Toei Animation.

On June 12, 2009, Vivendi Entertainment released "Call of the Wild 3D" in Digital Real-D 3D. The family-oriented adaption was a feature-length film and was rated PG. The 14 theaters equipped for Digital Real-D 3D showed the film in 3D only. The movie didn't make much money at the box office, but it did well for its release of only 14 3D-equipped theaters, and made $750 per screen in its opening weekend, giving it an estimated $10,000. Currently, we don't know if it will expand if more theaters install Digital 3D projectors over the summer, but what we do know is that the film will be released in 3D on DVD September 15, 2009. The DVD will include 3D glasses to watch the 3D version of the film, and will probably close in theaters before this date.

[edit] Footnotes

^  Buck, the main character in the book, was based on a Saint Bernard/Collie sled dog which belonged to Marshall Latham Bond and his brother Louis, the sons of Judge Hiram Bond, who was a mining investor, fruit packer and banker in Santa Clara, California. The Bonds were Jack London's landlords in Dawson City during the fall of 1897 and spring of 1898; the main year of the Klondike Gold Rush. The London and Bond accounts record that the dog was used by Jack London to accomplish chores for the Bonds and other clients of London's. (Dyer, 1997) The papers of Marshall Latham Bond are in the Yale University Historic Collection.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Call of the Wild - Dog of Yukon at Internet Movie Data Base.
  2. ^ Anime Yasei no Sakebi (Series), Big Cartoon DataBase

[edit] External links

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Sources

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