The Call of the Wild

Article written by Emma Baldwin

B.A. in English, B.F.A. in Fine Art, and B.A. in Art Histories from East Carolina University.

‘The Call of the Wild‘ by Jack London was published in 1903 and is a short adventure novel focused on Buck. Buck contends with a new way of life that is just as shocking to him as it is to readers. As the novel progresses, he becomes wilder, learning what it takes to survive and fight among other animals for limited resources.

London was inspired to write this novel from his experiences in the Yukon as a twenty-one-year-old man. He lived there for a year before returning to California. The illnesses he suffered from during this period are generally considered to contribute to his death at only forty years old.

Key Facts about The Call of the Wild

• Title: The Call of the Wild
• When/where written: 1903 in California
• Published: 1903
• Literary Period: Naturalism
• Genre: Adventure novel
• Point-of-View: Third-person limited narrator
• Setting: The late 1890s in California and then in the Klondike
• Climax: Buck killing the Yeehats
• Antagonist: Nature and humanity

Jack London and The Call of the Wild 

The story of ‘The Call of the Wild‘ was famously inspired by Jack London’s time in the Yukon. When he was only twenty-one, the new author traveled to the Yukon in search of his fortune, along with many others who were a part of the Klondike Gold Rush. He lived there for a year, learning first-hand the kind of suffering one can and cannot endure.

During this period, London experienced diseases, near starvation, and the loss of his four front teeth from scurvy. He lived there for a year before returning to California with a wealth of material to fuel his writing.

Books Related to The Call of the Wild 

Jack London’s writing, and outlook on the world, were famously influenced by the writings of Charles Darwin and Karl Marx. In fact, later in life, he attempted to establish a farm on which he could put Darwin’s concepts that were laid out in On the Origin of Species into practice.

London was also influenced by ‘Paradise Lost.‘ Concepts of free will, as depicted in John Milton, were also incredibly influential. As Milton wrote about humanity’s and Satan’s free will, so did London write about free will regarding Buck’s experiences in the Alaskan Klondike.

No list of books related to ‘The Call of the Wild‘ would be completed without mentioning its companion novel, ‘White Fang.‘ The latter was published in 1906, three years after ‘The Call of the Wild‘ and is also narrated from a dog’s perspective. The title character, White Fang, follows a different path from Buck in ‘The Call of the Wild.’ London depicts the wild dog becoming domesticated and turning into a loving pet.

Other novels that are similar to ‘The Call of the Wild‘ include:

• One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow by Olivia Hawker
• Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
• Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

The Lasting Impact of The Call of the Wild