Jack London's The Call of the Wild, takes a domestic dog named Buck through traumatic events of abuse, abandonment, lessons learned, love, and finally to his home in the wild. .
London embarks on Buck's adventure at the home of Judge Miller, a kind owner who gives Buck a life of lazy days in the "sun-kissed Santa Clara Valley" (197). Manuel, a gardener's helper from the home of the Millers, rips Buck out his safe life. He was sold to a man in a red sweater who struck him with a club repeatedly. Then, two men named Francois and Perrault bought him. They gave Buck his first experience with sled pulling, which he continued to experience throughout the book. The next owner of Buck was a man who drove him and his other teammates from tired to exhausted. Hal, Charles, and Mercedes, who had no experience with driving dogs, were Buck's second to last owners. Buck's final owner was John Thornton, a man who caught frostbite during an adventure to find gold. Thornton saved Buck's life by stopping Hal from beating him to death. .
This is where love began and "the call" stirred. Buck never left Thornton's side in fear that his new owner would leave him, like all his other masters had. Buck then felt something that he had never felt before, "the call of the wild". This was not strange to him; it was like an instinct. London takes Buck and personifies him as a human being with thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Buck was a large dog, a mix of St. Bernard and Scotch shepherd. (In the beginning, London expresses that Buck is friendly dog who is trusting of men until he is taken from Judge Miller where, he learns that he must do what he is taught.) Eventually, Buck learns to love his work, and when he is in the hands of Thornton he is wild, but he knows that he is safe. Buck turns into a different animal by the end of the book. He is not domestic, he is wild, running with wolves and learning to kill, as well as to love.
