Charles Darwins Notion of Survival of the Fittest in The Call of the Wild

The Call Of The Wild is a fiction novel authored by Jack London. At the beginning of the story the main character buck is a dog who lives a leisure life in California. Buck is then sold to dog thieves then savagely beat him and teach him to respect “the law of the club.” After bucks beating, he is then put into the traces of a dog sled team where he learns to become a working dog. Buck eventually starts to like working and wants more responsibility so he can become the lead dog.

It is after he has this epiphany that he kills the dog sled team leader Spitz to take his position of the lead dog. Buck then becomes a very successful dog team leader who brakes numerous records in the Yukon. At the midpoint of the story when things are starting to look up for buck, he and his fellow dogs of the sled team are sold to Mercedes, Hal, and, Charles who are too ignorant to run a dog team properly.

Under the traces of the trio, buck comes close to starvation and is beaten. Near the end of the story, buck is rescued by a man named John Thornton. After Bucks new master s, he learns what it is to love. However, at the end of the story bucks, loving master is killed by Indians. Buck intern kills the Indians that killed his master. It is after this that Buck transforms into a wild animal and becomes the legend the ghost dog.

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Definltey The Call Of The Wild is a book which is heavily influenced by the ideas of Charles Darwin Jack London was a massive fan of the philosophy of the “survival of the fit.” Which was an Idea created by the aforementioned famous naturalist Charles Darwin who authored the “Origin Of Species.” You may better knowledge of philosophy as “survival of the fittest.”

Clearly In The Call Of The Wild, Jack London uses the characters he created such as buck to display the theme of “Survival of the fit.” In the story, Buck transforms from being a house pet to a working dog to finally becoming a wild dog. Buck showed a countless number of times in the story that he was fit to survive. For example, every time buck encountered a problem in the story he chose to use it as a learning experience to become fitter. Such as when he was first kidnapped Buck learned to respect the law of the club which would save him from being beat. “So greatly had he suffered, and so far gone was he, that the blows did not hurt much. Moreover, as they continued to fall upon him, the spark of life within flickered and went down. It was nearly out. “He felt strangely numb. As though from a great distance, he was aware that he was being beaten.” When buck laid there, he was preserving and saving himself from falling into the ice. This form of protest by buck proves that he was fitter than any of the other dogs on his sled team to survive.

On the other hand now let me show you an example of a weak character, we have Curly. Curly is an extreme extrovert Newfoundland dog. The primary qualities of Curly’s personality are what made her weak and unfit to survive. Curly should have known that in the wild you must never let your guard down. For example in the story when curly approached the dog, she let her guard down which made her open to attack.” There was no warning, only a leap in like a flash, a metallic clip of teeth, a leap out equally swift, and Curly’s face was ripped open from eye to jaw. There was no warning, only a leap in like a flash, a metallic clip of teeth, a leap out equally swift, and Curly’s face was ripped open from eye to jaw. When Curly approached that husky, she committed suicide in doing this.

Let’s turn gears now and talk about A character who was fit to survive Perrault. Perrault could handle anything mother nature threw at him. From blizzards and wild dog attacks to his dogs turning made on him. Perrault’s accumulated experience from running the dog team is what made him fit to survive the harsh conditions. “Considering that the price of dogs had been boomed skyward by the unwonted demand, it was not an unfair sum for so fine an animal. The Canadian Government would be no loser, nor would its dispatches travel the slower. Perrault knew dogs, and when he looked at Buck, he knew that he was one in a thousand– “One in ten t’ousand.” In this quote, Perrault acknowledges just how unique buck is which is something that he has learned from his experience which makes him fit to survive.

While in the call of the wild there are many characters fit to survive. The is an equal amount who are unfit to survive. I could not think of a better example then Mercedes. Mercedes shares a lot of the same qualities as curly. As she does not know how to live in the wild when Mercedes was busy trying to save the dogs from being whipped. She should have been concerned about herself. She could have made sure there was going to be enough food for the trip and make sure they could complete the run before spring came and melted the ice on the lakes which caused her death. Mercedes’ scream came to their ears. This quote taken from the book proves that she was so unfit that even in her final seconds of life she could not try to save herself and run but instead sat and screamed.