The Call Of The Wild

The Call of the Wild Summary
How It All Goes Down
Buck, a physically impressive dog, is living the good life in California when he gets stolen and put into dog slavery. For him, this means pulling a ridiculously heavy sled through miles and miles of frozen ice with little or nothing to eat and frequent beatings. As the definition of a domestic dog, Buck is out of his element until he begins toadapt to his surroundings, and learn from the other dogs. Buck also starts having strange dreams about the primitive days of dogs and men, before the advent of cities or houses or culture. There are no rules or morality here (interesting, since Buck’s first owner was a judge), save for what is called "the law of club and fang," a kill-or-be-killed, ruthless way of thinking.

Buck becomesinvolved in a struggle for power with another dog, Spitz. They end up fighting and Buck wins, taking over as leader of the sled dog team. The team changes human management (new drivers) and the new people don't seem to be very competent. They’re bad drivers and end up killing everyone, including themselves. Fortunately, Buck is saved by a kind man named John Thornton, moments before the group death in anicy river.

Buck becomes attached to Thornton and even saves his life several times. Buck sets off on a journey with his new master and several other men, loving his new life, except for the need to run off and kill things in the woods every once in a while. Buck fights with temptation: stay with Thornton, or kill things? Be civilized, or be wild? And naturally there are several missed phonecalls from The Wild and a lot of angry messages ("Where are you already?"). 

At the end of Call of the Wild, Thornton is killed by the Yeehat tribe, on which Buck later extracts vengeance. Buck is then free to run with the wild dog packs, but only on the condition that he is leader.
* Buck is a dog. Even though he has a personality and emotions, we need to still remember that he isn't human.* He also seems to be living the good life. He lives on a ranch in California, enjoys sunny weather, and is loved by his master.
* So of course, something has to go wrong. In this case, the "something wrong" is that this guy Manuel, who works on the ranch, steals Buck and sells him to this guy who wears a red sweater.
* There may be something up with the red sweater. Keep an eye outfor more red things.
* Buck takes a beating from red sweater guy.
* Then two French Canadian guys, Perrault and François, buy Buck.
* There is much talk of Buck’s "worth." He’s like an alpha male, except a dog. An alpha dog.
* So Buck ends up on a boat traveling north. We see how sheltered he has been because he gets a bit freaked out by snow. He’s from California, remember? Snow isa new thing for him.
he Call of the Wild Chapter 2 Summary
* We meet this other alpha dog named Spitz. Know what happens when two alpha dogs are thrown together? Yeah, exactly.
* Spitz, who is sort of running the show among the dogs, attacks and injures this other dog Curly. The fight is violent and explicit.
* Buck musters up some resolve.
* Meanwhile, Buck is learning to be partof this sled-pulling team of dogs traveling vast distances.
* We meet the rest of the cast, like Billee (nice and friendly), Joe (borderline-evil), and Sol-leks (keeps to himself). Sol-leks also has a scar across one eye that makes him partially blind.
* Life starts to not be so great. The weather is freezing and Buck is getting minimal amounts of food.
* So he adapts – his body getsleaner and stronger and we see this idea of "law of club and fang." Basically that means that things are really primitive; brute force dictates superiority.
* Something is stirring in Buck, and since he isn’t eating enough, it’s not dinner. It’s his primitive instincts.
The Call of the Wild Chapter 3 Summary
* Spitz starts picking fights with Buck, doing annoying things like stealing...