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The Call of the Wild
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Why does Buck stay down under Hal's club when his mates still struggle to their feet, and is his refusal a giving up or a kind of knowing?
The tension Hal will not stop, treating every warning as one more thing to get past, and his arrival at White River seems to prove him right. Buck will not get up, though the same blows raise Sol-leks, Teek, Joe, and Pike. The chapter gives Buck both an ebbing spark of life and a made-up mind that senses disaster on the ice ahead, and it sets Thornton between the two refusals, whittling and declining to interfere until suddenly he does.
Notice the warnings in this chapter, who gives them, and what Hal, Charles and Mercedes do with each. Then notice how the dogs meet the whip at White River.
The worn-out mail team is sold at Skaguay to Hal, Charles and Mercedes, who overload the sled and overfeed, then underfeed, the dogs. One by one the dogs die until five are left. At White River, John Thornton warns them of the rotten ice, the team is whipped to its feet, and Thornton springs at Hal when Buck will not rise. The sled goes through the ice soon after.
Start with Hal's line, "here we are". Ask what it proves, then ask who had warned him and what he did with each warning.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in order: the sale, the loading at Skaguay, the plan with a pencil, the dogs dropping one by one, White River, and the hole in the ice.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes three sentences in the same order: a feeling, the evidence for it, then a short act, ending on a sentence of four words or fewer.
Debate Take sides on Buck at White River: was he giving up, or did he sense something? Each side must use one line from the chapter and say what to do with "vague" and "it seemed".
Purpose Close by asking which words in the chapter are stated flatly and which are hedged, and why London might choose each.
Easier Read Thornton's 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 to say which of the three is strongest.
1. Hal says of the warnings, "They told us we couldn't make White River, and here we are." How good a proof is that?Inference
What it asks It asks what reaching White River does and does not show, and what Thornton sees in Hal's triumph that Hal does not.
It proves something. They were warned, they went on, and they arrived.
They told us we couldn’t make White River, and here we are.
That’s because you’re not a fool, I suppose
It proves almost nothing. They arrived by luck, and the danger is still ahead.
Only fools, with the blind luck of fools, could have made it.
The bottom’s likely to drop out at any moment.
A strong answer Hal's proof is that the warnings said they could not make White River and they did. That shows the warnings were wrong about one thing. But Thornton answers that only fools, "with the blind luck of fools", could have made it, and that the bottom is likely to drop out at any moment. Arriving does not show the ice is safe. A strong answer says what Hal's proof covers and what it leaves out.
2. At Skaguay Mercedes snatches the whip from Hal and kneels to hug Buck. What kind of kindness is hers?Character
What it asks It asks the student to judge a kindness that feels strongly and does little, using what Mercedes says and does across the chapter.
It is real kindness. She cannot bear to see the dogs in pain.
untold repugnance at sight of pain written in her pretty face
she stole from the fish-sacks and fed them slyly
It is feeling without help. She does not see what the dogs need, and it fades.
why don’t you pull hard?—then you wouldn’t be whipped
But it was not food that Buck and the huskies needed, but rest.
Mercedes ceased weeping over the dogs, being too occupied with weeping over herself
A strong answer Mercedes feels for the dogs: she cannot bear the sight of pain, and she sneaks fish to them. But her kindness misses what they need, since it was not food they needed, but rest, and she tells them to pull harder so they would not be whipped. Later she ceases weeping over the dogs, too occupied with weeping over herself, and rides the sled. A strong answer says whether a kindness that does not help still counts.
3. Thornton goes on whittling because it was "idle, he knew, to get between a fool and his folly." Was he right to wait as long as he did?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks when a man who sees harm coming should step in, and whether waiting is wisdom or hesitation.
Waiting was sensible. He had already warned them, they would not listen, and the dog was Hal's.
he gave his advice in the certainty that it would not be followed
It’s my dog
He waited too long. He saw what was happening and held back while it went on.
Several times Thornton started, as though to speak, but changed his mind.
as the whipping continued, he arose and walked irresolutely up and down
A strong answer Thornton gave his warning and expected it to be ignored, and the dog is Hal's; to step in sooner might have seemed idle. But he started to speak several times and changed his mind, and he walked up and down irresolutely while the whipping went on. The chapter shows him waiting and then acting "without warning" with a cry more like an animal's. A strong answer weighs the wisdom of waiting against the cost of it, and says what finally moves him.
4. Under Hal's whip Sol-leks, Teek, Joe, and Pike crawl to their feet. What gets them up?Theme
What it asks It asks why worn-out dogs still rise: fear of the lash, or something the work still holds for them.
The blows get them up. Little else is left in them.
It had long since passed into the stage where blows were required to rouse it.
And when the club or whip fell upon them, the spark fluttered feebly up, and they tottered to their feet and staggered on.
Something of the work still holds them, at least in Sol-leks.
Sol-leks, the one-eyed, still faithful to the toil of trace and trail, and mournful in that he had so little strength with which to pull
A strong answer The chapter says the team had passed into the stage where blows were required to rouse it, and that a spark fluttered feebly up when the whip fell, so the lash is part of the answer. But Sol-leks is called "still faithful to the toil of trace and trail", and Pike tries three times before he rises. A strong answer says what is driving them and what is left in them, and points to the dogs as individuals.
5. Just before White River London piles on spring: sap rising, birds singing, ice breaking. Why set all that life around this team?Author's choice
What it asks It asks what the long description of spring does to the scene of a failing team.
It is contrast. The world is waking while the team is worn out, and the gap hurts.
It was beautiful spring weather, but neither dogs nor humans were aware of it.
like wayfarers to death, staggered the two men, the woman, and the huskies
It is a warning. The spring is what makes the ice dangerous.
The Yukon was straining to break loose the ice that bound it down.
thin sections of ice fell through bodily into the river
A strong answer The spring passage is full of life, with sap rising, buds bursting, and birds singing, and it sets that against a team that is barely alive, so the contrast sharpens their misery. But the same passage has the Yukon straining to break loose and sections of ice falling through, so the season is also the danger. A strong answer says which the passage does more and points to the words that show it.
6. After the ice gives way, the chapter ends with Thornton saying "You poor devil" and Buck licking his hand. Why end on that quiet moment?Tone
What it asks It asks what tone the ending sets after the disaster, and what it leaves the reader feeling.
It is a turn toward comfort. After so much beating, someone touches Buck kindly.
Thornton knelt beside him and with rough, kindly hands searched for broken bones
Buck licked his hand
It stays sad. The words are pity, and something has just been lost.
You poor devil
A yawning hole was all that was to be seen.
A strong answer The chapter ends on a quiet exchange after a sudden disaster. Thornton's hands are "rough, kindly", and Buck licks his hand, which reads as comfort after so much beating. But "You poor devil" is pity, and the ice has just taken the sled, leaving a yawning hole. A strong answer says what tone the ending sets and which words decide it, and does not go beyond what the last lines say.
1. The six Outside dogs do worse on the trail than the huskies. Using two pieces of evidence, explain why.
What it asks It asks the student to sort the Outside dogs' troubles into body and spirit, and to back the choice with two pieces of evidence.
It is their bodies. They are not trained for hunger or made for this ration.
The Outside dogs, whose digestions had not been trained by chronic famine to make the most of little, had voracious appetites.
an Outside dog starves to death on the ration of the husky
It is their spirit. They are frightened and beaten before the trail has done its work.
bewildered and spirit-broken by the strange savage environment in which they found themselves and by the ill treatment they had received
The two mongrels were without spirit at all
A strong answer The Outside dogs lack the body for it: their digestions had not been trained by chronic famine, and the chapter says an Outside dog starves to death on the ration of the husky. They also lack the spirit: they are bewildered and spirit-broken, and two mongrels have no spirit at all. A strong answer picks body or spirit, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says what the other adds.
2. Charles and Hal worked out the trip "with a pencil." Using two pieces of evidence, explain what their plan got wrong.
What it asks It asks what a plan made on paper misses, and whether the mistake is what they do not know of the trail or what they cannot do themselves.
The plan does not know the trail. They cannot know what the sled can carry.
one sled could not carry the food for fourteen dogs. But Charles and Hal did not know this.
They had worked the trip out with a pencil, so much to a dog, so many dogs, so many days, Q.E.D.
The plan does not know themselves. It counts on a pace they cannot keep.
on no day did they succeed in making more than half the distance used by the men as a basis in their dog-food computation
Not only did they not know how to work dogs, but they did not know how to work themselves.
A strong answer The plan counts dogs, days, and food and treats the trip as simple arithmetic, but they did not know that one sled could not carry the food for fourteen dogs. The plan also depends on a pace they cannot keep, since on no day do they make more than half the distance their computation assumed. A strong answer picks what the plan got most wrong, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says what the other adds.
3. Hal's theory is that one must get "hardened." Using two pieces of evidence, explain what that theory shows about Hal.
What it asks It asks whether Hal's theory is a belief he lives by or a reason to treat others harshly, and to back the reading with two pieces of evidence.
It is an excuse for cruelty. He uses it on the dogs and not on himself.
Hal’s theory, which he practised on others, was that one must get hardened.
Failing there, he hammered it into the dogs with a club.
It is cover for his own misery, which has made him harsh like the others.
In the excess of their own misery they were callous to the suffering of their animals.
because of this they became sharp of speech, and hard words were first on their lips in the morning and last at night
A strong answer The chapter says Hal's theory was practised on others: he preached it to his sister and brother-in-law, and when that failed he hammered it into the dogs with a club. That reads as an excuse for cruelty. But the same passage says they were callous in the excess of their own misery, and that hard words were first on their lips in the morning. A strong answer picks a reading, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says what the other adds.