1、A review of The Call of the Wild野性的呼喚影評The Call of the Wild, novel by Jack London, published serially by The Saturday Evening Post in 1903 andthen as a single-volume book byMacmillan& Co. thesame year. It is often considered to be his masterpiece and is the most widelyread of all his publication

2、s.SummaryThe story follows Buck - a mix of St. Bernard and Scotch collie - throughout hisjourney as a sled dog. Buck ' s story begins at the house of Judge Miller inSanta Clara,California. Here, Buckis abeloved domesticated pet, living comfortably. However, after gold is discoveredin the Yukon t

3、erritory of Canada,Buck is stolen by one of Miller ' s gardeners as thedemand for sled dogs increases. The gardener sells Buck to dog traders andmakes a profit, and Buck is soon shipped north, abused and beaten as he goes.Along with a sweet, unassuming dog named Curly, Buck is sold to two him to

4、 work as a sled dog. Buck issoon overwhelmedgovernmentcouriers, Fran?ois and Perrault, who putby his surroundings, particularly when he sees a group ofhuskies attack and kill Curly. As Buck is forced to adapt to the wild, hisprimitive instinctsbegin to surface. It is during this time that he makes a

5、nenemy of the lead sled dog, Spitz. The two fight a number of times, and Buckconsistently undermines him in the hopes of diminishing his authority. Afterafinal, decisive battle, Buck kills Spitz and appoints himself as the new leaddog- something heconvinces his owners to go along withthrough his she

6、er stubbornness. With Buck as lead dog, the team begins makingtrips in record time. The team, along with Buck, is eventually sold to a mailcarrier who forces the dogs to carry arduously heavy loads. This work resultsin the death of one of the dogs.The team is sold again, this time to Americangoldhun

7、ters named Hal, Charles, and Mercedes. Thecausingthree are wildly inexperienced:they overload the sled, and they beat the dogs unnecessarily. Halfway through along journey, they begin to run out of food,more than half of the dogsto die ofstarvation. Along their journey, and still with along way to g

8、o, theyhappen upon the camp of a mannamed John Thornton. Thornton warns them that theice they are about to cross is thinning and that it is not safe to cross. TheAmericans disregard him and attempt to leave. The other dogs obey, but Buckrefuses to move onto the ice. Hal beats him viciously until Tho

9、rnton steps inand cuts Buck free. The Americans continue without Buck, only to fall throughthe thinning ice and perish alongside the remainder of their dogs.Buck becomes devoted to Thornton, and he even savesThornton from drowning. One day, Thornton brags that Buck can pull athousand-pound load and

10、bets more than a thousand dollars on him. After somestruggle,Buck is able to do so, and his master uses the moneyCanadianbecomeswild. Heforlongerto search for ahidden mine deep in the wilderness.Buck ' s love for Thorntonchallengedbyhis growing desire for theintervalsbegins to disappear into the

11、 forestof time, but he always returns to Thornton.During theseexcursions, Buck hunts bears and mooseand even befriends a wolf. One day Buckreturns to find Thornton and his crew killed by Native Americans the novelcalls Yeehats. Angry beyond comprehension, Buck attacks and kills severalYeehats and sc

12、atters the rest. Buck then ventures into the forest and becomesthe leader of a wolf pack. He becomes known by the Yeehats as Ghost Dog;because of his swiftness, his shadow is all they can glimpse. Despite beingfully wild now, Buck still returns to the place of Thornton ' s death each year to mou

13、rn the loss of his best friend.AnalysisThe Call of theWild is set in the midst of theKlondike gold rush of the1890s. During this time, more than 30,000 people traveled to the area near theconvergence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers in Yukon territory, just east ofwhat is today Alaska.As described i

14、n the novel, many of these people used sleddog teams to traverse the rough coldterrain.The setting created by London in TheCall of the Wild is somewhat reminiscent of the American West 一idyllic unmappedterritory that holds rich secretswaitingto be discoveredby those braveenough totravel into the unk

15、nown. Opportunity teems in the Klondike regionwith the promise of gold, yet, as in the American West, with this opportunitycomes risk and the threat of harm.London ' s depiction of Buck ' s struggle in thissetting shows the influence of, and isidentifiablewith themes within,various strainsof

16、 naturalism,individualism,and socialDarwinism. Buckbegins as a pampered pet dog who isthen forced to adapt to survive in thewilderness ofCanada. He becomes more and more individualistic ashe adapts: atfirst he submits tothe law of cluband fang, “ doing all he can to avoid beatings andfights, but, se

17、lf-concerned.numeroustimes, a manifestationas timeprogresses,He fightsan individualisticof the “ survivalhe becomes moreSpitz willingly act as wellasof the fittest”concept importantto social Darwinism. Buck' s finaltransition into afull strong individual who hastriumphed over others is the momen

18、t he realizesJohnThornton is dead, which removes any remainingtethersto the civilizedworld.After this Buckencounters a pack of wolves that he will come to lead;his strongindividualism gives him thepowerof leadership. ReceptionWhen it was published in 1903,The Call of theWild was an immediate success.Thesingle-volumeversionof thenovel also included川ustrations, whi