Discussion Topic
Lessons Buck learns from his owners in The Call of the Wild
Summary:
In The Call of the Wild, Buck learns different lessons from his various owners. From the Judge, he learns trust and comfort; from Perrault and François, he learns discipline and survival skills; from the man in the red sweater, he learns the law of club and fang; and from John Thornton, he learns love and loyalty.
What lessons do Buck's owners teach him in The Call of the Wild?
Buck goes through a few owners in Jack London's short novel.
1) Judge Miller
He is Buck's original owner. From the judge, Buck learns how to live the life of a ' sated aristocrat' dog. Half St. Bernard and half Scottish shepherd dog, Buck inherited size from his father, shrewdness and cunning from his mother. He domineers over the other dogs on the property, hunts with the judge's sons, takes walks with the judge's daughters, and carries the judge's grandsons on his back.
From this life of happiness and cherished existence, Buck is surreptitiously (secretly) sold by Manuel (the gardener's helper) to finance a gambling habit. After being transported by strange, unkempt men, first in a baggage car, then a truck on a ferry steamer, and finally on an express train, Buck is handed into the custody of the man in the red sweater.
2) The man in the...
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red sweater
From the man in the red sweater, Buck learns to respect a primitive law: that a man with a club will never be defeated. After the man in the red sweater beats Buck senseless, Buck decides that although he will obey a man with a club, he will never conciliate or ingratiate himself towards such a tormenter. The man in the red sweater sells him to two French Canadians.
3) The two French Canadians, Perrault and Francois
The two men transport Buck and other dogs on a ship bound for Alaska. Buck will work as a sled dog delivering mail. Once landed, Buck finds himself in foreign territory, in a 'place of savages' who know 'no law but the law of club and fang.' This is the wild wilderness, and the weak will not only be vanquished but mercilessly crushed. When Curly, a friendly dog who traveled with him, tries to make friends with another husky, she is attacked by the husky without cause. After the husky brings her down, thirty or forty huskies spring in to batter her to death. Buck learns that a dog will never survive once downed; he resolves never to end up in that position.
From his days as a draught animal working for the French Canadians, he learns many things. Among other lessons, he learns how to steal food to keep from starving. 'Survival of the fittest' is the law in this forbidding Alaskan landscape, and Buck learns to adapt the cunning shrewdness he inherited from his mother to his new life.
Perrault and Francois travel with the dogs to Skaguay and there, hand the dogs over to a Scottish half-breed, who runs the dogs to their limit. He sells them to two men (Hal and Charles) and a woman (Mercedes) who further abuse him and his fellow dogs. When Hal almost clubs Buck to death, Thornton intervenes.
4) John Thornton
From Thornton, Buck learns that merciful owners do indeed exist in this cold, forbidding land. Thornton teaches Buck to trust humans again by first saving him from certain death, then nursing him back to health, and finally, letting Buck enjoy the companionship of his two other friendly dogs, Nig (a bloodhound mix) and Skeet (an Irish setter). In this loving atmosphere, Buck convalesces and grows strong once more. With Thornton, he develops his first passionate, loyal adoration for a human master who treats his animals as if they were his own children. Buck is free to be who he is, retaining both civilized and wild aspects of his unique doghood in Thornton's care.
Faithfulness and devotion, things born of fire and roof were his; yet he retained his wildness and wiliness.
I hope you have enjoyed this answer as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Thanks for the question!
References
What did Buck's owners teach him in The Call of the Wild?
The man in the red coat or sweater teaches Buck about power. Buck learns that if there is someone or something that is in power above you, he/she/it must be obeyed. The man in the red sweater teaches Buck this lesson with a club after he buys Buck. The man opens the crate, Buck lunges at the man, and the man beats Buck back with a club. Buck lunges again and the same thing happens. Buck tries again and again until he is beaten and bloodied.
In the most simple lesson possible, Buck learns to not attack anybody with a club. But the lesson runs deeper. Buck has learned not to attack anybody that has a weapon. Further still, Buck learn about power. Don't attack someone that has more power than you. In that situation it is better to submit to the authority. Be patient and wait until you are more powerful.
"He had learned the lesson, and in all his afterlife he never forgot it. That club was a revelation. It was his introduction to the reign of primitive law, and he met the introduction halfway. The facts of life took on a fiercer aspect; and while he faced that aspect uncowed, he faced it with all the latent cunning of his nature aroused. As the days went by, other dogs came, in crates and at the ends of ropes, some docilely, and some raging and roaring as he had come; and, one and all, he watched them pass under the dominion of the man in the red sweater. Again and again, as he looked at each brutal performance, the lesson was driven home to Buck: a man with a club was a lawgiver, a master to be obeyed, though not necessarily conciliated."