(ch 5)

Buck is used to getting his way.  He has not yet learned how to survive in this survival of the fittest, law of club and fang world.

He had learned the lesson, and in all his after life 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. (p. 8)

When Buck learns the law of  club and fang, the law that the strongest survive, he is getting his first taste of the primitive, and he does not like it one bit.  Yet Buck is strong, and he is adaptable.  He learns quickly, and he will succeed.

The first chapter of The Call of the Wild begins with this verse.

Old longings nomadic leap,
Chafing at custom’s chain;
Again from its brumal sleep
Wakens the ferine strain.

This alerts the reader to the theme of the chapter and, in doing so, reinforces the message of the title "Into the Primitive."

The word "primitive" carries a number of connotations, most of them negative in the view of people who regard themselves as civilized, and see civilization as a virtue. The word refers to an early stage of development, when life was simpler and less sophisticated than it is now. Epic poems that may have had an oral origin, and are of doubtful authorship, such as the Iliad, the Odyssey and Beowulf, are sometimes called "primitive" when compared with the "literary" epics of Virgil, Dante and Milton. This does not, however, mean that these poems are inferior. Many readers regard them as having a vitality which their literary equivalents lack.

The verse at the beginning of The Call of the Wild makes it clear that Buck is returning to something elemental and vital from an earlier, nomadic stage of history. Despite the fact that his civilized life is very pleasant, there is something in him which it does not satisfy. Buck's departure from his comfortable home is involuntary, but he soon comes to realize that he was missing something there. This is the "call of the wild" to which the title refers, and it takes him back to an earlier, simpler stage of development which satisfies the needs that civilization cannot.

When the book begins, the reader is introduced to Buck.  He has a wonderful life with a very loving family.  He is well taken care of, and his life in general is quite "cushy."  Some readers might even claim that Buck's life before he was dog-napped was a pampered life.  

But Buck was neither house-dog nor kennel-dog. The whole realm was his. He plunged into the swimming tank or went hunting with the Judge’s sons; he escorted Mollie and Alice, the Judge’s daughters, on long twilight or early morning rambles; on wintry nights he lay at the Judge’s feet before the roaring library fire; he carried the Judge’s grandsons on his back, or rolled them in the grass, and guarded their footsteps through wild adventures down to the fountain in the stable yard, and even beyond, where the paddocks were, and the berry patches. Among the terriers he stalked imperiously, and Toots and Ysabel he utterly ignored, for he was king,—king over all creeping, crawling, flying things of Judge Miller’s place, humans included.

That paragraph makes it clear that Buck wasn't a lazy pampered dog though.  On the contrary, he was quite active on his California estate.  In addition to being active, the paragraph makes it clear that Buck's owners loved him, and they treated him like a member of the family.  Buck, in turn, treated them like they were his family, because Buck truly believed that he was the ruler over everything.   

All that changes for Buck, when he is taken from the estate, sold, and brought to the Alaskan wilderness.  The area that Buck is now living in is much more primitive in general.  There is simply less civilization, so the title makes sense in that regard. 

But I think the main reason that the chapter is called "Into the Primitive" is because of Buck's experience with the man in the red sweater.  Buck is firmly beaten and humiliated by the man, but learned a valuable lesson.  He learned that might makes right in this strange new area.  That rule becomes a law to Buck.  He calls it the "primitive law," and throughout the book Buck learns how that rule affects him, other dogs, and his owners.  

He was beaten (he knew that); but he was not broken. He saw, once for all, that he stood no chance against a man with a club. He had learned the lesson, and in all his after life 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.

Buck, a sled dog in the Alaskan wilderness, is the main protagonist of Jack London's The Call of the Wild. Dogs are considered domesticated animals unprepared for the challenges of surviving on their own without humans to care for them. Their cousins, however, are wild animals and are not easily or wisely domesticated. Those cousins are wolves, and in London's novel, they represent the more primitive form. This is in contrast to Buck, who has been part of a family otherwise composed of humans. Buck, though, straddles a line between the uncivilized, primitive nature of the wolves and the more generally domesticated house pet we commonly associate with the word "dog." Born and raised for the first four years of his life on property owned by Judge Miller and accustomed to living the life of a "sated aristocrat," Buck is nevertheless an animal and of a breed that was commonly bred for laborious activities in remote, austere locations.

Buck's kidnapping radically alters his existence. The comfortable world of domestic tranquility is gone, and he must now learn to exist in the more brutal if natural conditions of the wild. Soon after being kidnapped and sold into a form of slavery, Buck endures the appearance of a northern winter unlike any he had experienced in Santa Clara Valley, California. London's narrator describes the transition as follows:

"It had snowed during the night and he was completely buried. The snow walls pressed him on every side, and a great surge of fear swept through him—the fear of the wild thing for the trap. It was a token that he was harking back through his own life to the lives of his forebears; for he was a civilized dog, an unduly civilized dog, and of his own experience knew no trap and so could not of himself fear it."

This transition represents a step backward from an evolutionary perspective. Buck has gone from a modern era family pet to primitive being forced to adapt to unfamiliar and harsh surroundings—surroundings that grow even more primitive as the story progresses. Buck eventually finds himself allied with a pack of wolves, the very species of canine associated with "the wild." The title The Call of the Wild evokes the phenomenon of transition from an artificial state of domestic being to one associated with primordial wilderness. Buck, of course, is an animal, and animals are wild, untamed beasts. This is not a description befitting a fine canine like Buck, but it is intended to suggest that Buck's transition to the wilderness represents the natural order. Animals yearn to be free of captivity despite the relative safety and nutritional benefits of being domesticated by humans. Buck's ability to adapt to the primitive world of the wolves means that he has heeded the call of the wild and returned to his roots.

The title of Jack London's celebrated novel The Call of the Wild suggests a transformation from civilization to wildness. In particular, this entails the transformation of a domesticated dog, Buck, into a more ancestral, primordial pattern of behavior akin to that of wolves. At the beginning of the story, Buck is a domesticated St. Bernard/Scotch Shepherd mix who enjoys a carefree, civilized life in the sunny Santa Clara Valley on Judge Miller's tranquil estate. As a civilized dog, Buck has no desire to embrace the spirit of his primordial ancestors and enjoys his easy life. Unfortunately, Buck is stolen by one of Judge Miller's gardeners and taken to the Northland, where he is sold to French-Canadian mail couriers.

In the Northland, Buck is forced to revert to his natural instincts and adapts into a ruthless, callous beast who relies on his strength, tenacity, and toughness to survive. The more time Buck spends in the hostile Northland, the more he begins to experience the eponymous call as he fantasizes about his primordial ancestors running free in the wilderness. Towards the end of the story, Buck's master, John Thorton, is murdered and Buck finally embraces the call of the wild by completely rejecting civilization and running with wolves. Overall, the title alludes to the spirit of wilderness that draws Buck towards a more primordial, wolf-like state of being.

The call of the wild is Buck's primordial desire to embrace his primitive nature, which he experiences when he enters the wilderness of Alaska. Buck, who is a domesticated dog living a carefree life on Judge Miller’s estate in California, is stolen and sold as a sled dog in Alaska. In Alaska, Buck experiences the harsh realities of life in the wild and begins to thrive in the wilderness. Buck begins to dream of his wild ancestors and listens to the call of wolves in the surrounding forests at night. Buck gradually develops an affinity for his primitive instincts and wishes to live like a wild beast roaming the forests without restrictions or human influence. Buck's inherent desire to run with the wolves as a primordial beast is the call of the wild. By the end of the novel, Buck fully embraces his primitive nature and instincts by running with the wolves in the Alaskan wilderness.

The call of the wild is Buck's inherent primitive instinct being beckoned by the wilderness and the animals that inhabit the forest, which influence him to eventually leave civilization behind to lead a pack of wolves. At the beginning of the story, Buck enjoys a carefree life on Judge Miller's estate in the sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley. After being kidnapped by one of the judge's gardeners, Buck is forcefully taken north to the Klondike, where he becomes part of a sled-pulling team of dogs. In the treacherous Northland, Buck quickly adapts to the hostile environment and learns to survive by relying on his once dormant primitive instincts. In the Northland, Buck learns the law of club and fang and experiences retrogression as his veneer of civility diminishes.

The more time Buck spends in the Northland, the more he begins to hear the "call" of the wilderness and obey the primordial beast within him. When John Thorton becomes his owner, Buck continually hears the calling of the forest and leaves camp for extended periods of time to run with the timberwolf, hunt moose, and experience life as a completely free, wild animal. Following John Thorton's death, Buck adheres to his inherent ancestral calling and becomes the leader of a pack of wolves in the wilderness.