is through bravery and strength in combat that a leadership position is claimed. Both dogs use force and their superior strength to coerce the other dogs to bow to their leadership.

One of the first differences between the two that comes to mind is their background. By the time Buck gets kidnapped from his easy life in the Santa Clara Valley, Spitz is already an experienced sled dog and the leader of the pack.

Another remarkable difference is that Buck proves to be a stronger leader than Spitz. Buck quickly proves himself to be Spitz's superior, thinking sharper and acting quicker than Spitz ever did. Once Spitz is dead, and Buck is thus no longer embroiled in a power struggle, Buck proves himself to be a leader who leads by example, which is a stark contrast to Spitz, who ruled by fear and tyranny.

François raises another difference between the dogs after Spitz's death. He comments that "now we make good time" with Buck at the helm, and now that there is "no more Spitz," there is also "no more trouble."

In Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild, Buck starts out as a domesticated dog of a gentleman living the good life.  Then he is taken out of his easy surroundings and thrust into a life with hard men as his masters.  Now, Buck is a smart dog, and observes what he needs to know to survive. 

Dogs and wolves share the deep seated love of the wilderness and the life of the wild with no man to interfere. Wolves and dogs both are pack animals in that the survival of their group is more important than the survival of one.  The laws of nature prevail with the strong surviving and the weak dying.  They differ in that dogs will follow their master  offering their loyalty and love to the human who loves them.  At the end when Buck trots off to the woods and the wild,  we truly know that Buck is no longer a dog but has returned to the wild because there now is no human who holds him to the life of a dog.

By Chapter II of Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild, the narrator and protagonist Buck makes it very clear that the domesticated dogs he came into contact with once having arrived in Alaska are behaving like wolves due to their violence. He witnesses dogs' faces being torn off by other dogs and dogs being killed by a pack of dogs, just like a wolf pack will move in for a kill. As Buck phrases it, "He had never seen dogs fight as these wolfish creatures fought," but his observations also taught him valuable lessons about survival.

In contrast, unlike we might expect of wolves, some of the dogs are capable of showing kindness. One example can be seen in Buck's teammate Billee, whom Buck describes as having an "excessive good nature." On Buck's first night out in the cold wilderness, he didn't understand how to keep warm. He was chased out of the tent. Not knowing what to do, he circled round and round the campsite, shivering, trying to find warmth and wondering where his other teammates were. As he circled, he was startled when the snow beneath his feet moved. Billee gave a "friendly little yelp," licked Buck's face, and essentially showed him how to keep warm by burying himself in the snow. We might assume that wolves wouldn't show so much kindness. We also might assume that wolves are not as fast at learning as Buck.