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The Call of the Wild
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
When the club teaches Buck that a man with a club must be obeyed, and Buck obeys the man in the red sweater without ever fawning on him, what has he given up and what has he kept?
The tension The club forces obedience, and Buck gives it; but the chapter sets his obedience against two other answers to the same club, the beaten dogs that fawn and the one dog that will neither obey nor conciliate and is killed. Buck's own pride, which at the flag station believed that to intimate was to command, must decide what survives once force has won, and the chapter tests that pride again when François's whip strikes the thief and Buck judges it fair.
Notice what Buck expects from people at the start of the chapter, what the rope and the club show him, and how he answers each.
Buck is king of Judge Miller's place until Manuel sells him. He is roped at a flag station, shut in a crate, taunted in an express car, and clubbed in a Seattle yard. Perrault and François buy him, and the chapter ends on the Narwhal with his first snow.
Start with the growl at the flag station. Ask what Buck thought a growl could do, then follow him to the end of the beating and ask what he has learned.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the estate, the rope, the crate, the express car, the club, and the ship.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes one sentence about a hard fact a character meets, using a semicolon to join the fact to the character's answer.
Debate Take sides on the dogs that fawn: sensible or shameful? Each side must use one line from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking why London lets Buck watch other dogs meet the club before the chapter moves on.
Easier Read the club scene aloud together and talk through discussion questions 1 and 3 only.
On level Talk through all six discussion questions, then have the student write one critical-thinking answer with two pieces of evidence.
Harder Ask the student to add a third piece of evidence to a critical-thinking answer and say which of the three is strongest.
1. At the flag station Buck growls when the rope goes into the stranger's hands. What did life at Judge Miller's place lead him to expect a growl would do?Character
What it asks It asks the student to work out, from one growl, what Buck has always been able to count on from people.
Buck expects to be obeyed. At home, showing displeasure was as good as giving an order.
He had merely intimated his displeasure, in his pride believing that to intimate was to command.
king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included
Buck expects people to be trustworthy, and the growl is his first doubt of a stranger, not a king's order.
Buck had accepted the rope with quiet dignity.
But when the ends of the rope were placed in the stranger’s hands, he growled menacingly.
A strong answer At Judge Miller's place Buck was king over everything, humans included, so a growl was enough to get his way; he thinks he is giving an order. But he also took the rope from Manuel with quiet dignity because he trusted men he knew, and he growled only when the ends went to the stranger. So the growl is partly a king's command and partly a trusting dog's first doubt. The surprise comes when the rope tightens, and the chapter says so: "to his surprise".
2. Each time the shed door rattles open, Buck expects the Judge, and his joyful bark turns into a growl. What does that show about what Buck understands of his situation?Inference
What it asks It asks what Buck can and cannot make sense of on his first night away from home, and what he is still hoping for.
Buck still thinks this is a mistake that someone will put right. He is hoping the Judge will come.
expecting to see the Judge, or the boys at least
the joyful bark that trembled in Buck’s throat
Buck already feels danger without knowing its shape. Hope and dread are both there.
He could not understand what it all meant.
he felt oppressed by the vague sense of impending calamity
A strong answer Buck cannot make sense of what is happening: he asks what the strange men want with him and feels "the vague sense of impending calamity" without being able to name it. Yet he still expects the Judge each time the door opens, so the bark is hope, and the growl is what is left of it when the saloon-keeper's bulging face appears instead. A strong answer says that Buck is still living in the world he left while already being pulled out of it.
3. The man in the red sweater clubs Buck senseless, then pats his head, speaks in a genial voice, and brings water. What do you make of this man?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks how to judge a man who does a harsh thing calmly and then a kind thing, and what his manner says about him.
He is a hard but businesslike man doing a job. He is calm, he offers clear terms, and he is not angry.
as furiously anxious to get out as the man in the red sweater was calmly intent on getting him out
Be a good dog and all ’ll go well and the goose hang high.
He is frightening because he can be gentle so easily after hurting so much.
Then the man advanced and deliberately dealt him a frightful blow on the nose.
The man struck the shrewd blow he had purposely withheld for so long
As he spoke he fearlessly patted the head he had so mercilessly pounded
A strong answer The man is calm the whole way through: calmly intent while Buck rages, patient enough to hold back the last blow "for so long", and genial once it is over. A reader can take that as a hard, businesslike dog-breaker offering a plain deal, "Be a good dog and all ’ll go well". Another can find him more frightening for being so easy in his manner. The chapter shows him calm throughout and shows him doing both, and a strong answer says which details weigh most with it.
4. Some of the beaten dogs wag their tails and lick the man's hand. What do you make of those dogs?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to judge the dogs that fawn: sensible survivors, or something to be ashamed of.
They are sensible. They are beaten, and the alternative the chapter shows is death.
some docilely, and some raging and roaring as he had come
one dog, that would neither conciliate nor obey, finally killed in the struggle for mastery
They give up something they should not, and the narrator's word treats fawning as a fault.
Of this last Buck was never guilty, though he did see beaten dogs that fawned upon the man, and wagged their tails, and licked his hand.
A strong answer The fawning dogs are beaten and they take the safe side, and the chapter shows the dog that refuses everything being killed, so it is easy to read them as sensible. But the narrator uses the word "guilty" for the fault Buck never committed, which hints that flattering a master is something to be ashamed of. The chapter gives both and does not say which to believe. A strong answer decides which reading it finds more convincing and names the lines that move it.
5. Buck licks his first snow, the onlookers laugh, and he feels ashamed, "he knew not why." Why might London end a chapter of blows on this small moment?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what the quiet last scene does after the club, and why the author ends on it.
It turns the chapter toward the North and the change that is coming.
the weather was steadily growing colder
knew that a change was at hand
It shows Buck as a beginner again, laughed at and unable to explain his own feeling.
The onlookers laughed uproariously, and he felt ashamed, he knew not why, for it was his first snow.
It bit like fire, and the next instant was gone.
A strong answer After a rope, a crate, and a club, the chapter ends on something quiet and strange: a dog licking snow that bites like fire and is gone. It points forward, because the cold has been growing and a change is at hand. It also shows Buck ashamed at a laugh he cannot explain, which is a different hurt from the club. A strong answer says what this ending leaves the reader expecting of Buck.
1. Buck charges the club again and again, even after he knows it is a club. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what keeps him charging.
What it asks It asks why a dog who has just been struck down keeps rushing the same man, and to back the answer with two separate pieces of evidence.
Rage and torment drive him. Two days without water have left him past thinking.
This time he was aware that it was the club, but his madness knew no caution.
Straight at the man he launched his one hundred and forty pounds of fury, surcharged with the pent passion of two days and nights.
He has never met anything that could stop him, and he has sworn not to be roped again.
He had never been struck by a club in his life, and did not understand.
They would never get another rope around his neck. Upon that he was resolved.
A strong answer Buck keeps charging because rage has taken over: after two days without water he is mad, and the chapter says even when he knew it was the club, his madness knew no caution. There is also something in how he is made. He had never been struck by a club in his life, and he had resolved that they would never get another rope around his neck. A strong answer names one cause, gives two different pieces of evidence for it, and says why the other cause is weaker.
2. Buck thinks the rope gave the men "an unfair advantage" and later calls François's whip "fair." Using two pieces of evidence, explain what Buck means by fair.
What it asks It asks the student to build Buck's idea of fair from two moments that are far apart in the chapter.
Fair means an even fight, with no trick against him.
That had given them an unfair advantage; but now that it was off, he would show them.
Fair means the punishment lands on the one who did the wrong.
the lash of François’s whip sang through the air, reaching the culprit first
That was fair of François, he decided
A strong answer In the express car Buck calls the rope an unfair advantage: it let the men win by a trick, and he wants a fight on even terms. On the Narwhal he calls François fair because the whip reaches the culprit first, and all that remains for Buck is to recover the bone. So Buck's idea of fair includes two things: no trick against him, and a punishment that falls on whoever did wrong. A strong answer uses one line from each scene and says what they share.
3. The chapter says Buck "did not read the newspapers" and thought he was on "merely a stroll." Using two pieces of evidence, explain what the reader can see that Buck cannot.
What it asks It asks what the narrator tells us that Buck does not know, and where the danger comes from.
The danger is large: men in the North want dogs like Buck.
These men wanted dogs, and the dogs they wanted were heavy dogs, with strong muscles by which to toil, and furry coats to protect them from the frost.
thousands of men were rushing into the Northland
The danger is close: someone on the place has turned on him.
on the memorable night of Manuel’s treachery
This man talked with Manuel, and money chinked between them.
A strong answer The reader is told early that trouble is brewing for every strong, long-haired dog from Puget Sound to San Diego, because men in the North want dogs, and that Manuel's treachery sends Buck off through the orchard on what Buck imagined was merely a stroll. Buck sees neither the gold rush nor Manuel's money. A strong answer picks the nearer danger or the wider one, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says why the narrator lets us see what Buck cannot.