Book Review: The Call of the Wild

Jack London's The Call of the Wild  chilled me with it's story of survival and domination. This book tells the tale of one dog's struggle to overcome the brutal environment he was sold into and become the lead dog. Buck was a farm dog who lived with the Miller's. He hunted, played, and slept fireside along with his masters, living a boring life. On of the Miller's farmhands, Manuel, steals him and sells him into the world of gold mining.

What makes London's novel  so interesting is how he brings his characters to life. At this point, as an eleventh grader and avid novel devourer, I was not too excited about reading a book who's main character is a dog. However, as the novel progressed, Jack London proves his writing skills by bringing Buck and the other dogs to life. He shows the personal revolution of Buck and how he goes from stuffy farm- dog to alpha male.

Another key writing style London adds to The Call of the Wild is his use of figurative language. His beautiful metaphors and similes breathe life into the novel and his use of anthropomorphism molds his animal characters that are human; making them more relateable.

I recommend this book to outdoor-lovers or adventure-seekers. The Call of the Wild takes you on the adventure of a life time alongside Buck and tells a great story of trials and tribulations, too.

What Does it Mean to Be Human? Essay

"I feel like a loser, I feel like I'm lost, I feel like I'm not sure if I feel anything at all. But believe me, I'm not helpless. I just need someone to love. So my situation's rough, that just makes me a dumb human like you." Darren Criss' song Human explores the equality of the human race. We all have the ability to think, feel, and dream. He touches on the given fact that all of us- no matter race, sex, or social class- can feel. His song, however does not offer an answer to our essential question: what does being human mean? A possible explanation to this was given in YouTube's video "What Does it Mean to Be Human?" People walking along the street were asked to give theri opinion on what seperartes homo sapiens from ever other species. Most participants agreed on the collective answer that human beings are set apart from all other specices on this planet because of ones simple physical factor: thumbs. And I msut say, I am quite disappointed; that is not what it means to be human. It is not what makes us different. I share Criss' viewpints on humaninty. It is not any outlying phycial characterisctic that sets us apart, it is one of our inner oragans- or should I say, the ability of one of our orgas. The brain. We have the campcity to think, feel, ananlyze, solve, proscess, rememeber, and from opinons all at once- an ability that all other specices are not able to preform. The human mind is what sets homo sapiens apart.


The phrase "put yourself in someones else's shoes," is a perfect example of this of this ability. Humans and develop a way of compassion by looking at things from a different perspective, a level of thinking no other animal can acheive. Granted, this higher level of thinking is not developed until the late teen years (and sometimes never developed at all), but the ability to think of others will always be there. That is why you can expect so many school age kids to bring cans for the charity Christmas Brings Hope. As humans, we can feel empathy. Look at the Kony 2012 campaign. Joseph Kony is not threatening Americans. Joseph Kony is not hurting us. But as human beings, we feel the need to help the people of Uganda stop this killer. Love is another level of thinking no other species can take on."But my dog loves me!" No, no it doesn't. Dogs have a sense of protection to survive. On the contrary, humans can feel agape love, or love without limits. This powerful feeling comes with an impression of protection, true, but the feelign is more developed that the survival sense animals feel. In fact, this feelling is so powerful, few can put in into words.


Now, there are arguments agaisnts alsmost everything I have stated. So, if you are not convinved, reddle me this: Can any other specices of this planes form an opionon? Has any other species developed a government? A society? A form of currency? Being humans means being able to think for oneself, to think of tohers, and to extablish morals; to coexist. Take Frankenstein's monster for example. He was created out of one man's hubris, true. But all he wanted out of his horrible existenve was to be normal. Why do you think he started stalking the DeLacey's? He wanted to learn to be human! And he eventually aciehved his goal. He learned to read, he learned to chop wood, he even learned to love another. In his own way, the monster became a very effective part of society. He only became a killing machine after society handed him a very unhealthy dose of rejection because of his physical apperance. And sadly, I believe this is part of being human, too. We humans, when we really boil it down, only seek to survive. Our mainds our programmed to seperate the wheat from the chaff- to seperate that which will help us survive and that which will ultimitely kill us. in Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games, Katness Everdeen tags her fellow tribute, Peeta Melark, as a threat before the Hunger Games even begin. She changes her mind only after the Gamemakers announce that there can be more than one victor of the Games. This soon leads to the discovery that a love realtionship between herslf and Peeta mean support from the Capital, which means money for food in the arena, and in due course, her own survival. Being a memember of the human race not only means loving and helping and being productive, but surivivng.


Some may aruge that my own perosnal view points are wrong. Some would argue that the bigger the breain, the greater the itelligence. As a species, we ahve realatively large brains. However, we do not have the largest. Some types of whales and dolphins have larger brains than we do. So it makes sense that these animals should have a greater brainpower. Yet, this is not the case. It all depends on the body-brain ratio; the human brian, in relation to its body size, is larger than that of a dolphin or a whale.

To end my case, I offer you another song lyric to ponder from a song called Awake My Soul by Mumford & Sons. "Lend me your hand and we'll conquuer them all. But lend me your heart and I'll just let you fall. Lend me you eyes, I can change what you see. But your soul you must keep, totally free. In these bodies we will live, in these bodies will die; where you invest you love, you invest your life."

Anthropomorphism: Dog and Master

I run.
I play.
I get mad when you take away my toys.

I eat.
I sleep.
I am a baby boy.

I love.
I learn.
Seeing my Mommy brings me joy.

---

Rosco runs.
Rosco plays.
Rosco gets mad when you take away his favorite toy.

Rosco eats.
Rosco sleeps.
Rosco wakes me up when he has bad dreams.

Rosco loves.
Rosco learns.
Rosco is my dog.

The Cost of Life and the Zeal to Survive

The will to survive. Mother and child. The prerogative given to every human being. But who really knows who has control over this vital responsibility?

Take the Titanic for example. Who was really to blame for that "unsinkable" ship going down? Some would say it was the engineers fault, because they did not make the hull strong enough. Others would claim that it is the captain's fault for ignoring the six warning signals, all of them informing the captain that danger was ahead. Or maybe it was Mother Nautre's fault for setting an iceburg there. Others, still, were convinced that the sole reason the Titanic sank was for the weight of the potatoes of on board.Whichever you agree with does not matter; in fact, it is difficult to decide which is to blame (I think we can rule out the potato idea.) Who is to blame for the deaths of 1,517 people?

A good example of the zeal to survive can be found in the Call of the Wild. When Buck, a faithful family dog, is taken away and sold by a greedy farm hand. As the novel progresses, Buck abandons his fromer self, a friendly, loveable pet, and adopts a more primal way of life in order to survive the brutal climate he was sold into. Buck never would have been forced to adapt had he not been thrown into such a circumstance. So who is to blame for his struggles? The greedy farm hand? Mother Nature? The other dogs for making survival so difficult?

Maybe no one has contol over there life. Or maybe we all have every bit of contorl of our lives on this planet. All I know is that whichever view point you take, we all have an effect on our lives, and ultimitley, our suvival.