"Thornton grabbed the man's arm before the lash could land on Buck's back. 'If you strike that dog again,' Thornton said flatly, 'I'll kill you.'"
The Call of the Wild is a 1903 novel by Jack London. The plot revolves around a dog named Buck and how his primal instincts return as he serves as a sled dog in the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush. It's usually considered his best novel, and he followed it with a Spiritual Successor called White Fang, a longer and even darker story about a wolf being domesticated and eventually sent to live in San Francisco. Because the protagonist is a dog, it is often mistaken for a kid's book. The dark tone and gritty violence make it decidedly not. The novel has had a lot of adaptations over the years, usually focusing on the human characters more than the dogs.
For the various adaptations, see here.
The Call of the Wild provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Ace: Buck is strong, intelligent, bold, clever, patient and just about whatever else he needs to be. By the end of the story he's a legend in Alaska.
- Adaptational Protagonist: In the book, the story is told from Buck's point of view. In every live-action adaptation since then, John Thornton becomes the protagonist, even though he doesn't even appear until halfway through the original version.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The Yeehats, a fictional Native American tribe who kill anybody who goes near the Yukon gold vein in their territory. They massacre John Thornton's party and then perform a dance in celebration, which leads to Buck's Roaring Rampage of Revenge described below.
- Anyone Can Die: The death toll in dogs and men grows quite high throughout the story.
- Arch-Enemy: Buck and Spitz loathe each other. Their rivalry culminates in a fight to the finish, and you can guess who prevails.
- Artistic License – Animal Care: More like Artistic License: Animal Everything. While some details are accurate (such as the tendency of one-eyed animals to snap at anyone approaching them from the blind side, and the bone-deep drive and eagerness of true sled-dog breeds to work until they drop) Jack London's depiction of training techniques and dog behavior is infamously inaccurate.
- While there is little doubt that the brutally abusive "law of club and fang" tactics he describes as standard procedure were used by some people, they're not only unnecessary but profoundly stupid. Beating, shouting, and whipping dogs accomplish one thing—creating a reactive, unstable dog that hates and fears you. Steady, consistent, humane treatment will always produce better results.
- Interestingly, another London story called "Batard" has a much more realistic portrayal of how dogs react to abuse: with hate and fear. The story ends with the titular dog killing his owner as vengeance for a lifetime of mistreatment. Arguably, this story could be seen as a Deconstruction of "Call of the Wild".
- Wolf packs have no such thing as Alpha and Beta Wolves in the way portrayed in the novel; they are close-knit familial groups consisting of parents and several generations of that breeding pair's offspring, generally have very little internal conflict, and do not operate on a dominance-based system any animal could "take over" by force. (However, in London's defense, this view of pack hierarchy was
shared by most scientists at the time.) For that matter, while dogs do form complicated social dynamics, they never operate in the clear-cut pecking order portrayed by London's work. - While any dog in a high-stress situation will bite if it feels threatened, Buck is ready to kill the moment his crate is opened solely because he has been stolen from his owner. If a dog actively tries to kill the nearest stranger the moment it's placed in an unfamiliar situation, that dog is beyond help and would realistically have been put down years ago due to its instability, not allowed to wander free in close contact with children.
- Huskies are no more aggressive and have no more "wolf blood" than any other dog just because Jack London happened not to like the way they look. In fact, they have been selectively bred to work in large groups of other dogs in a sled team, and are therefore much less likely than other breeds to display the vicious, unstable behavior by which he characterizes them.
- Bears Are Bad News: When Buck starts becoming a wild dog, he fights a black bear going mad from mosquitoes pestering it. It's a hard fight, but Buck manages to kill the bear in the end.
- Big Damn Heroes: John Thornton saves Buck from certain death by beating up the guy who was whipping him.
- Buck in turn saves him twice in return. One time, a brute named Black Burton punches John for trying to be a peacekeeper in a fight only to be rewarded by a torn throat from Buck.
- A little while later, John falls into a fast-moving river, and Buck jumps into the water to save him.
- Bittersweet Ending: John Thornton, the only man Buck was truly devoted to, is dead. But Buck is able to find a new pack in the forests of the Yukon.
- Black Comedy: The novel has a moment after Thornton has acquired Buck and is curious about how much he trusts him, they are camped next to a cliff and he spontaneously tells Buck to jump, him and his companions then have to frantically grab Buck mid-jump.
- Book Ends: When published with White Fang. Amusingly, it works no matter which order you read them in — if you start with Call of the Wild (written & published first), the book ends are set in human homes, while starting with White Fang has the book ends in the forest.
- Comic Trio: Hal, Charles, and Mercedes. At least, they're comic until their inexperience starts to endanger their lives and those of their dogs. Eventually they drive their sled onto thin ice despite a warning, killing themselves and all their remaining dogs.
- Cool Old Guy: Sol-leks is mentioned to be old and hates being approached by his blind side. When it comes to pulling the sled, he is very dedicated to his job, a way of thinking he has in common with Dave.
- Crapsack World: Just surviving in Alaska means you have to be a bastard, whether you're a dog or a man.
- Death by Newbery Medal: John Thornton dies.
- Death World: Alaska is a frozen wasteland where just daily survival is a horrible struggle for both humans and animals, beset at all sides by hostile wildlife, savage natives and dangerous climate.
- The Dreaded: Buck becomes this to the Yeehats after he kills several of them in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. As time goes on, the Yeehats nickname him "the Evil Spirit" and refuse to enter the valley where Buck and his pack reside.
- Eaten Alive: All dogs that lose a fight.
- Everyone Is Armed: Set in the Klondike gold rush, a nearly lawless wilderness where hunting for game and defending against predators (animal and human) means virtually everyone goes armed.
- Evil Poacher: A rare inversion of the trope, since even if most of the novel is set in the Wild, and almost everyone here hunt for meat, we never see an actual poacher. However, the first chapter features a network of dognappers who target domestic.
- Family-Unfriendly Violence: All over the place.
- Fish out of Water: Buck goes from California to Alaska, over the course of the story he has to learn to either to adapt to his new lifestyle and surroundings or die.
- Foreshadowing: When Buck comes upon an elk late in the story, he notices that it has an arrow sticking in its body. This is the only hint at all that there are in fact Indians in the area.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: From a domestic dog (albeit already the strongest of his domain and The Ace) to the leader of a wolves pack and a beast who slaughtered so many Yeehat warriors their tribe literally believes he is an Evil Spirit.
- Grim Up North
- Handicapped Badass: Sol-leks may be blind in one eye, but that doesn't make him any weaker. Buck learns this the hard way.
- Hanlon's Razor: Hal, Charles, and Mercedes are merely ignorant, not malicious. However, they ultimately cause more misery and harm to Buck and his team than any of his former owners.
- Hate Sink: Even if, in this context, Buck was sent into a Crapsack World, at least everyone who wronged him had an understable reason to do so: protect their leader's place (Spitz) or their territory (the Yeehats), a debt to solve (Manuel), the necessity to litteraly move forward (almost every master Buck had), or even fighting directly or indirectly for their own survival... All, but the Man in a Red Sweater. Not only he is at the head of a dognapping network, but also he takes way too much pleasure to beat the stolen hounds into submission.
- Injun Country: John Thornton wanders into it while mining for gold. Sure enough, he and his partner are killed by a passing band of Yeehats.
- Insult of Endearment: A borderline example, for whenever John Thornton pets Buck and cuddles with him, he lavishes him with curse words and insults like "You ugly old monster". But Buck enjoys this and sees this as a loving (yet strange) gesture.
- Karma Houdini: For what we know, the Man in a Read Sweater never faced any consequence for ruling a dognapping network, and his business never was shut down.
- Kick the Dog: Starve the dog, overwork the dog, beat the dog...
- Klingon Promotion: Subverted, Buck expects to be made lead dog after killing Spitz, but Pierre tries to put the more experienced Sol-leks in front instead. Buck eventually gets his wish after making it clear that he won't accept any other position. And at the end Buck takes over a wolf pack by killing a few of the wolves.
- The Leader: Buck becomes the alpha of a wolf pack.
- The Load: Merecedes stands out, even compared to her idiot companions, for sheer uselessness. She also insists on riding the sled, becoming this trope in the literal sense.
- Lemony Narrator
- Mercy Kill: Dogs which are too tired or hurt to work get this treatment.
- Might Makes Right: The "law of club and fang".
- Noble Savage: Buck becomes the canine equivalent of this at the end of the book.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
- Buck slaughters almost every Yeehat in the village after they kill John Thornton and his companions. In fact, he gets so angry that he dodges every arrow from the hunters and makes them kill each other by accident.
- This is also the way of a dog fight. When two dogs fight, the other dogs circle around and then collapse on whichever dog goes down first.
- The Power of Love: Buck's relationship with John Thornton. It enables him to accomplish some awesome things. Notably moving alone a sled with twenty fifty-pound sacks of flour on it, over 100 yards, while it was frozen to the ground by a temperature of -60°F. The chapter where this occured is even titled "For the Love of a Man".Thornton knelt down by Buck's side. He took his head in his two hands and rested cheek on cheek. He did not playfully shake him, as was his wont, or murmur soft love curses; but he whispered in his ear. "As you love me, Buck. As you love me," was what he whispered. Buck whined with suppressed eagerness.
- Rated M for Manly: Rated D for Dogly?
- River of Insanity: A variant occurs during the trip with Hal, Charles, and Mercedes. Despite leaving in good spirits, things get worse, and worse as the trio are woefully naive, prideful, immature, and inexperienced, and this combined with an already exhausted team of dogs, an under supply of food for them, and a massively overloaded sled they have to drag behind them is what eventually dooms them in the end. The farther, and farther they travel into the wilderness, the more the three's unity breaks down, and the more dogs die from being beaten, starved, and worked to death. It all eventually culminates in the entire group sans Buck perishing as the sled breaks through the ice, and drags them all into the freezing, rushing water below.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Buck goes on one after John Thornton is killed by the Yeehats, attacking their camp and killing several of them.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Curly is killed by a pack of huskies early on, providing Buck with a harsh lesson in survival. Also an example of Kill the Cutie.
- The Savage Indian: The Yeehats.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Billee and Joe are said to be as different as day and night. Billee is a good-natured fellow, while Joe is vicious and ruthless.
- Sled Dogs Through the Snow: Buck started out as a sled dog in the Klondike Gold Rush, before escaping into the wild.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Manuel and the Man in a Red Sweater activate the story, but they never appeared after chapter 1.
- The Smurfette Principle: First, among the canine characters, females are much rarer than males. And among humans, not only women appear only a handful of time while most of the human characters are men. But Mercedes is the only named woman who appeared more than once and have a small role. And even with that, she only is a part of a Comic Trio who is present only during one chapter. Also, do not expect her to be a profound character, it's a novel written before WW 1 by a male author, with all stereotypes about softness, physical weakness and oversensitiveness about the women at this time.
- Starter Villain: Although Spitz is Buck's sworn arch-nemesis for a significant portion of the book, the story still has a long way to go after his demise.
- Stray Animal Story: Call of the Wild is most likely the Ur-Example. It's about a dog named Buck who escapes into the wild.
- This Is My Human: Buck thinks of himself as the Judge's "steward", if nothing else, and thinks of the Judge's children as the Judge's property (and thus beneath himself). He realizes the error in his thinking after he's stolen and beaten into submission as a sled dog.
- Too Dumb to Live: Hal, Charles, and Mercedes. Though they are completely inexperienced and unsuited for the icy wilds of the North, they refuse to take the advice of more experienced explorers and try to make it their way. This gets them killed.
- Took a Level in Badass: Buck goes from a pampered pooch to a Living Legend in the north.
- Undying Loyalty: Buck to John Thornton. He's so loyal that he obeys an order to jump off a cliff, just because John said it (John grabs him in time).
- We Hardly Knew Ye: We only knew Curly for a bit, and she's killed off rather quickly.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Spitz is the canine equivalent of this. He is described as having snow-white fur, and has a rather cruel temperament.
- World of Badass
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Downplayed, neither the author nor the narrator question the interest of gold for humans. However, the story being written from Buck's point of view, a dog, for him gold is only a yellow metal for which he has no curiosity. Moreover, most of the time, the novel refers to the "yellow metal" rather than the term "gold".
- Xenofiction
