The Call of the Wild - Jack London
The Call of the Wild - Jack London
Stolen from his home and family, a dog named Buck must quickly learn the harsh law of survival among the men and dogs of the gold-crazed North. His intelligence, courage, and cunning transform him into a feared leader.
As wolves attack and men grow desperate, Buck must heed the call of the wild.
Only the strong will survive.
The main impression I had of this book, really, is that -- meaning no disrespect whatsoever toward Kunta Kinte and his descendents -- it was very much like Roots, except with dogs. And much shorter. But really, similar elements are there. You have a guy who's just going about his perfectly decent life, only to be kidnapped out of it and sold to and forced to work for various masters along the way, some who treat him fairly well, others who don't, and eventually, he finds his place in the world.
In many ways, this book was extremely sad. The scene where the man in the red sweater breaks in the newly-arrived dogs is just brutal. The dogs arrive from their homes where they were people's pets, and of course they're angry, and the guy basically clubs them until they co-operate. Or get clubbed to death if they're too stubborn. Awful. And then the poor dogs being run ragged on the mail route, only to be essentially discarded when they get too tired to do another run, and sold to some vacationers who know nothing about the North or dogs. That part was really tough, and in fact lead to the deaths of all the dogs on their team except Buck. They died too, but I didn't really feel bad about that the way I did about the dogs they killed through their willful ignorance.
On that note, I believe this book is generally considered a children's book, but frankly, it's pretty harsh for kids. A lot of dogs die in this book. And people, too, actually.
The part near the end, where John Thornton rescues Buck from the idiots right before they drive themselves and their few remaining dogs into the river, is very sweet, because it's Buck's first real love for a human, and the lengths he'll go to to prove it are pretty amazing. The respect Thornton has for him is also really nice. But then the Yeehats show up and murder Thornton and his companions, and (a) that's very sad, and (b) kind of offensive. Once again, the time period comes into play, but still. As far as we can tell, we have natives showing up and killing the white dudes for absolutely no reason, painting a picture of them as bloodthirsty savages, which is just not an image that needs to be perpetuated. The Yeehat are a fictional tribe, so at least he's not slandering an actual tribe, but still. I hated the image of them showing up in the middle of the night, for no apparent purpose except slaughter.
In the end, things work out pretty well for Buck, as, after Thornton's death, he runs off and joins a wolf pack, and generally, I thought it seemed like a pretty good depiction of life up north during the gold rush, with the exception of the randomly savage native people.
Next up: Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer
Stolen from his home and family, a dog named Buck must quickly learn the harsh law of survival among the men and dogs of the gold-crazed North. His intelligence, courage, and cunning transform him into a feared leader.
As wolves attack and men grow desperate, Buck must heed the call of the wild.
Only the strong will survive.
The main impression I had of this book, really, is that -- meaning no disrespect whatsoever toward Kunta Kinte and his descendents -- it was very much like Roots, except with dogs. And much shorter. But really, similar elements are there. You have a guy who's just going about his perfectly decent life, only to be kidnapped out of it and sold to and forced to work for various masters along the way, some who treat him fairly well, others who don't, and eventually, he finds his place in the world.
In many ways, this book was extremely sad. The scene where the man in the red sweater breaks in the newly-arrived dogs is just brutal. The dogs arrive from their homes where they were people's pets, and of course they're angry, and the guy basically clubs them until they co-operate. Or get clubbed to death if they're too stubborn. Awful. And then the poor dogs being run ragged on the mail route, only to be essentially discarded when they get too tired to do another run, and sold to some vacationers who know nothing about the North or dogs. That part was really tough, and in fact lead to the deaths of all the dogs on their team except Buck. They died too, but I didn't really feel bad about that the way I did about the dogs they killed through their willful ignorance.
On that note, I believe this book is generally considered a children's book, but frankly, it's pretty harsh for kids. A lot of dogs die in this book. And people, too, actually.
The part near the end, where John Thornton rescues Buck from the idiots right before they drive themselves and their few remaining dogs into the river, is very sweet, because it's Buck's first real love for a human, and the lengths he'll go to to prove it are pretty amazing. The respect Thornton has for him is also really nice. But then the Yeehats show up and murder Thornton and his companions, and (a) that's very sad, and (b) kind of offensive. Once again, the time period comes into play, but still. As far as we can tell, we have natives showing up and killing the white dudes for absolutely no reason, painting a picture of them as bloodthirsty savages, which is just not an image that needs to be perpetuated. The Yeehat are a fictional tribe, so at least he's not slandering an actual tribe, but still. I hated the image of them showing up in the middle of the night, for no apparent purpose except slaughter.
In the end, things work out pretty well for Buck, as, after Thornton's death, he runs off and joins a wolf pack, and generally, I thought it seemed like a pretty good depiction of life up north during the gold rush, with the exception of the randomly savage native people.
Next up: Breaking Dawn, by Stephenie Meyer