Book Review 2-05: The Call of the Wild

I read The Call of the Wild. This book is a story in 7 chapters. Then, there is also a chapter head in each chapter in it. The scenes of it are in California, Alaska, San Francisco and so on. It is written about a dog. The dog meets various people and other dogs. His life changes gradually by having various experiences.


Buck was a strong dog with a thick coat. He was 4 years old. He lived in Mr. Miller's house in California. There were also other dogs there. Among them, Buck was the boss. One day, Manuel who worked for Mr. Miller put a rope around Buck's neck. Of course, Buck resisted him many times, but he pulled the rope around Buck's neck, so Buck fell to the ground, and his eyes closed! While he closed his eyes, Manuel sold a man who wanted a strong dog for finding gold him. The man put him in a box and went to a bar in San Francisco. After he opened his eyes, he attacked the man some times. However, the man hit him with a club and said 'Be a good dog, and I kill bad dogs. Do you understand?' After that, the man brought Buck some food and water. He ate and drank quickly. Then, one day, Perrault, a small French-Canadian man, looked at him and bought him and other dog. He took the two dogs to a boat which Spitz and Dave, two other dogs, and Francois, another French-Canadian man were on. They arrived in Alaska, and Francois took the dogs off the boat.

Buck's first day in this new and cold country was very bad because there were a lot of dangerous men and dogs everywhere. Francois put a harness on him. 'You have to wear it. Then you can pull the sledge', Francois said. When he shouted 'Mush!', Buck had to run quickly. He then shouted 'Ho!', Buck had to stop. In this way, Buck learned to pull the sledge. After many days, he got bigger and stronger than other dogs except for Spitz.

Spitz was the strongest dog of all dogs Perrault and Francois had. He wanted to fight with Buck because Buck got stronger every day. He thought he had to kill Buck. One day, they started to fight, and other dogs began to fight with them. As soon as Francois saw this fight, he made them stop desperately. He thought Spitz will kill Buck, and Buck will eat Spitz for dinner someday. Going through rocks and rivers, they arrived in Dawson. Seven days later, they left there. One day, Buck and Spitz had a big fight at last although they were tired each other! They attacked each other many times. Then, Buck bit Spitz's leg very hard. It was the criminal attack to Spitz, and Buck won the fight! He became the most important dog Perrault and Francois had!

Buck was the new boss and could work harder than Spitz, so Francois was very happy to have dogs like him. Other dogs were afraid of him and listened to him. When they arrived at Skaguay, a Scottish man met them and bought the sledge dogs including Buck. He and his friend worked for the Canadian Mail Company and carried people's letters to them. The next day, they took the sledge back to Dawson. After some days, Dave had the worst pain of all the sledge dogs. He could no longer work as hard as other sledge dogs. The Scottish man didn't want him to die in the snow, so his friend shot him to death.

They arrived in Skaguay. The sledge dogs were very tired, and their feet had cuts on them. Therefore, they needed a long rest. However, the Scottish men had to leave soon, so they bought new dogs to leave here, and Charles and Hal, American men, bought the tired dogs. They bought more dogs and had 14 animals. It was regrettable that they didn't have any plans and bring much food for them. Therefore, the dogs began to die. In one week, six dogs died, and other dogs were almost dead. They arrived at John Thornton's camp. John helped Buck because Hal was going to kill him here! After that, Charles, Hal and other dogs went across the river. Suddenly, the ice broke, and they fell into the cold water! Buck never saw them again.

John Thornton had bad feet from an accident before Buck came, so his friends made a camp for him. In the camp, Buck, Thornton and his other dogs waited for them. Then, Hans and Pete, Thornton's friends, arrived there with their boat. One day, on the way to going down the river to Dawson, the boat turned over, and Thornton fell into the clod river! Hans, Pete and Buck helped him desperately. However, Buck was in a lot of pain, so they waited for many weeks.

They went down some rivers and through some mountains. At the end of their trip, they found a wonderful place between 2 small mountains. There was a river near there. Then, at the bottom of this river, they could see gold! As soon as they found the gold, they took the gold very hard. Every day they got richer and richer! Suddenly, Buck started to dislike Hans, Pete and Thornton strangely. Then, he began to kill them. After that, he felt a very bad pain inside, and it didn't go away.


Reading The Call of the Wild, I thought Buck was a pitiful dog because he couldn't take a rest by selfish people even when he did need to do so. Personally, Dave was the most pitiful dog of all sledge dogs in it. The reason why I thought so is that he was shot to death by Scottish men when he couldn't get to work hard. As I read this scene, he seemed to be like a disposal thing. Anyway, altogether, I feel The Call of the Wild was a sad story. [1006 words]