That's certainly all I thought, when I was ten and I read and re-read this for the first several times. I guess it's important to remember that this isn't just a socialist fable: it's also a book about a dog. He wants freedom, he longs for it, and the wild calls him home.įacebook| Twitter| Insta| Academia. His natural instincts are at war with the obedient behaviour that has been bred into his psyche after domestication. That’s what human kind has deprived him of. Buck’s innate drive calls for only one thing, to be with his own kind. The real issue isn’t a debate of ethics associated with animal treatment, but the act of being separated from one’s true self. Indeed, the importance of this work resides in the title. And such is the paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.” “There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. But such a thing is unnatural to him, and what starts to form is an internal war within his mind. He fights other dogs for the right to sit by his human’s side. He doesn’t want to lose it he become possessive and violent in regards to his master’s attention: he becomes a pet. It’s the only affection he has received in a long, long, time. Buck experiences human kindness for the first time, forming the deep bond that dog can have with man. For all man’s wickedness, he also has the capability for good. It’s this kind of attitude that is almost the death of Buck, but he comes back. He cares not for the fallen, and leaves them discarded in the snow without as much as a second thought: they are nothing to him. He pushes the dogs too far they start to die, and he pushes the remainder even further.
However, like trade goods, the animals are sold off to a new owner, one who is foolish and inexperienced when it comes to animal care. The dogs enjoy the sense of purpose and quickly form their own pack. He is forced to be a sledge dog, a life of servitude he initially enjoys. “With a roar that was almost lion like in its ferocity, he again hurled himself at the man”īuck is kidnapped (dognapped is probably more appropriate) and forced into submission by a brutal overseer. They try to conquer rather than living in a world of mutual respect it’s man who has lost his nature, and he imposes such a thing on everything he comes across, but the animals will fight back: The way they break animals is deplorable they use them, exploit them and abuse them all in the name of sport, entertainment and human convenience. They try to conquer rather than living in a world of mutual respect it’s man who has lost his nature, and he imposes such a thing on everything he comes across, but the animals will fight back: “With a roar that was almost lion like in its ferocity, he again hurled himself at the man” Buck is kidnapped (dognapped is Men are so cruel.