Call of the Wild

After reading "The Call of the Wild", I've come to realize that it would be difficult living on the Klondike in the Yukon. The weather is very cold and life is very hard there. You'll understand better as I explain the story of the book to you.

In this book Mercedes, Hal, and Charles, a group of very inexperienced and even less equipped city people, to depict the probability of doom to those who do not adapt. While in Skagway the three have no idea what the Klondike holds. The well dressed well fed team wants nothing but riches and fame. In their effort for time they purchase the now exhausted dog team, which Buck leads, to take them to find the gold.

Even during the beginnings of their journey they show their expected doom. Mercedes, the most shrewd of the bunch piles load after load on the sled. Onlookers laugh at the sight, telling the them that the sled will tip. In their pride the warning goes without notice, soon to find the now moving sled scattered across the street.

The next incident proves their stubbornness to adapt to the environment. After many weeks of labor Charles, Hal, and Mercedes reach White River, where they see Thornton. The team drops dead in their tracks from exhaustion. Hal's philosophy is if the dogs don't listen and follow directions, then beat them with the whip, until they do what they are told. Beating and thrashing with the whip occurs but, the team does not get up. Buck, the lead dog, gets the force of the attack until Thornton steps in.

He fights Hal for Buck and wins. So the beaten Hal moves on, not heeding Thornton's warning of thin ice. Their doom arrives in a mayhem of ice and water. All three of them and their team of dogs die in the cold murky river.

Thornton and Buck reach an adaptation in their quest for fortune, which creates the man and beast that rises above all. The two of them become dependent

upon one another. Together they make a great team.

John Thornton asked little of man or nature. During the search for the gold Thornton travels in no hurry. He travels in an Indian fashion. He hunts for food with his hands and fights off the cold in his small but, accommodating tent. If he fails, Thornton keeps on traveling knowing that eventually he will find food. He has adapted, and now has the power to conquer the wilderness. Buck also reaches his own greatest strengths which creates