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The Call of the Wild
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
When London ends by saying Buck "found it good", is that praise for a rise won by patience and imagination, or a warning about a rise won by secret revolt, forgotten fair play, and no mercy?
The tension The chapter admires Buck's means: his restraint, his patience, the imagination that finally breaks Spitz's guard. The same chapter shows his other means: the secret revolt that destroys the team's solidarity long before the fight, the swaggering of a bully, fair play a forgotten code, and mercy set aside as a thing for gentler climes. London ends by calling Buck the dominant primordial beast who had made his kill and found it good, and leaves the reader to decide whether that sentence is praise.
Notice how Buck rises in this chapter and what the chapter shows about the means: patience, secrecy, bullying, imagination, and no mercy.
At Lake Le Barge Buck springs on Spitz for taking his nest, and a raid by starving huskies breaks up the fight. The team struggles over the Thirty Mile River, Dolly goes mad, and Buck begins to shield the shirkers from Spitz, openly and then in secret. A rabbit chase at the mouth of the Tahkeena ends in the fight to the death.
Start with the "secret growth" in the first paragraph. Ask who it is secret from, then jump to the fight on the creek and ask what has changed.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the nest and the raid, the river, Dolly, the quarrel over Pike, the rabbit, and the fight.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes three sentences about a character who does the expected thing and then, at the last instant, does something else.
Debate Take sides on Spitz: a fair enough leader, or a bully. Each side must use one line from the chapter.
Purpose Close by asking how we judge someone who wins: by the win, or by how it was done, and which lines in the chapter help us decide.
Easier Read the fight on the creek aloud together and talk through discussion questions 3 and 5 only.
On level Talk through all five 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. London says the beast in Buck grew, yet "it was a secret growth." Who is it secret from, and what do we see Buck do to keep it so?Author's choice
What it asks It asks how Buck's strength can grow without anyone noticing, and who is being kept in the dark at each point in the chapter.
It is secret because Buck holds himself back. Restraint and cunning hide how strong he is getting.
His newborn cunning gave him poise and control.
he betrayed no impatience, shunned all offensive acts
his rival was an unusually timid dog, who managed to hold his own only because of his great weight and size
It is secret because Buck works behind François's back, where he cannot be caught.
he did it craftily, when François was not around
Buck was too clever ever again to be caught red-handed
A strong answer At first the secret is how strong Buck is: his cunning gives him poise and control, he avoids fights, and Spitz takes him for an unusually timid dog. Later the secret changes kind. Buck interferes between Spitz and the culprits "craftily, when François was not around", and he is "too clever ever again to be caught red-handed". So what is hidden moves from how strong he is to what he is doing. A strong answer says who is in the dark at each point and what lets the reader see what they cannot.
2. Buck flies between Spitz and Pike, and the chapter says he "did it deliberately." Was he protecting Pike, challenging Spitz, or something else?Character
What it asks It asks the student to decide why Buck steps in when Spitz goes to punish Pike, using what the scene says and shows.
He is challenging Spitz. Pike is only the occasion.
He openly threatened the other’s leadership.
He came between him and the shirks he should have punished.
He is standing up for a frightened dog, and Pike takes heart.
Buck flew, with equal rage, in between.
Pike, who had been trembling abjectly, took heart at this open mutiny
A strong answer The chapter says Buck did it deliberately and that he "openly threatened the other’s leadership", so one reading is that Pike is only the occasion and Spitz is the target. But Pike, who had been trembling abjectly, takes heart, which suggests Buck's action does something for him too. The chapter does not say which mattered more. A strong answer gives Buck a reason and points to what in the scene supports it, including that Buck springs on Spitz himself once Spitz is down.
3. Spitz bullies Buck, attacks him from the side in the husky raid, and tears into him when he is helpless. He also thrashes the shirkers. What do you make of Spitz as a leader?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to weigh Spitz's job as leader against the way he does it, and not to settle on a simple villain.
He is a leader doing a hard job, and the pride of the trail is what bears him up.
This was the pride that bore up Spitz and made him thrash the sled-dogs who blundered and shirked in the traces or hid away at harness-up time in the morning.
Bitter rage was his, but never blind rage.
He is a treacherous bully who takes his chances when Buck is down.
It was Spitz, treacherously attacking from the side.
This was Spitz’s opportunity. He sprang upon Buck, and twice his teeth sank into his unresisting foe
A strong answer Spitz does real work as leader: he thrashes the dogs who shirk or hide, and the chapter says the pride of the trail bore him up. But he attacks Buck "treacherously" from the side in the raid, and when Buck is exhausted he tears into his "unresisting foe". A strong answer weighs the job against the way he does it, uses at least two moments, and does not turn him into a simple villain or a simple hero.
4. London says the "ecstasy" of the chase comes to the artist, the soldier, and Buck. What kind of joy is he describing?Tone
What it asks It asks the student to decide what kind of feeling the chase gives Buck, when the same paragraph names both its height and its cost.
It is joy at its fullest, life at its peak.
There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise.
the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew
It is joy that costs Buck himself: he forgets, and what he is hunting is killing.
it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive
the soldier, war-mad on a stricken field and refusing quarter
the blood lust, the joy to kill
A strong answer London calls it an ecstasy at the summit of life, and Buck is mastered by the perfect joy of every muscle, so one reading takes it as life at its fullest. But the same paragraph says it comes as "a complete forgetfulness that one is alive", the soldier in it is war-mad and refusing quarter, and Buck is running down living meat to kill. A strong answer holds the gladness and the loss of self in one view and says which the passage leans toward.
5. Spitz once watched circles close on beaten dogs, and now the circle closes on him. Was what happens to Spitz fair?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks whether Spitz's end is justice, since he lived by the circle, or something harsher than he deserves.
It is fair. Spitz has watched this happen to others, and now it is his turn.
closing in upon him as he had seen similar circles close in upon beaten antagonists in the past
Only this time he was the one who was beaten.
It is not fair. Spitz is crippled and still fighting, and Buck gives him nothing.
Despite the pain and helplessness, Spitz struggled madly to keep up.
There was no hope for him. Buck was inexorable. Mercy was a thing reserved for gentler climes.
A strong answer Spitz has seen similar circles close in on beaten antagonists, and now he is the one beaten, so it is easy to call what happens to him his own rule coming home. But both his forelegs are broken, he still struggles madly to keep up, and Buck is "inexorable" while "Mercy was a thing reserved for gentler climes." The chapter shows a rule Spitz lived by and Buck keeps. A strong answer says what it means by fair and whether that standard belongs only to this place.
1. Buck "worked faithfully in the harness" and loved the toil, yet delighted in tangling the traces. Using two pieces of evidence, explain why such a dog would unsettle his own team.
What it asks It asks why a dog who loves the work would set the team against itself, and to back one reason with two pieces of evidence.
It is pride. The pride of the trail makes him want the lead.
It was inevitable that the clash for leadership should come. Buck wanted it.
he had been gripped tight by that nameless, incomprehensible pride of the trail and trace
It is pleasure. He enjoys being sly and swaggering.
it was a greater delight slyly to precipitate a fight amongst his mates and tangle the traces
his conduct approached that of a bully, and he was given to swaggering up and down before Spitz’s very nose
A strong answer One reading is that Buck is driven by the same pride of the trail and trace that drives Dave and Sol-leks, and that pride makes him want the lead: it was inevitable, and Buck "wanted it". The other is that he enjoys it: "it was a greater delight slyly to precipitate a fight", and his conduct "approached that of a bully". A strong answer picks one, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says what the other reading adds.
2. On the Thirty Mile River the team survives ice that breaks under Perrault, the sled, and Spitz. Using two pieces of evidence, explain what mostly keeps them alive.
What it asks It asks the student to decide whether the men's skill or the team's pulling together does more to keep everyone alive on the river.
The men's nerve and skill keep them alive.
being saved by the long pole he carried, which he so held that it fell each time across the hole made by his body
with every thong and sled lashing and the last bit of harness rove into a long rope, the dogs were hoisted, one by one, to the cliff crest
The team pulling together keeps them alive, each in place.
Buck, who strained backward with all his strength
But behind him was Dave, likewise straining backward, and behind the sled was François, pulling till his tendons cracked.
A strong answer Perrault's nerve and method keep them alive: a long pole across the hole each time he breaks through, and a rope of thongs, lashings, and harness to hoist the dogs up the cliff. But when Spitz goes through, the line holds against him: Buck straining backward, Dave behind Buck, and François behind the sled, pulling till his tendons cracked. A strong answer names one of these as what mostly keeps them alive, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says what the other adds.
3. When the rabbit dies, Buck "did not cry out" and drives straight into Spitz. Using two pieces of evidence, explain why Buck attacks at that moment.
What it asks It asks the student to decide what sets Buck off at the rabbit's death: what Spitz has just done, or a fight that was coming anyway.
Spitz has just cheated him of the finish of the chase.
Spitz, cold and calculating even in his supreme moods, left the pack and cut across a narrow neck of land
as the white teeth broke its back in mid air
The fight has been coming for a long time, and this is when it comes.
In a flash Buck knew it. The time had come. It was to the death.
From then on it was war between them.
A strong answer The moment is sudden: Spitz, cold and calculating, cuts across the bend and takes the kill Buck has been chasing, and Buck, who did not know of it, drives in without a cry. That can be read as a dog angry at a rival who took the finish. But the chapter also says that in a flash Buck knew the time had come, and it was to the death, which reads as a fight long coming. A strong answer picks one, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says what the other reading adds.