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The Call of the Wild
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
When Buck runs with the pack after John Thornton's death, is the last tie truly broken, or does his mournful summer howl in the valley say otherwise?
The tension Alive, Thornton is the one thing that turns Buck back from the wild brother; dead, he is the reason Buck loses his head for the last time and the reason the narrator says the last tie was broken. Yet the same chapter gives Buck a void that ached and that food could not fill, and ends with a great wolf returning each summer to howl once, long and mournfully, where the camp stood. Freedom and grief are set side by side, and the chapter does not say which one the ending means.
Notice how London tells Buck's last choices: the run with the wolf, the ruined camp, the pack, and the view from outside at the end.
After a long search for the Lost Cabin, Thornton and his partners find a placer. Buck, troubled by the call, runs with a wolf and turns back at a stream, then hunts a great bull moose for four days. He comes home to a ruined camp, kills many Yeehats, and follows Thornton's trace to a pool. The wolf pack comes, Buck runs with it, and the last pages tell what the Yeehats say of a Ghost Dog.
Start at the stream. Ask what Buck weighs when he sits down and turns back, then jump to the end and ask whose eyes the last pages use.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in three parts: the wolf and the turn back, the ruined camp, and the pack.
Imitate the author After copying the passage, the student writes two sentences about a feeling: first comparing it to something ordinary, then saying what the ordinary thing cannot do.
Debate Take sides on the ending: is Buck free, or does he still carry something? Each side must use one line from the chapter and say what to do with the Yeehats' view.
Purpose Close by asking what the ending says and what it shows, and why London never names the great wolf.
Easier Read the stream scene and the pool scene aloud together and talk through discussion questions 1 and 6 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 find one line in the last pages that shows what the narrator knows and the Yeehats do not, and to add it to a critical-thinking answer.
1. At the stream Buck remembers John Thornton, sits down, and turns back while the wolf whines beside him. What is pulling Buck each way?Inference
What it asks It asks what Buck is weighing at the stream, and what his turning back shows about each pull on him.
He turns back for Thornton, and the wild run, glad as it is, cannot outweigh him.
Buck remembered John Thornton. He sat down.
But Buck turned about and started slowly on the back track.
The wild pull is real. He is glad in the run and leaves it slowly, with the howl fading behind him.
Buck was wildly glad.
It was a mournful howl, and as Buck held steadily on his way he heard it grow faint and fainter until it was lost in the distance.
A strong answer Buck is wildly glad, running side by side with his wood brother toward the place from where the call surely came, and the chapter says he had done this before in that other world. Then he remembers Thornton, sits down, and starts back; the wolf tries to encourage him, then runs beside him whining softly. London gives no reason; he only shows Buck sit and turn. A strong answer says what each pull is made of and what the wolf's howl adds, and stays with what the scene shows.
2. Thornton, Pete and Hans watch Buck march out of camp, but they "did not see" what he becomes in the forest. What do they see in Buck, and what do they miss?Character
What it asks It asks the student to set the Buck the partners know beside the Buck the forest knows, and to think about why London shows us both.
They see a splendid dog and miss a wild hunter.
Never was there such a dog
He no longer marched. At once he became a thing of the wild
They miss less than it seems: the hunter kills to eat and plays, as the dog does at camp.
He killed to eat, not from wantonness
So a lurking humor ran through his deeds
A strong answer The partners see a dog without an equal: Thornton says never was there such a dog, and Pete says the mould was broke. They see him marching. What they miss is the instant and terrible transformation, the cat-footed shadow that crawls like a snake and takes a ptarmigan from its nest. But the hunter kills to eat, not from wantonness, and a lurking humor runs through his deeds. A strong answer says what London gains by letting us see what the men cannot.
3. London names "a patience of the wild" that "belonged to Buck" on the moose hunt. What do you make of that patience?Theme
What it asks It asks the student to judge a patience that wears a creature down, and to decide whether to admire it, dread it, or both.
It is something to admire: skill and endurance that end a hunt the herd gives up.
Buck multiplied himself, attacking from all sides, enveloping the herd in a whirlwind of menace
The life of only one member was demanded, which was a remoter interest than their lives, and in the end they were content to pay the toll.
It is merciless: the bull is never allowed to rest, eat, or drink.
never permitted it to browse the leaves of trees or the shoots of young birch and willow
the merciless fanged terror that would not let him go
A strong answer The chapter calls it a patience of the wild, "dogged, tireless, persistent as life itself", and Buck's work is skilful: for half a day he multiplies himself around the herd until the young bulls are content to pay the toll. But for four days he will not let the wounded bull eat or drink, and to the bull he is a merciless fanged terror. A strong answer says how it judges a patience that belongs to hunting, and what it would need to see to call it cruel or fair.
4. Buck attacks the Yeehats and, London says, loses his head "because of his great love for John Thornton." How do you judge what he does?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks whether love that sets off a killing excuses it, and what the chapter gives the reader to judge by.
It is understandable: he finds his friends dead and rage sweeps over him.
he found Hans, lying on his face, feathered with arrows like a porcupine
A gust of overpowering rage swept over him.
It is terrible: he is a hurricane of fury, and the Yeehats flee in panic.
It was Buck, a live hurricane of fury, hurling himself upon them in a frenzy to destroy.
And truly Buck was the Fiend incarnate, raging at their heels and dragging them down like deer as they raced through the trees.
A strong answer Buck comes on Nig, a dying sled-dog, and Hans feathered with arrows, and a gust of overpowering rage sweeps over him; London says he lost his head because of his great love for Thornton. So the attack has a cause a reader can understand. But he is a live hurricane of fury, and the Yeehats flee as he drags them down like deer. The chapter reports both the provocation and the damage. A strong answer says what it makes of a love that does this, and what the chapter gives us to judge by.
5. The last pages give what "the Yeehats tell" and what "the Yeehats do not know." Why might London end by watching Buck from outside?Author's choice
What it asks It asks why the story's last view of Buck comes through what others say and through something no one in the story knows.
The outside view makes Buck a legend, feared and larger than any wolf.
the Yeehats tell of a Ghost Dog that runs at the head of the pack
They are afraid of this Ghost Dog, for it has cunning greater than they
The outside view lets the reader see what the Yeehats cannot, something private.
In the summers there is one visitor, however, to that valley, of which the Yeehats do not know.
It is a great, gloriously coated wolf, like, and yet unlike, all other wolves.
A strong answer The Yeehats' version is a legend: a Ghost Dog at the head of the pack, an Evil Spirit in a valley they never enter. The narrator then steps in with something the Yeehats do not know, a visitor who is like, and yet unlike, all other wolves. Telling it from outside makes Buck larger than a dog and leaves the last view to the reader. A strong answer says what each view adds and what the ending would miss without the other.
6. London never says how Thornton died; the pool "contained John Thornton," and Buck follows a trace into water "from which no trace led away." What does telling it this way do?Tone
What it asks It asks what the quiet, indirect way of telling Thornton's death does to the reader, compared with the loud attack before it.
It is restrained. The facts are left plain, and the reader puts them together.
The pool itself, muddy and discolored from the sluice boxes, effectually hid what it contained
Death, as a cessation of movement, as a passing out and away from the lives of the living, he knew, and he knew John Thornton was dead.
It is Buck's way of knowing. The reader learns the loss through scent and trace, as he does.
Buck scented every detail of it down to the edge of a deep pool.
for Buck followed his trace into the water, from which no trace led away
A strong answer London never says how Thornton died. He gives the muddy pool that hid what it contained, Skeet lying faithful at the edge, and a trace that goes in and does not come out, and then says that Buck knew John Thornton was dead. Telling it through Buck's scent makes the reader learn the loss as Buck does, and the plain statement at the end fixes what the clues only suggest. A strong answer says what the indirect telling does that a direct statement would not.
1. Buck "did not attack" the wolf but "circled him about and hedged him in with friendly advances." Using two pieces of evidence, explain why the wolf comes to trust him.
What it asks It asks what makes a frightened wild animal trust a much bigger one, and to back the answer with two pieces of evidence.
It is Buck's care: he does not attack and he shows friendliness again and again.
Every movement advertised commingled threatening and overture of friendliness.
the wolf, finding that no harm was intended, finally sniffed noses with him
It is the wolf's weakness and Buck's persistence: he is worn down and cornered.
though he was in poor condition, or Buck could not so easily have overtaken him
But in the end Buck’s pertinacity was rewarded
A strong answer The wolf finds that no harm was intended: Buck does not attack, he circles him and hedges him in with friendly advances, and finally they sniff noses. But the wolf is also in poor condition and is cornered again and again, and the chapter says Buck's pertinacity was rewarded. A strong answer picks one, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says what the other adds.
2. Buck goes with the hairy man into "that other world." Using two pieces of evidence, explain what that world is like.
What it asks It asks what Buck sees in his visions of the hairy man, and whether what stands out is the fear or the skill.
It is a world of fear: the hairy man never rests easy.
The salient thing of this other world seemed fear.
he slept restlessly, with many starts and awakenings
It is a world of alertness and skill that Buck shares.
they were alert and vigilant, the pair of them, ears twitching and moving and nostrils quivering
The hairy man could spring up into the trees and travel ahead as fast as on the ground
A strong answer The chapter says the salient thing of that world seemed fear: the hairy man sleeps restlessly, with many starts and awakenings, and peers fearfully into the darkness. But Buck goes with him, and they are alert and vigilant, the pair of them, and the man swings through the trees as if at home. A strong answer picks fear or skill as what stands out, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says what the other adds.
3. The wolf pack pours into the clearing, and in the end the wolves "drew back discomfited." Using two pieces of evidence, explain why they give way.
What it asks It asks the student to decide whether Buck's fighting or the place where he stands does more to turn the pack back.
Buck's strength and speed turn them back.
Like a flash Buck struck, breaking the neck.
he was everywhere at once, presenting a front which was apparently unbroken so swiftly did he whirl and guard from side to side
The place turns them back: the corner of the bank shields him.
in this angle he came to bay, protected on three sides and with nothing to do but face the front
to prevent them from getting behind him, he was forced back
A strong answer Buck's strength and speed do much of the work: the boldest wolf leaps and Buck breaks its neck, and he is everywhere at once, presenting a front that seems unbroken. But the gravel bank matters too: in the right angle the men had made, he is protected on three sides with nothing to do but face the front. A strong answer picks one as the main reason, gives two different pieces of evidence, and says what the other adds.